Photographer Who Was Knocked Unconscious at Football Game Still Got the Shot

Photographer Who Was Knocked Unconscious at Football Game Still Got the Shot

A photographer was knocked unconscious at a recent football match in Atlanta which quickly made the news. What the news didn't say is she still got the shot, like a boss.

A few days ago Jack Alexander wrote about the collision between Chamberlain Smith, a photography intern at the UGA Athletic Association and football player Brian Herrien. The incident is hard viewing and you can see her knocked unconscious on impact with Herrien's knee.

Warning: not pleasant viewing.

Medics were on scene and fortunately Smith was only left with with a black eye and a concussion. However, in spite of the imminent danger, Smith — like the boss she is — got the shot before it was lights out. The speed at which this happened, and the fact that the speed was in the direction of the photographer, makes getting the shot in focus incredibly difficult. Tracking and panning is one thing, but doing so as a large athlete bounds directly at you is another thing entirely!

https://twitter.com/brianherrienn/status/1196779681934184448

A great shot in the face of potentially serious injuries; Chamberlain, I suspect you have a career in photojournalism awaiting you if you fancy a change from sports!

Robert K Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

Log in or register to post comments
3 Comments

So glad to hear she'll be okay. That's really raising the bar for dedication to your job.

Ok................not wishing to be picky but the game was not played in Atlanta, in fact, it was not even played the state of Georgia(which is where the city of Atlanta is located). Y'all need to drive 108 miles(174km) in a southwesterly direction to Auburn University(which is located in Alabama)and just so you know, she's a 2018 graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with a photojournalism concentration.

We don't call them "football matches" in the USA. Anyway, glad everything turned out ok.