12.07.2021

“Sometimes the players take the camera and shoot each other.” How the CSKA photographer shoots matches

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We continue our League of Pros series - stories of people who work in our football and make it better.

Denis Tyrin has been a fan of CSKA since he was seven years old, and from 14 has taken photographs: pictures of the meetings, parades, Formula One, fashion week, commerce, but didn't even think that he’d work at his favorite club.

“When I was 12, I wanted to become a football player, but they told me that I was old”

"The first time my dad took me to the stadium was in 2001 for the CSKA vs Sokol match, when the Army team won 4-0. I was seven years old then. My dad is a big fan of CSKA, so there was no alternative for me. I did not dream of working for my favorite club, because before I became interested in photography, I did not imagine that such a thing was possible. At the age of 12, I wanted to become a football player: I ran a lot in the yard, played a lot. Only they explained to me that I was already old, and I started looking for something else.

At the age of 14, I began to study photography. I took a camera to a summer camp and helped a girl who was fond of clothes with lookbooks, and took pictures of fans for fan sites. I also shot football, and my friends and relatives liked my pictures. Then there was the opportunity to do it more seriously and shoot from pitchside. The first time I was paid to shoot was when I was 16, Championat.com commissioned me a trial shooting of the CSKA vs Terek match in Khimki. The editor was impressed that I filmed not only the game, but also the way the fans celebrated the victory after the match, bathing in the Khimki fountain. Then I realized that I could continue to do this, invest some money into it, and ask my parents to participate.

The transition to sports photography was easy. There are certain laws of composition that work everywhere: first of all, human perception. Then everything was subconscious. I shot a lot and studied photography and Photoshop, but I didn't even think about how to build a frame, how to adjust the light or wait for it or some situation. I took pictures and tried to feel the mood of the picture, so that the viewer perceived it the same way as I did. I professionally captured football for the first time at the Russia vs Azerbaijan on 28 March 2009, although my main task on the sidelines that day was to shoot a video for the fans.

“I dreamed that my works would be published in Russian Reporter”

In February 2013, I visited a very famous photographer, Aleksandr Zemlyanichenko, who is the chief photographer of the Associated Press. I showed him 30 different pictures of football and everyday life. I knew that people often come to him with such collections, but he told me to shoot further and not to be afraid to send pictures, and gave me his phone number. At some point, they first took my pictures - two photos from the celebration of Maslenitsa during the storming of the snow fortress.

In general, my photos have been in different collections, such as ‘Photo of the Day’ in The New York Times, among others. Publications in such international media are pretty prestigious. Once I filmed a concert where one of the participants was Olga Buzova. After it, she posted my photo on Instagram and collected 250 thousand likes. I was pleased.

At the end of 2013, there were terrorist attacks in Volgograd, and I was sent there to work for a few days. There were not many photographers there, and in the morning I saw that about 50 newspapers, mostly foreign ones, had published my work, some even on the main page. Psychologically, it is very difficult to work at such moments; it is important to feel the permissible distance with the subjects of the shooting, the relatives of the victims, and try to be as inconspicuous as possible. It was a difficult experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

I always wanted my work to be published in the Russian Reporter magazine at least once, and I bought it with great trepidation. The magazine had a very strong photo service. At the very beginning, there were always three huge spreads, where three topical photos were printed in a week. I always dreamed that one day my pictures would be featured there, but I never expected it, and the publication, unfortunately, has already closed.

“The main difference between sports photography is that you can't repeat it”

I'm interested in switching from football and taking pictures of nature, for example. I shoot sports almost every day with training sessions and matches. I’m just very interested to relax and do some other shooting. Sports photography is different from the rest – this moment can not be repeated in any way. If you miss the episode when a decisive goal is scored, that's it, you can't shoot one-on-one. Also in 2021, sports photography is probably the only area where expensive equipment is still needed. In everything else, you can already try to work on a smartphone, and the result will be very decent. Now this is a pronounced trend, including in the field of video.

