Celebrated New Zealand sports photographer Andrew Cornaga shares his favourite shots of the year.
This is an excerpt from The Bounce, a Substack newsletter by Dylan Cleaver.
I’ve known Andrew Cornaga almost as long as I’ve been a sports journalist. Back in the day, the Sunday News, the first masthead I drew a salary from, had a deal with Cornaga’s Photosport agency. In quaint newspaper scenes from ye olde times, we’d decide upon our feature subjects for the week, then drive across to Photosport’s offices in Newmarket to look at negatives through a magnifying glass on a lightbox and select the best. We were never short of options.
Cornaga has been in the game since the 1980s, when he was a darkroom technician and junior photographer at the lost and lamented Auckland Star, before setting up Photosport in the early 90s. He has a long, long list of awards, including thrice being named Supreme Sports Journalist of the Year at the TP McLean Awards. I asked “Corns” to pick his five favourite photos of the year and talk a little about each. They were all shot on a Nikon D6.
“I like this cricket photo because it’s a little bit different. The ball is dead centre and there’s a real element of ‘what happened next?’ The 2.07m South African pace bowler Marco Jansen had just bowled to Kyle Jamieson (2.03m) who popped the ball up. What happened next was that Jansen collided with the fielder at short leg, Sarel Erwee, and the chance was missed. Jamieson was out two balls later though as South Africa went on to win the test.”
“This is more of a pure action shot. All we wanted to see in this All Whites homecoming match at Eden Park, which doubled as a farewell to Winston Reid, was an All Whites goal – but that didn’t happen, so instead you’re on the lookout for the best action shot, and that often involves an aerial duel. Here we have Matthew Garbett leaping over the Socceroos’ Thomas Deng, and he almost looks like he’s levitating in a yoga pose to do so. Having the ball in shot too is critical – I just managed to zoom out in time. For the photography enthusiasts, I used 400 ISO, aperture F4 and 1/3000 shutter speed.”
“Just another Crusaders trophy shot, though this time the trophy is a bit special, being Pablo Matera’s son D’Artagnan. The Crusaders had just beaten the Blues at Eden Park in the Super Rugby final, and their Argtentinean flanker played a big role. This shot works well because D’Artagnan is looking straight down the lens of my camera. There’s almost a religious feel to it with the arms in the air and Jack Goodhue, Pablo and Brodie McAlister looking adoringly up at the child.”
“When I originally cropped this frame I took the French player out, but it works better with her in. I got a bit lucky with this shot as I was just in the process of moving positions during the Rugby World Cup semifinal and this happened in front of me. Again, the strength of it is Stacey Fluhler staring straight down my barrel as she hugs Sarah Hirini, having brought the match back to 10-10 with her converted try. The movement of the hair on Kendra Cocksedge and Ruby Tui give the photo a dynamism, as does the flame, as well as having four key players in shot. This was shot with aperture F4, 3200 ISO and a shutter speed of 1/1000s.”
“Taken from the infield at the Commonwealth Games, I lay down to get this shot and can’t have been in anybody’s way because they allowed me to stay. I like this because it’s the perfect light, with the late afternoon sun. Tom Walsh has gone full circle, so I’ve got him looking at me with the shot appearing high above his head. It looks like it could have been shot with remotes, but it’s not.”