Every now and then, one is lucky enough to capture an image that gets people talking - here's a story of recent image of mine.

Earlier this week I was in Fribourg, Switzerland photographing a EuroBasket2013 qualifying game between Switzerland and Finland, a game where neither team really has the high flying players in their roster - so you don't expect to capture too many Slam Dunk images during the game.

My assignment was for five different clients - so there is lot of work going into capturing and wiring the images while the game goes on. In addition when you computer starts to play up, it makes it all a bit more challenging.

But during the game, there was one moment that summed up the game quite nicely and I instantly knew it was an image that was going to be widely published in Finland (and would not have put past FIBA publishing it if they knew it is around). It is not always in sporting events that you can tell which images get used, and very often just the opposite of what you think will be used.. actually get used.

Whether it is the fact that I also follow basketball that helped me guess that this image was THE ONE - from this game. The image is of Finnish player Hanno Mottola on a fast break (not words that you are used to hearing together.. Mottola - Fast Break :-)). With the game closely balanced, the veteran player knew how to get his team mates fired-up - in the series of images of the dunk. Mottola almost seems to point with one hand towards the rim before starting his 'flight' to slam the ball one handed through the hoop. Mottola1 copy

What gives even more impact to the image is the Finnish bench at the background - with just deep enough Depth Of Field, you can see their expressions, as well as Coach Dettman willing Mottola on to complete the slam. The initial expression from the bench seems to be 'No - he can't be.." which quickly changes to "He's going for it.." before finishing it with "DAMN!! The man can fly!!"

These expressions are contrasted by Swiss player number 14 - who quietly stands by and watches despondent as Hanno flies through the air, his eyes seem to convey the message "I believe he can fly... I believe he can touch the sky"

After the game I went online, the image was already on many Finnish news websites - helped by the fact that the player in the image was Finland's top scorer and captain of the team. The image also appeared (grabbed from the news websites) on the basketball forums, it was Tweeted the following morning with captions like 'One picture can say more than 1000 words' and so on.

So when I returned from the trip - I had promised to 'work on' something different from the Slam Dunk image and I remembered how some fellow photographers had worked a dunk image into a 'sequence' by building a single image from multiple exposures. I took five of the 'best' images from the series of 10 - and with the help of PhotoShop and Layers I worked them into a single image - showing the 'flight path' of Mottola as he went for the basket through the air.

The end result - well, it is attached to this Blog post.. and yes, it is a very small image and has ugly watermarks all over it. BUT, there are too many images that get 'stolen' and used without permission when posting online so this is my way of protecting my work (whether it is worth protecting.. well for that you can all have your own opinion).