In sports, it is preferable for a photographer to know the rules of the game that you are shooting, to understand the key people who can play a very important role in the match, to know the background of the confrontation. It can happen that the game takes a back seat, and 70 percent of the time you shoot what is happening in the stands. I had it like this when I went to Belgrade for the Partizan match with Crvena Zvezda. In the stands, around the stadium, was much more interesting than on the pitch.

In football, I don't try to predict what will happen on the field, but rather just watch the ball and look around. Working at CSKA, I know many characteristic differences between the guys: who, how and what will react. That's what you can sometimes predict. However, this only applies, as a rule, to CSKA.

Once I tried to shoot beach volleyball. I came off my own back without a specific task, but nothing happened at all, and I did not return to it again. You can probably put it down to the fact that I have never been interested in volleyball. I have experience shooting figure skating, although not as much as in football. Here, the most difficult thing is to catch the desired phase and have time to select images between performances: I took about 400-500 photos in one alone. If there are Russians among the participants, you need to have time to view these 500 photos in three minutes, and delete the unnecessary photos immediately and continue working. Otherwise, you will be tormented to sort it out later.

Once I managed to photograph a rally from a helicopter in China. I was not prepared for this, but I knew that there would be an opportunity to fly. The flight took about an hour and a half, we communicated with the pilot in English through a special communication in headphones, because it is very noisy there. I do not remember that there were difficulties that prevented me from shooting things, only a slight shaking and the impression of a huge vortex a few kilometres away.

There haven’t been any problems with setting up the camera; I work in a completely manual mode. Over time, you can learn in two or three seconds to adjust the camera to any conditions, be it bright sunshine or heavy rain. Everything about the camera settings depends only on the light. If the wind blows or something else happens, these are completely minimal interventions.

In my profession, there are quite indescribable moments. Analyzing the shots of the Champions League final in Milan between Real Madrid and Atletico, I noticed in a series of shots that an iPhone flew past an emotional Diego Simeone. I still wonder if it was returned to its owner.

In addition to sports, I have also photographed weddings, but only about 10-15 of them. As a rule, I pick up such jobs via friends or acquaintances through word of mouth. I enjoy doing it, and it's still interesting. If I receive an interesting offer in my free time, I can consider it. I'm not saying I'll shoot as well as a professional photographer who has a hundred weddings a year. You need practice, you need to focus and devote thousands of hours to this to get a decent result. I don't think that a wedding photographer would shoot a football match the first time as he would, for example, for the hundredth time. But in any case, each time he will raise his level.

“After the victory over Real Madrid, I was processing the photos until morning”

I joined CSKA at the end of 2017 at the invitation of the Director of Public Relations, Sergey Pavlovich Aksenov. Before that, he worked for seven years as a photographer and photo editor at Championat. The working day is always different. On non-game days, I shoot training sessions, and some events organized by the commercial department. Weekends, if they happen, are only on weekdays.

On the day of the match, I try to arrive at the stadium no later than three hours before the game. I leave in different ways: if the match is in Moscow, I usually take all the photos at the stadium and then go home to rest, but after away games the team and I immediately fly home, and I finish a full album of the match on the plane. By our standards, a selection of photos from the first half always come out at half-time. The social media editor takes pictures for stories and posts on Instagram, VKontakte, Facebook and Twitter. I also have to send photos to the designer so that he can make the graphics with the final score.

I make between two to five thousand frames per game; it depends on the importance of the match, or the name of the opponent. As a rule, 90 percent are removed at the initial selection stage. The remaining 10 are an average of 300 photos, of which there will be about 50-70 which will go to the match album, while portraits and other photos of fans and coaches are sent to the archive for some future requests and so that the designer has a large choice.

For friendly matches, the album can be prepared in 30-40 minutes, and in large matches, of course, it takes more time. I remember after the game against Real Madrid in the Champions League, when CSKA won 1-0 thanks to Vlasic's goal, I sat until morning. There were a lot of photos, but I wanted to save everything and not throw any away - it was a historical event at that time. I spent a lot of time processing that shoot.

