If you are American, then perhaps you can guess that the year is 1976 due to the stars and stripes knee pads and wrist bands I am wearing to commemorate the US Bicentennial. For a 12 year-old soccer playing boy at that moment, it was a good fashion decision. The yellow and green striped tube socks, plastic soccer shoes and especially the shorts that I found on my school bus, perhaps not. Since then, I have learned many things and here I will share what I have learned about how the skill sets involved in goalkeeping and photography are interchangeable.

Anticipating the actions of unpredictable animals.

I turned 60 in June of 2024 and still play soccer competitively here in Valencia, Spain against players mostly aged 22-40. Over the past 50 years I learn something in every match and that has thankfully evolved into a successful strategy for me. In short, when the other team is moving the ball down the field, my cerebral goalkeeper algorithm is constantly analyzing, predicting and anticipating where the ball will be passed and to which player. This is also combined with my observations of my team and their movements. As a result, I prepare myself to take action based upon the sum of these observations on the field in real time.

These soccer “animals” are very similar to the real animals we find in nature. Let’s use the example of the Iberian lynx from my most recent blog. Whenever I go into the field to create images of an animal, I try to think like that animal and that helps give me a better chance to predict where it might move and what it might do. That thought and preparation improves my chances of being ready to capture an image when and if a wild animal decides to walk past me. And during my recent visit to Peñalajo, Spain, I anticipated where a Lynx might walk past and knew that it was likely a better video than a photo so I readied my phone for 5x video. And that's what actually happened! Kindly refer to The Iberian Lynx blog post for more details, specific examples and images of that encounter. 

One must be able to perform at a moment’s notice and must always be ready.

Frequently in soccer, a goalkeeper is idle and inactive. From a team perspective this is a good thing because that means your team has possession and are trying to score and that increases the odds of a victory. As a young man, I remember getting caught daydreaming because the ball was at the other end of the field. Suddenly, there was a long ball to their striker and before I realized what was happening, he was sprinting down the field directly at me and I wasn’t ready for that. He scored and I was angry and disappointed with myself but on that day I learned that I always had to be ready for a sudden change in action.

About 2 years ago, I was on my way to shoot some Milky Way galaxy images using an abandoned train station as the foreground near Cuenca, Spain. I recall being concerned and slightly discouraged about seeing a large Cumulonimbus storm cloud in the distance and hoped I wouldn’t have clouds obstructing the Milky Way for the shoot later that evening. No sooner did I pull up to Gramendosa station when that Cumulonimbus was perfectly positioned in the background of the station, the sun was setting and illuminating that magnificent cloud creating a once in a lifetime photography opportunity. Instinctively, I hopped out of the car, quickly read the scenario, decided on the best composition and began shooting. A few days later, I discovered that I had captured one of my most iconic images purely by chance and being ready to act quickly and correctly. As I often tell my sons, "Expect the Unexpected" and that’s the title I gave the image.

It’s important to study and prepare. 

I remember being a little nervous about a futsal soccer tournament in May of 2023. I have been around long enough to know that the semifinals and finals have a higher probability of going to penalty kicks and I wanted to be as prepared as possible for that, should it happen. In the days prior to the tournament, I studied videos on YouTube showing various techniques from futsal keepers on how to stop a penalty kick and it was a good thing that I did. The semifinal game went to penalty kicks and I saved one and our team advanced to the championship match. That ended in a 1-1 draw and the trophy match went to penalty kicks as well. Critically, I stopped their first kick giving my team the confidence they needed to to score their kicks while at the same time reducing the confidence of the other team. Consequently, the other team missed 2 subsequent kicks and we won the Championship. Later at the awards ceremony, I was presented with the “Golden Glove” for being the best goalkeeper of the tournament.

Prior to visiting Alaska’s Katmai National Park last September to capture images of Brown Bears, I spent a few hours watching a live feed from a “Bear Cam” in the park showing the bears as they hunted for Salmon to fatten themselves up for hibernation. I quickly observed that there were a few different hunting techniques that different bears used. Some sat at the top of the falls waiting for a fish to jump out of the water. Others sat at the base of the falls watching and waiting for a salmon to swim by. And others waded in the shallows after the falls and pounced on the Salmon as they swam by. By studying all of these strategies, I could help predict how each bear would behave while hunting which increased the probability of me capturing a great image. And again, unsurprisingly, preparation paid off as I was in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge. I captured an award-winning image entitled “Bear Sushi” of a bear holding a Sockeye Salmon by the dorsal fin after pouncing on him in the shallows after Brooks Falls.

Practice, practice and more practice.

Having over 50 years experience as a soccer goalkeeper has given me a treasure trove of knowledge which has also finely tuned my cerebral goalkeeper algorithm. To be clear, I don’t know everything and still make mistakes but I make certain that if I concede a goal, I analyze why and make sure not to make the same mistake twice. I play two 60-minute matches twice a week which keeps me in shape as well as helps me improve my game. It’s amusing to me when someone who hasn’t played against me before walks on the field and looks at me and my gray hair and thinks he can go easy on the “old guy”.

One of the things that I recently realized after reading a photography article is that one needs to be aware of spending too much time in front of your computer and not enough time behind your camera. Ideally, one should try to get out and shoot at least once a week if not more. The more you shoot, the more mistakes you will make, the more you will learn and that leads to you becoming a better photographer. I was recently in Barcelona at a photography convention with over 30 lecturers. One of them shocked the audience by asking the question: “How many of you have actually read the owners manual for your camera?” I was mildly ashamed to have not yet read mine. I bought a new Nikon Z8 in the Fall and am more of a "figure-it-out-as-you-go" kinda guy. Last week, however, I went through my manual from cover to cover and learned a few things I didn’t know. See, even the guy with gray hair is still learning.

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