The Work Behind Great Sports Photos, with Kirby Lee, USA Today

The Dead Pixels Society host Gary Pageau interviews sports photographer Kirby Lee of USA Today Sports about his path from an electrical engineering student to covering major events including the NFL, Olympics, and upcoming FIFA World Cup matches in Los Angeles. Lee explains how a beginning photography class and constant shooting of high school sports led to newspaper work at the LA Times as a writer, then a shift toward photography, with his writing background improving his ability to anticipate storylines and caption images. He discusses transitioning from film to digital around 2003, joining WireImage, and the demanding preparation, gear, remotes, and selective shooting required for pro sports. Lee recounts an accidental iconic NFC Championship photo and describes Olympic pressure, including a 2008 100m final where his camera buffered due to memory card speed, emphasizing equipment reliability.

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Transcript

Sponsors And Podcast Welcome

Erin Manning 0:00

The Dead Pixel Society Podcast is brought to you by Media Clip, Advertech Printing, and Independent Photo Imagers. Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society Podcast, the photoimaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pagot.

Meet Kirby Lee

Gary Pageau 0:19

Hello again and welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau, and today we're joined by Kirby Lee, a sports photographer and a lead photographer for the USA Today Sports. And he's captured some iconic moments from the NFL Olympics and soon the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Hi Kirby, how are you today?

Kirby Lee 0:40

Hi, thank you. It's great to be here.

From Engineering To Sports Photography

Gary Pageau 0:43

So, Kirby, tell us about your journey getting into photography in terms of what, when did you start, how did you start, and what drew you to sports photography specifically?

Kirby Lee 0:55

I've always been interested in sports from the beginning. I did track and cross country in college. I played also basketball in high school. I always been interested in sports and I always been interested in sports pictures. You look at sports illustrated, the photos, how they just capture the images. It's a lot different on TV. I always like looking at pictures. So that's kind of my interest in sports photography. I was an electrical engineering major in college. Really? I also ran track and cross-country and college. So I was interested in sports. Right. When I graduated, I wasn't quite ready to work. So what better way to say, tell your parents I'm gonna get a master's degree? Exactly. So when I started that, I said, you know what? I gotta take a funk class for once. Let me take beginning photography. Right. And it turned out I spent more and more time taking photos, sports photos, and concentrating on my studies. So my engineering grades suffered. And as it turned out, I never finished my master's. I just started doing photo. Um, funny thing in my beginning photo class was an arts-oriented program, and I actually got bad grades because I was just turning in sports photos. The teacher uh said, you know, showing your creativity looks like you just went to a game. I was showing like a crash at home plate, and I was turning in like raiders, pictures, dodgers. I was like a prof access to professional sporting events. I just turned these in, and the teacher had no comprehension of what it was. She just didn't know that from a little bit. Yeah, you're probably coming from the fine arts example, right?

Gary Pageau 2:27

You wanted you to do the Apple and the still life and the portrendal portrait, the tell your story kind of thing.

Kirby Lee 2:34

The only photo I got a good grade on was stop action. Yeah. So on my grade suffered in engineering, I said, well, what can I do to just continue to do this? And so I just decided to get another bachelor's degree in engineering to delay for another year of school, just save face and continue doing what I'm doing. So I got a actually another, took so much math for engineering. I just need basically another year of math to get another bachelor's degree. So I did that. Yeah. Could you tell your parents? Oh, yeah, I don't I just take pictures now. To this day, I've really never told them this, and maybe they figured it out, but yeah. But yeah, so I did do that to delay for another year. And during that time, I started getting more entrenched in photography. I was going every day to shoot high school sporting events. I was going every single day to shoot things. Um did you see it have a specific sport you were interested in, or was just sport overall? Oh yeah, mostly track field, cross-country, basketball. Um, once I started uh just sending photos unsolicited to the weekly newspaper and they started publishing them. Right. And then Marilero, can you hey while you're there, can you just write a story about it too? Yeah, yeah. Eventually, the sports mission director in my school, he's a publicist for all the stories. But yeah, he had most thankless job in sports is the SID. But yeah, he still told me at like the LA Times they had this opening for someone just to do high school stats, football stats. They pay you $50 a week, and you just call coaches all day and get football stats in the room in the computer because they did like the area leaders and all that. He asked him. So I yeah, so he got me that job and it paid $50 a week at the LA Times. Um you just go in there and you're in the computer system and you're putting stats and all that. And but you have access to the like job listings there. Oh, there was a yeah, there was a job listing for a sports writer with like five to ten years worth of experience, right? And me being probably so naive. Oh well, let me apply for it. And believe it or not, the sports editor gave me an interview, believe it or not. And we're there, and he was going, Can you explain your experience? We basically have none. And you know, he was really gentle about it. He goes, We're looking for somebody with just a little more experience than that. Um someone who's been working and they go, but we do have internships in the fall, and you're free to apply for that. And they applied, he hired me right with no experience at all. And then that was a fall internship. Uh, it was LA Times. Um time frame.