The most important thing in my job is not to show emotion, no matter how much I want to. Feelings should never take precedence over professional qualities. During matches, I have to be calm, cool and fix everything that happens, regardless of the result. I am a bystander and I show people with my eyes how I saw the match. To be honest, once I could not restrain myself and lay on the lawn for a couple of seconds happy, when in 2014 CSKA became champions for the second season in a row.

I watch matches exclusively through the lens, so I can't analyze the game or follow which teams or individual players are performing better – especially since I don't know much about football, to be honest. I am often asked how our team played, and I can only answer: I watched the ball, the emotions, the atmosphere – I didn't see anything else.

“At the World Cup, it came to the point that I worked with five cameras”

For the match, I take two cameras and five or six lenses: two telephoto lenses, a regular 24-70 millimeters – I shoot everything that happens next to it – a lens with a fixed focal length of 35 millimeters and a wide-angle one. Sometimes two more cameras with wide-angle lenses are behind the goal, they are convenient to shoot goals – they are on radio control. Sometimes I take more "fish-eye".

At the World Cup, it got to the point where I worked with five cameras, and there were six or seven lenses. I have a purse for memory cards, where there are always six of them. It happened a couple of times that this was not enough, but these are isolated cases.

There was a case in France at the national team match when the camera did not turn on. Then it turned out that it was not the battery, but I needed to change the shutter. Therefore, there should always be at least one spare camera. Fortunately, my employer helps me to maintain the equipment. CSKA understands that the equipment is expendable, and it needs to be repaired and maintained, sometimes updated. The main thing is to try to treat it carefully. However, once at a hockey game, my lens broke. It was on a board, and two hockey players flew in. The lens flew to the floor and split in half. But it was my fault to put the lens on the edge of the board.

It has happened that the ball hit my head and in other places. In order to not be afraid that something will hit you, you need to choose the right position. Where the balls fly there are no interesting angles, so you should not spend a lot of time there. It is best to take a single spot when shooting football and not move anywhere during half-time, no matter what happens. You need to have a plan in your head. If you are not chased away by the guards or someone else, the result will be best.

“On camera, football players rarely make faces”

Guys sometimes ask for something to shoot for them, I often tell them: "Guys, let's celebrate more fun, closer to me. I always sit in one corner or the other." They very often run away in the other direction, and this, of course, upsets me, I have not yet brought my work to perfection. Maybe I need to wear a pink hat so that I can be seen better, or something else to stand out.

I speak a little English, enough to communicate with the foreigners. All of them speak English, and Mario Fernandes understands Russian. I also tried to learn German – a very beautiful language – but for some reason it didn't go beyond six months. This is purely my laziness. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point.

In training, the players are usually serious, and if they fool around, it has nothing to do with me. On camera, rarely anyone makes a face. Sometimes, someone will hit me with a ball, someone will make a face. In staged photos, much depends on the desire of the person you are shooting, how he treats it. We must pay tribute to the fact that the guys at CSKA are good at shooting. We don't often hold them, but many players are happy to take part. To liberate a person, it's best for me to be alone with them and work for at least 10 minutes.

If the player is absolutely against taking photos of them, we do not force them. It would make no sense, because the person will be in a bad mood and the pictures won’t come out well. Of course, everyone gets tired eventually, but it's important to show that everything is going well and it will be even better if we wait five minutes. Sometimes the players themselves come up, take the camera, ask if they can shoot each other. Those whom they photograph also see it and start posing, fooling around, making faces. Sometimes funny pictures turn out, and we post them.

With some football players, we can leave each other memes, videos, music, or discuss news, photography, football, creativity. The only conversation I can hardly hold is about computer games, consoles or TV shows - it's all beyond me.

“You need to be stress-resistant and not be afraid of failure”

A common mistake of novice photographers – a stage everyone passes through – you need to be able to wait for the picture. Dmitry Zverev – an amazing street photographer – said that the real shooting begins about 30 minutes after you start the process. The conditions start to work out in your favour, you become more immersed, and the space starts to work for you. This hypothesis also works for me. The main thing is not to be distracted by your phone notifications. You need to dive into this business and then the world will answer you, show its best side and give you magic. So I can advise novice photographers to learn to wait - this is the most important thing.

