This is Salt Lake Tribune Photographer Scott Sommerdorf. He taught me something pretty profound while I sat by him at the NCAA Elite 8. He was perched in the corner of the arena above the tunnel, quite a ways away from the contingent of photographers squatting down on the baseline under that basket. I made an offhand remark as I sat down, something like "What did you do to get banished clear up here?". I assumed there weren't enough places for him to be down with the privileged but that's odd since he's from the home-town newspaper. He answered that he had to beg them to be up there. I thought it was pretty odd that he'd WANT to be up away from the action when every other photographer was down close getting in the heat of the action.
I hope I will remember his answer for a long time. He said, "All of those photographers will get basically the exact same shot. Some will time it better than others but for better or worse, mine will be different."
Amen, and thank you Scott.
He was also a really good guy. Check out some of his images from the tournament at the Salt Lake Tribune's site.
See more of my work at www.jonwoodbury.com
