Now that all sorts of other 2012 reviews/toplists are popping up, I figured I'd post my favorite five photos (in no particular order) I shot during 2012 esports events:
Poll: Which photo is your favorite?
Photo A (Browder & Morhaime) (406)
32%
Photo D (HerO) (394)
31%
Photo E (Stephano & Morgan) (160)
13%
Photo B (MKP @ IPTL) (125)
10%
They're all bad (113)
9%
One that isn't here (57)
4%
Photo C (viOlet, Leenock & Polt) (21)
2%
1276 total votes
Your vote: Which photo is your favorite?
(Vote): Photo A (Browder & Morhaime) (Vote): Photo B (MKP @ IPTL) (Vote): Photo C (viOlet, Leenock & Polt) (Vote): Photo D (HerO) (Vote): Photo E (Stephano & Morgan) (Vote): They're all bad (Vote): One that isn't here
2012 was quite a year for me since I traveled to nine esports events to take photos for TL. My favorite events to shoot were probably the NASL finals in Toronto and Long Beach followed by IPL4. I was lucky enough to have unfettered access throughout the entire venue for each of the NASL live events and being officially allowed to shoot from between player rows at IPL4 really made my life a lot easier. My hope for 2013 is that event staff will start consulting with photographers about booth design to make sure lighting is sufficient and unintrusive to players.
Just a short list of special thanks
R1CH -- for tolerating my short, terse PMs of 'photos are up' at odd EST hours
Carlton Beener -- for being an awesome friend to travel with at events he shoots for ESFI
GHOSTCLAW -- for being a terrific second shooter at non-MLG events and rooming with me at a couple others
Morgan Stone -- for always letting me have free rein around NASL events to grab backstage shots
Other photographers/press at events -- always good to have people to shoot the shit and complain about lighting with
TL staff -- Hot_Bid in particular for giving me the chance in 2011 to start shooting for TL and dealing with my constant questions about photo access at various events, and Lovedrop in particular for talking to Hot_Bid for me to get my foot in the door
Liquipedia staff -- for going through all the photos I upload to update player profiles and event articles
Everyone who plays live Mafia at events -- I have no early game. At all.
Everyone who posts comments -- on photo threads, blogs, Twitter; I just wish the hilariously hipster photos would stop getting so much love, though XD
Everyone I forgot -- my memory blows; sorry!
Any thoughts or comments on these photos? Let me know if there's any suggestions you guys might have for this upcoming year.
I'm torn between Browder and Hero. Both pictures really capture the moment. The former has built in irony, and it feels like the subject was caught red handed. The latter characterizes pro esports so well.
HerO tops the cake...just captivates his passion for his game...after frustrating losses one after another at previous tournaments he's finally able to win back-to-back tournaments
They are all nice in one way or another, but the stephano one feels like a would make a good desktop wallpaper for some reason, so I voted for that. (plus it's stephano /bias)
hero looks more in pain than in joy, and the marineking one is quite flustered.
the rest certainly do not belong anywhere near "esports" photos of the year. It's only sc2 related and I certainly don't think a giggling dustin browder is worth any top list.
I really like Hero's photo. It shows a lot of emotion and the shot is amazing. The Stephano picture is also really good, and I love the positioning, but it doesn't really spell out esports or sc2.
HerO has so much emotion relative to Browder. Frankly I am surprised that his is that highly voted relative to even the cute Stephano picture, but to each their own they are all great pictures.
I can't find it right now, but there was a picture of DemusliM after he lost a series where he was very sad and his girlfriend was in it (black/white). I like that one the most. It has so much emotion in it. Not because I dislike DemusliM, but he has the passion you should have, great guy, strong picture.
On January 03 2013 19:09 Rannasha wrote: From an esports point of view, I prefer the Hero shot as it properly shows the emotional release that comes with those big moments in tournaments.
From a photographic point of view, the Stephano shot is the clear winner.
Totally this, and from an humouristic point of view Dustin Browder on the "oops we should have made lan".
Hero's picture captures everything about his run up to that moment, and everything surrounding it so well. It's really such a great image for conveying both his journey, and the experience of esports in general.
On January 08 2013 20:14 Laplaces_imp wrote: I think the one where hero is getting doused in champagne for NASL was a pretty amazing picture.
I agree. That one was amazing. Totally showed all of the emotion, the lighting in it was great, the celebratory aspect was there, and I loved the fact that it was fellow players who were celebrating with him. Really showed the family aspect of the game.
Artistically, I think the Stephano picture. (Although it has a lot more meaning if you know who the subjects are and what happened at the event.) From a biased point of view, though, MKP. Even if it took me a minute to figure out if he won, lost, or was being attacked.
Esports wise, I would probably say HerO. Although I think you had a lot of other pictures that were better than those offered, as well.
To be honest I also can not believe that these should be the top 5 photos of 2012. I am very sure I have seen quite a few more impressive ones during the year, even though I can't show any particular one right now. I don't really want to vote for any of these for pic of the year. :/
Nice pictures. I'd actually like to hear your justification for choosing these five pictures. What about them individually did you like best?
For me personally, I thought a couple had artistic merit, while some others were meaningful due to the event they captured rather than any aesthetic quality.
I loved the HerO and MKP pictures have so much emotion in them. But I voted for DB just from the look in his eyes and the expression on his face really captures the excitement and love of watching the highest level starcraft players battle it out.
I think the emotion of the HerO picture makes it my top pic, but I like the simple composition of the Stephano picture a lot too. That picture of Morhaime reminds me of the bad guy from the movie Billy Madison.
The Browder photo just makes me smile (and cry at the same time because they won't implement LAN). Hero would be a close second for me because of the amount of emotion he has after a victory. I still remember him winning his first major tournament at Dreamhack; even though I was watching from the stream, I still felt chills.
Stephano being showered by champagne was my favorite of yours! I feel like the middle one of your five doesn't belong, I'd be interested to hear why you included it.
The Dustin Browder picture is way too funny. I was hesitating between this one and the Stephano rider one which is kinda poetic but I finally choose the Rock. This timing was fabulous.
The MMA pictures with the helmet after his victory at Iron Squid are awesome too :
Thanks so much for picking out the StephanO pic again and reminding me that in 2012, I attended my first big e-sports event and reminding me how awesome everything was.
However, my favorite really is the HerO picture, just something really chilling about it.
The problem with the MKP picture is you don't know whether he's won an MLG, lost to MVP in another final or someone has brought him the wrong type of Kimbap from 7/11.
I think the HerO photo and the Dustin Browder photo both capture the moment really well, but the Dustin Browder photo captures a really awkward moment so I like the HerO photo more.
I prefer this photo of the moment HerO won slightly more, the confetti takes away any ambiguity about whether its a happy or a sad moment.
EPT
I love them all.![[image loading]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8295/7993646169_e6b5f492c9_c.jpg)
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