It is necessary to understand that the work of a photographer is quite stressful. You need to be prepared for the fact that very often you need to wake up early, go to bed late, and sometimes something can go wrong on the set. You need to be stress-resistant, be prepared for failures and not be afraid of them. It is necessary to shoot everything in a row, constantly watch movies, paintings, photos of colleagues from the same events you go to, visit museums; even music affects the improvement of a person's viewing experience. More recently, I heard this phrase from a commercial photographer: "It's better to watch movies without sound." He thinks it helps to feel the picture better.

You should try to see your picture separately from the emotions that you experienced when you shot it. It happens that something very dynamic was happening, you filmed it, in your head it turned out that the episode was very rich, filled with movement and everything, and you look at the picture – and there is nothing special happening, it’s almost static. The photographer needs to be able to forget the emotions that he experienced when shooting, and soberly look at his picture, so that it is liked and understood not only by him, but also by everyone else. This is quite a long process, and constant communication and discussion with other photographers and editors help.

I still continue to study, watching and reading things. I am convinced that everyone can prove themselves if you don’t give up and follow your goal. Of course, there are factors that affect the acceleration of this process such as luck or exclusivity, but in general, I am deeply convinced that if you want, you will definitely succeed. The main obstacle is the high cost of equipment. This thing, unfortunately, can be very difficult, but there is a way out. You can always start with inexpensive equipment. You can shoot everything that happens nearby. For example, in the yard you can always go to take pictures on the playground and see how football and hockey are played there, and this will give a result. This can be filmed on amateur equipment or on an iPhone. To begin with, choose daylight hours.

“I would like to make a movie”

I really hope that the most memorable match is ahead of me and it will be with the participation of CSKA, but to date my most memorable photo report is from the Champions League final in 2015 in Berlin. I liked the way I shot it, the way it went, the atmosphere. I went there at my own expense, and I could shoot the way I wanted. And then there's the fact that I'd always wanted to go to the Champions League final. There I walked a little bit with my mouth open.

The final of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow was already perceived as more routine, and there were many demands from the customer, which did not allow us to be distracted by the magnitude of the event. At such major finals, the most fun is running with a couple of hundred other photographers after the award ceremony for the winners with the cup. You work with your eyes and elbows at the same time, knocking out the best position for yourself. It looks very epic from the outside.

Aleksandr Zemlyanichenko taught me many things. He can still sometimes tell you something. Aleksandr Safonov also helps with good advice, and I am grateful to Aleksandr Demidov for seeing me, opening the path into sports and teaching me a lot. I worked with both Aleksandrs at Championat. You need to constantly learn something. I now realize that there is still a lot I do not know and I have something to strive for.

Among my foreign colleagues, the Australian photographer Adam Pretty stands out for me. He does crazy things. There are a lot of photographers at Getty Images who shoot both reports and commercial events at a high level, and now it is very important to be able to do both.

I also follow many photographers from other directions. I also love the classics: Helmut Newton, Herb Ritz, Peter Lindbergh, Annie Leibovitz – all masters of portrait photography. This is the direction that I am actively studying now, which is about as interesting to me as sports. Then there's the amazing Spanish director Eugenio Recuenco. I advise you to see what kind of things he pulls off.

I'd like to make a movie. This may be unexpected to hear, but for me it is the highest achievement in terms of visual content production. Photography is also part of the video. It is very interesting to watch how videos are made, to develop in this direction. Many photographers and videographers call themselves visual artists now. This is not some brash description of themselves as creators or masters, but just terminology.

Video is now gaining significant momentum. Everyone watches YouTube, movies, and subscribes to streaming services. I don't actually shoot videos now, but I hope that in the near future I will be able to devote more time to this, but not to the detriment of photography. Photography still affects my life the most.”

Photo: Denis Tyrin's personal archive; PFC CSKA Moscow; Ekaterina Lokteva; Nikita Popov; Dmitry Golubovich


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