Yesterday, we offered the first half of Yan’s field report from last summer’s Commonwealth Games.

Yan has taken our photo courses over the years and has been fortunate to shoot some high profile, international sports events. Below is part TWO of his report:

“In table tennis, the exchanges are so fast, so I focused on capturing the serves, when players seem to silently implore the ball before unleashing their shot.

Sports photo - student success!

The field hockey venue was the legendary Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, located at one end of the Raj Path, a major avenue in the centre of Delhi, just next to the historical landmark India Gate. (Field) hockey is a religion in India, and there were more tickets sold for this sport at the Commonwealth games than for all the other sports put together, with some incredible atmosphere when India was playing, especially against their perennial rivals Pakistan or in the semi-final against England.

Once again, I needed to schmooze with some key volunteers at the venue to obtain “the bib” necessary to go pitch side, but it is amazing what a handful of pins and a few Canadian Team caps can do to entice inflexible officials to slightly bend the rules!

I described my experience shooting field hockey in a previous entry of this blog , so I won’t repeat myself and just show a few samples:

sport photo - student success!

sport photo - student success

Once again, it was an exceptional experience having the opportunity to shoot high level sport from close range. But I also remembered the advice given by Harry Nowell in his workshop (“cover the whole event, not just what is happening on the field”) and I documented the life of the Canadian Team, including the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla in the Village, an exclusivity since this visit was closed to the “official” photographers!

Commonwealth Games - 2011

Yan Huckendubler at the Commonwealth Games - 2010

Yan Huckendubler

Chelsea, QC”

Thanks Yan. I am impressed – and a little jealous!