Gary Pageau 5:03

What was the time frame on this in terms of years? Like what was the era of the LA Times? 1990.

Kirby Lee 5:09

Okay, 1990. So things are a little different back then. Yeah, basically, then uh yeah. So I got hired as an intern there in the Fallman Sports, and I'd go to these events I was writing on, I'd take pictures too, yeah. And uh, but I got in some big trouble there. Back then it was pretty old school, you either photographer or writer. Yeah, basically it was really old school that got reprimanded. If you do this again, you're gonna be fired. And deep inside, I thought I was a better sports photographer than most of those guys there. I knew the storylines and everything, but so that internship ends in the fall. I asked, Do you mind if I freelance in the spring? They said, Yeah, sure, no problem. So I was just writing as a freelance writer. They send me to events regularly every week to to cover as a rider. And then in the fall, there was an opening, and they hired me as a writer, right? Believe it or not, early times. And I was doing that for a couple of years, and then the regional editions, it was like San Fernando Valley, there's different regions. Yeah, they cut those off. And they so they basically Orange County edition, there's a South Bay edition, there was a San Francisco, they basically got rid of all the zones. And at that point, I contacted another newspaper because everybody knows everybody, you know, in the newspapers to that area. And sports editor goes, it was Long Beach Press Telegram. And sports editor there used to be, he used to do both, so he'd really support that stuff. But I showed him he goes, Man, I know I've seen your writing, I know you're a very good writer. Oh, but I don't have any openings. I can get you some work, but I don't know how much. He goes, What else did you do? I take photos, and he goes, Let me get you an interview with the photo editor there. You're probably shooting some film back then, eh? And uh we can go back and shoot film later, but there's some things, but I was your treasure 25 prints. So I he's looking through them and he's just looking at them, and uh then he puts pulls two aside, and I thought, okay, that's pretty good. This are two bad ones, and he goes, Yeah, two good photos, the rest is garbage. Wow. He goes, Yeah, you need to go back to school for journalism and all this. Because I talk as an engineering major, he goes, Yeah, you need to go to San Jose State, Missouri, these journalism schools, and then said, Okay, yeah, you might have for freelance, and he goes, Yeah, no problem. And he like he signed me to the UCLA Miami football game very next day. That was like a really big game. He sent me to the biggest football game of the weekend after he just trashed my program. So after that, you know, at that point, I was started doing newspaper work, getting photography work, and the sports there was giving me writing assignments as well. So that's the point where I was doing stories and photos for that. And then eventually, more and more, I started doing more photography than writing because basically I didn't have time to do the other stuff. But I think my background as a writer, though, that's really helped me as a photographer because it's giving me knowledge of the subjects and knowing what to look for. You just can't go there blindly and shoot. You have to have a focus and aim. But I think me, the writer's background, I'm looking for storylines. And I think that's really a photographer, also writing captions in form of this like a milestone or things like that. I think the journalism background does has made me a better photographer than if I just was sports, quote unquote, just a technical sports photographer, shoot sports.

Switching From Film To Digital

Gary Pageau 8:25

So let's talk a little bit about your transition into the digital world, right? Because you said you started in the 1990s with the film and then you translated to digital. Was this with the newspaper's cameras, or were you experimenting on your own with that? And what were you shooting back then?

