A Perfect Collusion

A Jamie Squire photograph is often the perfect combination of foresight and execution. Squire is an editorial and commercial sports photographer who has covered sports’ grandest stages for Getty Images. The 36-year-old has covered six Olympics, Super Bowls, World Series’, the NBA and Stanley Cup finals and other major events. He is Getty’s second-most senior photographer in North America.

“Jamie is one of the most talented sport photographers I know,” states Brandon Lopez, director of Sport Operations for Getty Images. “He’s able to apply his creative thinking to action sports, which allows him to capture photos beyond normal expectations. Rarely do you find a photographer who can cover an event from so many different angles. From one single event, Jamie is capable of putting together a take of photographs that typically looks like that of four different photographers. His mastering of remote photography and drive to discover unique shooting positions is what sets him apart from the rest.”

Squire is known for finding unusual angles for his sports photographs, a practice that average sports fans, who are used to seeing clear, concise action shots, find shocking. “He doesn’t stand still. He works multiple angles, uses available light in every way possible and even utilizes remote cameras for wide dramatic compositions,” says Jim Surber, the senior sports editor for ESPN The Magazine. “Sometimes he fires multiple remote cameras and works a handheld with no assistant!” Continues Surber, “He has a great eye, but he’s never satisfied with just one look or angle. Most photographers become too married to a camera position, or try a couple of different set-ups at most.”

Squire’s creative style stems from his attempts to avoid other photographers, as was the case with one of his most notable photos—of racecar driver Michael Andretti. The shoot was before a practice session as the storied driver neared the end of his career. Most of the photographers were gathered near the front of the car, taking photos straight on as Andretti sat behind the wheel with his visor up.

Instead of sticking with the pack, Squire slipped around the rear of the car to look for another angle. That’s when he realized he could get a perfectly framed shot of Andretti’s eyes through the side view mirror. The result is a shot of a legendary driver near the end of his career looking back in a mirror—symbolic to say the least.

“I feel like it’s an image that kind of defines me,” Squire says. “I like to look back. I like to see what I did wrong. I like to see what I can do better. I think a lot of athletes do that. I think it’s just kind of a metaphor for life on some level.”

As much as that shot defines Squire’s personality, the Emory University graduate has used foresight and planning that, when combined with chance, creates a memorable image. One such moment came at a pre-Kentucky Derby race, where Squire knew a turf race was scheduled and knew his digital infrared camera would yield a great photo because green grass turns white in those photos. “I found a couple of websites that will convert a digital camera to shoot black-and-white digital infrared and I was pretty intrigued,” he says. “I’ve seen it used in weddings, but I’ve never seen it used in sports. I spent a year bringing it to every event I went to in an effort to capture a different thing.”

He did most of his work well before the race, making the arrangements to mount the remote camera on the starting gate. On the day of the race, Squire mounted the camera and had it double-checked to make sure it would stay on the gate as it was pulled off the track and then used a PocketWizard to snap a classic-looking shot as the horses started down the front stretch. “By the time the actual picture had been snapped, all the work had been done,” Squire adds. “It’s not a question of reacting and capturing, it’s more pre-thought and planning and hoping that it all comes together.”

“Jamie brings a story full-circle photographically,” Surber says. “The only problem I have when Jamie shoots something is not enough pages in the magazine. He brings a different approach to sports photography, be it through remotes or trying to get shots from a location where no one else is, that makes it feel fresh and unique—not an easy task at all in the world of sports.”

Another remote shot that collided with coincidence created a memorable shot of NASCAR driver Ryan Newman celebrating in victory lane. Squire wanted most of the shot to be under-exposed, except for the strobes, so he used a Canon EOS-1D Mark III with a 15mm fisheye set to 400 ISO at 1/30 of a second on shutter priority, with –1 stop expoure compensation. Newman completed the shot when he just happened to pour out a bottle of Gatorade in a swirling fashion.

“This is just one of the many examples confirming my point about Jamie’s creative eye and ability to anticipate an image through remote photography,” Lopez explains. “This shot was thought out well before the race even started. Jamie set up a remote camera system, triggered it from below within the mix of the crowd and came away with this photo, which was more than he or his director of photography could have hoped for.”

Still young in his professional career, Squire was assigned to shoot the World Diving Championships in Atlanta, which served as a test event the year before the Olympic Games. Squire says one of the unique things about the assignment was that this was one of the few sports locations that could allow a photographer to show downtown Atlanta in the background. Instead of shooting from a more typical position poolside, Squire went up high and got a shot of the then number one-ranked diver in the world atop the platform with Atlanta at sunset in the background.

It’s the kind of picture typically found with Squire’s name attached, the perfect marriage between foresight and execution. “It lent a sense of scale and a sense of place to the Olympics that were coming up in Atlanta. I was fortunate that this picture ran all over the place as a preview to the Olympics,” he says. “It was in the Olympic program and Sports Illustrated. There was nothing similar that anybody had seen,” he offers. “I call it ‘seeing a picture.’ Like visualizing a picture in your mind and all the elements it takes for it to come together before the moment happens.”
To see more of Jamie Squire’s work, visit his website www.jamiesquire.com.

Tim Davis is a freelance writer based in Columbia, MO.