Kirby Lee 8:39

I think that was it 2000, 1999, that's when the Nikon D1 came out. Yeah, it's like the I think it was D100, right?

Gary Pageau 8:46

Or something like that.

Kirby Lee 8:46

Yeah, it was the force of first affordable digital camera. The other ones were like 20 grand, the Kodak ones, big grips, but that was really the revolution. It was twice as much as a film camera, but I'll be able to paint itself off in film five processing all that immediately. I think 2003 was when I started really shooting regularly on digital. That's when I really made the transition there. I was kind of skeptical. Same thing like going from shutter to mirrorless, it's just a fad, but at that point, 2003, yeah, I think I made the full transition to uh full digital. I had one digital body, but I just 2003 is when I went like probably fullborn to digital. And yeah.

Wire Services And A Nonlinear Career

Gary Pageau 9:25

So where were you working after in that period and moving onwards? Where kind of sketch your career path forwards as we get to the present day and the FIFA World Cup.

Kirby Lee 9:36

Okay, yeah, I started basically doing like more wire service stuff in 2003. It was actually a company called Wire Image, and it was an upstar company. They focus on entertainment, but they also had a sports division there. And the way I got into wire image was by accident. There's I knew a photographer, he worked for a newspaper there, and he was one of the first hires for them as a sports photographer. And he was telling about it, he goes, Man, we need people like you. You need to contact them about shooting. So I did, and I never got a response. And next time I saw him, he goes, Man, did you contact Wireman? I said, Yeah, they didn't respond. And he, I guess he was he got really mad. He goes, I don't know why they don't do that. We need all the help we can get. And basically he just signed me up right there on the spot. So he didn't tell his anybody at the company or anything, so I just started sending photos in and people going, Who is this guy? And yeah, yeah, I just but it was just another I met that he just signed me up with no on his own and just because he got so mad, and that's kind of how I got involved in the wire thing. Yeah, no, he was basically didn't go through the administrative channel. You haven't yet told me a story where you got a position traditionally. So people ask me your path and where'd you learn and learn all this stuff? And honestly, I'm not trying to be sarcastic funny. I said I went to the school of hard knocks, I've done every single thing. I mean, what's it's not a straight path, it's just like a bumpy rope that I wouldn't be here today. So there's no really straightforward path, but I could recommend what you don't do, what I've done for sure. Yeah, yeah.

Gary Pageau 11:12

Everyone

Game Day Prep And Gear Basics

Gary Pageau 11:13

wants to shoot sports, right? Everyone wants to shoot sports, they think it's either it's easy or it's exciting or whatever. And I'm sure there's a lot of level excitement, but it's also a lot of work. What is a typical day, for example, for a sports photographer? Let's say you're shooting an NFL football game. How early do you have to be there? What is your gear? What is your setup? What do you have to do?

Kirby Lee 11:37

Yeah, it's not glamorous. You don't show up like half an hour before the game. For football game, honestly, I like to be there four hours before game, no later than three. I just need to go there and actually mentally just get in a game mode, relax, think about what I'm gonna do during the game, because I have players I'm looking for storylines. I need to shoot players just mentally focused there. I make sure all my gear is set up, working.

Gary Pageau 12:02

Typically, what's in your bag at that point? What is your how many bodies are you carrying? What kind of lenses?

Kirby Lee 12:09

For football, it's just pretty a basic setup, a long telephonal lens, either 400 or 600 millimeters, a medium angle lens, maybe like a 70 to 200, and then a wide angle, like a 24 to 70, and then also uh maybe a 16 to 35, something wider for like scrums at the end of the game. For like basketball or baseball, it's quite more extensive. I'm carrying a lot more cameras because I'm doing remote cameras. Right. I'm using typically an NBA or a baseball game, I'm using like five to six cameras. And for those things like an NBA game, I usually get there like five hours before game because I got to mount the cameras. Yeah, I can do it before the players get out there. Baseball the same way. Um something like the Olympics. Yeah, but yeah, just on a typical database basis, baseball, football, or basketball, that's a typical day.

Shooting Less To Get More

Gary Pageau 13:01

It's so let's go let's go back to an NBA game with all those. How many pictures are you shooting and how are you managing that volume of images? Because you've been there, you got there four or five hours ahead of time. You shoot the game, that's another two hours or so. And then afterwards, you're there for probably another how many hours, right?

Kirby Lee 13:22

The handheld cameras, the you just have to be very select on what you shoot. You cannot be a spray and pray kind of guy, which like I'm like Rambo. You really have to focus on what you shoot and be selective to edit it. I think I've learned this from the film days. It was so expensive to process slide film that you're very selective on your shot. And I think to this day I carry that with me. You have to be very selective, and it makes the edit a lot easier. If there's not a picture there, there's no point in far and away. You really have to be patient. It's like to say, like you're a sniper, like a sniper's not going to be far and away, he's just gonna be like click and pick that the same way. Just and my goal is actually to shoot the least possible and have the most usable photos. So I think of like a batting average or a shooting percentage. And when I think like that, it helps me just think more than just firing away. Yeah, yeah, you just have to be very selective and just choose your shots. It takes some patience and confidence on your part that you can do this, but I just try to think of do getting the most for what I shoot. And the more and more shoot I shoot, I actually shoot less, believe it or not. I shoot far less than I did in the past. That's a big part of the editing process. Right.

Gary Pageau 14:34

Yeah. So are you trying to match the pictures you're looking for to like the storyline in your head?

Kirby Lee 14:43

Yeah, exactly. If there's like for example, is there a new player they sign? I or is there a new coach, or is this coach going to be or is this coach gonna get fired lately? Is some guy gonna be symbioted for doing something? Um I like when I prepare for a football game, I'm basically I'm like preparing for a team. So basically I have folks just going in at storylines. Okay, what's make sure I know what the head coach looks like? Right. General manager, owner of dignit. When I see these people on the field, I know exactly who they are. And so I have a pretty in-depth insight of what I'm gonna do pretty much during the game. I know like during pre-game, I'll be looking for these people on the field. I'm looking for certain players, sure. I'm looking things that might happen in the game, like it's third and four or something. Does this team like to pass a lot? Do they like to run? Oh, so it's got to go to that level. Yeah, if it's a pass play, who might they likely go to on the field during the game, your defensive coach trying to anticipate what's gonna happen honestly? Because a lot of it's being at the right place at the right time. That's sports photographers, a lot of it's luck, but if you put yourself in position, you can play the odds and increase your chances probability-wise, a lot of it's luck. A lot of it's putting yourself in position to get it as well.

Gary Pageau 15:57

At a typical NFL game, how many other photographers are there trying to do the same thing you're trying to do?

Kirby Lee 16:02

Um, just in sheer numbers of photographers, it's pretty limited. How many photographers on a film NFL game I'd say? I think it's 30 are allowed. That's it. Yeah, but uh it varies. Some people do, some people have no clue what's going on. It's a big disparity there. There's a lot of people just ask, do you know who the coach is? Something as simple as that, or do you know who the quarterback is? I've been asked that. But it's other people have they come with the lists of players with the numbers on there, they tape it onto the lens shade. It goes through all levels of things. A lot of these newspaper guys, they aren't sports specialists, they do other things, so they might not have a knowledge of sports, but um it just is on just they're all good photographers, don't get me wrong, but just it varies on maybe their interest level sports, but it's something I'm very interested in, but it just varies on the level of understanding of what they're doing, to be honest. There's really there's some people.

Gary Pageau 16:54

No, I'm just saying it's got to be crowded when you're all trying to do the same job, and there's um in NFL game, it's not too bad because it's so restricted how you get there.

Kirby Lee 17:03

I think that's different, but the professional sports, it's pretty, pretty restricted on the number of people there. But yeah, college games or high school sidelines, yeah. I know what to exactly talk about there, and it's just total chaos, yeah.

Earning Credentials And Handling Pressure

Gary Pageau 17:16

So becoming a regular credentialed photographer of professional sports, that's not easy. Can you walk us through the prod that that process? Because there's a lot of people who think they can do it and want to do it. It's there's no shortcuts to that, is there?

Kirby Lee 17:34

It takes a lot of hard work. It's I like to use this analogy. It's like sky playing in the NFL or in the Olympics. They just didn't say, I want to be an NFL player and step on the field. It all started, you started in high school, you work your way up. It's the same thing with photography. Uh, I started the same way. I was doing high school stuff. I got a little better. I started doing college, then I worked my way up. It wasn't just handed to me overnight, it was years and years of work and preparation. It just doesn't happen overnight. A lot of people think there's shortcuts, but uh for sports photography, it really isn't. You have to start off. You start off doing high schools and work your way up trajectory as an elite athlete, and it's not no, yeah, a lot of hard work.

Gary Pageau 18:15

It takes a lot of hard work to make something hard like that look easy, right?

Kirby Lee 18:19

Yeah, it's and when I go there, these are pretty stressful events. It's people think, oh, you're just on the field of an NFL game or the Olympics, you're just there. But no, it's those events are pretty stressful. The pressure to produce like the Super Bowl, you're gonna get an epic play, or I'm gonna give you a piece of example of the Olympic 100 medial final, and that's like the most anticipated event. People go, Oh, it must be cool, but there's you people don't realize the pressure on me. You know, am I gonna get something historic or epic? Am I gonna choose the right lane? Is my imaging gonna focus? I'm as tense an athlete in the starting blocks, believe it or not. It's setting up all the cameras, are they gonna work? It's a lot of stress, and people don't think I'm just out there having it for creative time, but right it really is. But that level, it is pretty intense. It's just like an athlete out there, believe it or not, he's writing on the city.

Gary Pageau 19:13

Well, sure, the level, like you said, the level of prep of preparation, anticipation, the work that goes into, like you said, an NFL for an NFL game, you're gonna get there four hours before the game. That's about when the players are getting there, right? There's mental prep, there's all kinds of things you have to do. So that's interesting. Draw the parallel to the competitors themselves, to the particular players who have to cover them.

Kirby Lee 19:32

I said all week, I'm thinking about the game I'm gonna shoot on the weekend the night before. I actually it's hard to fall asleep trying to think of what I'm gonna go through during the day. It's just like an athlete, the mindset you have to have. I just can't get to the last minute. I have to just be relaxed and get enough game mode to shoot. Yeah, which sounds funny, but yeah, it's just not going out there and having a great time in preparation and strategy out there going on.

Gary Pageau 19:55

If

The Photo He Got By Accident

Gary Pageau 19:56

there's an iconic Kirby Lee photo, uh what is that photo and how did that happen?

Kirby Lee 20:04

The most memorable photos I have are actually the ones I miss. It is. Somebody asked Pete Carroll, the football coach, which games he remembers the most winning, and he said the ones I lost. And but in terms of memorable ones, um probably the one of the most memorable ones I got was by accident, believe it or not. It was the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers. They're playing the NFC Championship. And it was the Seahawks at the end, intercepted pass. The 49ers are going for the winning touchdown. Colin Kaepernick was the quarterback, and had Michael Crabtree. He threw the end zone, and then Richard Sherman, the Seattle Seahawks cornerback, tipped the pass and it got intercepted. And uh Seahawks held on and won the game, but it was in the exact opposite end of the end zone where I was, and I missed the whole thing. Right. And then so Richard Sherman comes running across the field to my side, kind of taunt Michael Krabge goes to shake his hand, and then Michael Krabge shoved him in the face to shake his hand. That's the picture you got. And that was actually wound up uh actually wound up winning uh the Pro Football Hall of Fame contest that year for future four of the year. Yeah, but I was in the absolute wrong place at the right time. Wrong place at the wrong time or right time. Well, you think it, but but it was just I thought. You missed the play that led up to that, but you got the reaction that's in the pro football hall of fame now. And funny thing is, when I was shooting it, it was like almost in slow motion. But now when I watch it in real time, I go, I just it was just like a blink of an eye. You caught that? I got it, but it's a photo by accident that yeah, I was so mad, and then it just happened in my face.

Gary Pageau 21:36

Yeah, so when in an experience in an incident like that where you're into the game, you gotta remember to take the pictures, right?

Kirby Lee 21:43

Yeah, you just have to I need to do a better job of this, see the bigger picture because I just I'm just probably so zoomed in with my telephone sometimes. I look what other people have, and I go, Man, I didn't see that, but it's just just the way you shoot, everybody has their own photography style. I shoot very Very tight and very focused. I don't do blurs and all that, but it's just like handwriting that everybody has their own distinctive style. I can tell pictures of other people's shot by just looking at them, just how the way they shoot. It's just you develop your own style and how you do things. And everybody has their own way they get ready for a game and everything. Same thing with photographers.

World Cup Access And No Experiments

Gary Pageau 22:20

So we got the World Cup coming up, which is a worldwide event. And it's not as big, of course, in the US as it is worldwide, but it's a big deal because it is happening in North America in June. How did you even get on the road get on the rotation to be there? And what will you be doing there?

Kirby Lee 22:39

I'll be photographing the matches in LA. The first round and second round are there. It's going for almost four weeks there. There's eight games over four four weeks in LA. And what's unique about that is the United States is playing that that bracket that bracket, which is pretty neat. And also Iran, believe it or not. So in terms of if I could shoot any stadium throughout Mexico, Canada, the US, this is probably the one I'd want to choose to have the US in your hometown, but just all the storylines, but in your home country, in your home city, in your home country, you can't ask for more than that. It's like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. That's just incredible. And how do I get how do I get there? It's yeah, I'm sure every photographer in the world wants to be it, but it's I hope it's based on just your qualification. It took 30 years for you to get that up. Yeah, basically, it's just I don't yeah, I want to go, sure, sure, but it's not my choice. It's up to the editors. I mean, they decide they want to use. I could bring somebody from out of town, for example, if they're more qualified. But uh but yeah, I think it's just a lot of hard work and abilities. I think it's just over time, just my body of work, I hope was it's not it's not uh your right to go shoot this stuff just because I live in LA? It's a privilege and it's entitlement. You have to earn the position, it's not just handed to you. And it's just hard work and being the best thing you can in everything you do.

Gary Pageau 24:08

So looking towards the FIFA World Cup, are you gonna try anything new or do anything different there? Is there any what are their expectations for images? Are you working for FIFA?

Kirby Lee 24:18

Who's the client on that? I'm shooting for Imagine Images in USA Today and for that, but yeah, it's very restrictive on access there. Even if you have a credential, it doesn't mean you'll get approved for a certain match. It's just very people from all over the world coming.

Gary Pageau 24:34

Um it's the pinnacle of that's the thing, is because I mean who knows when the next World Cup will you will be even in North America again, right?

Kirby Lee 24:43

Yeah, but nonetheless, also in your city, I mean USA. I mean, yeah, it's just like all the stars aligned, basically.

Gary Pageau 24:51

That's all exactly.

Kirby Lee 24:52

Yeah, so like I asked earlier, are you going to try anything new or do anything different? That's not the time to experiment with new brand of cameras. You go with tried interested stuff. It's not time to experiment. There's other camera brands are offering for me to try their stuff there, but no, you cannot, you gotta be your equipment backwards and forwards. You just can't afford to take any chances on anything you're not familiar with and just stick to what you've been doing on there. That's not time to experiment and try new things, yeah.

Olympics Lesson About Memory Cards

Gary Pageau 25:22

You've talked about the work it takes, almost the same as an athlete to be to be at that high level, right? You've got to put in years of work just to have that experience at that at the pinnacle event in that field. So can you tell us a little about your Olympic experience?

Kirby Lee 25:38

What it was like being at the Olympics for Yeah, the first time I went to Olympics was 2008. And uh when I walked in there, I couldn't quite believe it. I was pinching myself, I was literally in tears that because I'd worked so hard and to finally make it there. And but yeah, it was just a speechless moment to be there.

Gary Pageau 25:59

So there's a lot of pressure on you right there to have the right equipment, the right gear, the right everything in place, right? And then there you are.

Kirby Lee 26:08

Yeah, exactly. I was telling you about how much tense situation is of preparation and all that, but I guess one thing you don't really anticipate is equipment, how important it is that you have to depend on your equipment. Uh I start firing my camera at the beginning of the hundred meters, and uh what happened was my camera and cart buffered out midway through the race. The whole camera's just stopped working. Oh, we've got this is a hundred-meter final.

Gary Pageau 26:35

So you've got 10 seconds.

Kirby Lee 26:36

Yeah. Halfway through it buffers out, your camera just stops. Right. And I was able to get the finished celebration, the world record. But again, going back to the importance of the camera gear, not just the camera, but your memory cards, your speed of the memory cards is just so critical for sports photography. Just the right speed. It's such an important facet that everybody overlooks. Oh, it's just a memory card. But you got it for sports, and you gotta have a fast memory card that has the capability to capture those images at 30 frames a second. Some cameras up to 120 frames a second without buffering out. And uh, if I had the cards available to me that I use today, uh that would not happen. So memory cards are so important. Not necessarily the brand of camera you use, Canon or Sony or Nikon, but uh the cards I use are sand disk, and just the light speed you have on them is just so much faster than the ones the cameras manufacturers make themselves. The difference in performance, it's just like having the horsepower on a race car. You don't use it all the time, but when you need it, it's there. But just in that moment, that's really taught me about the importance of not only your cameras, but just so many things. Yeah, memory cards, just everything. You have to have the best.

Gary Pageau 28:01

Because I think a lot of times people who are looking at sports photography are thinking uh they're looking for the white lens on the sidelines, right? And they're looking for which brand of camera, but then necessarily turn thinking about the technology that's writing that image as fast as possible. And that's where I think, like you said, that's come a long way in the last few years. We're doing all kinds of things where reliability of a card is more important than ever.

Kirby Lee 28:27

Yeah, just the performance. You can't these days cameras have something called pre-capture, which you actually pre-sign time, a third, fifth, second. You can actually capture what you shot before you press the button. I mean, top of that. So that's just another thing about buffering. I can you can get a ball off a bat every single time. I mean, another example which is hard to get is a charter's pistol for tracking the flame coming out. That would be almost impossible to get, but I can get that or try every single time now with but just having the ability to not the camera, not only the camera, but just the memory card to be able to capture this stuff.

Gary Pageau 29:05

It's uh so you definitely don't want to go with a substandard card, right? You're gonna have a an $8,000 lens, but if you can't write to the card because it's not fast enough, you're what use is that lens?

Kirby Lee 29:18

Yeah, it's like having a Ferrari and then going to Pet Boys and buying your spark plugs kind of thing, or having a Porsche and putting Chevy hubcaps, and then you buy a cheap or not a high performance memory card. I can tell you that it almost really did that. I that almost I never got a photo of because a memory card.

Gary Pageau 29:38

That's interesting because that's like one of those things where it's like you you could you could do all the homework before the game, like you said before, the four hours before the game. You could do all the work, you can do the training, whatever. But if you can't write to the card, it's useless. It's like running out of film, right?

Kirby Lee 29:52

But yeah, I thought I'd prepared for every single scenario, like my remote camera's working. Just everything I went through, everything I think of, I did not think about my card buffering out. That was the last thing I would have ever thought that would be. And unfortunately, I can laugh about it now, but at the end, you're reconsidering your life choices, right? Yeah, I got the super photo of the end of the race, but it could have been it just I got control of my camera right at the very last second, the last second we could think of why I would be able to get it. But it's funny now, but it could have wound up in a completely other way.

Gary Pageau 30:24

So if

Where To See His Work

Gary Pageau 30:25

people wanted more information about what Kirby Lee does and wants to see his pictures, where can they go for more information?

Kirby Lee 30:33

Okay, yeah, you can go to my Instagram account. It's at Kirby underscore Lee. That's K-I-R-B-Y underscore Lee. And you'll see just some of the photos I've taken and what I do. There's some photos of some of the camera setups I do, things like that.

Gary Pageau 30:48

Thanks, Kirby, for your time. Appreciate it. Best of luck at the World Cup. I'm going to watch a couple matches, see if I can see you on the sidelines with your long lenses trying to tell the best story possible. Thank you so much.

Kirby Lee 30:59

Okay, thank you for having me.

Erin Manning 31:04

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