Action and Sports Photography - Kirill Umrikhin

Share Your World Action photography: A Photographer’s Guide

by Kirill Umrikhin

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All photos by Kirill Umrikhin.

Graphic design: HĂĽkan Andersson Text editor: Laura Graf All images and text in this book are under International Copyright Legislation.

Any violation of the International Copyright Legislation will be reported to the International Court of Justice of International Copyright Legislation

Share Your World There are 8,475 languages spoken around the world but there is only one language when it comes to photography – it's called the joy of photography.

I have the pleasure of inviting you on a visual journey together with SanDisk and the members of our SanDisk Extreme Team. Enjoy amazing photography and learn the tips & tricks behind some of the members' best images.

We want to inspire and give you the opportunity to strengthen your photographic skills. And maybe our Share Your World books are the gentle push you are missing to lift your photography to the next level.

Our books are also celebrating passionate photographers from around the world who capture fleeting moments on our SanDisk memory cards and safely preserve them on our storage mediums.

There are those who claim that a single image tells more than 1000 words, I claim that it speaks on behalf of 8,475 languages.

Yours sincerely Brian Pridgeon Director Product Marketing, Content Solutions

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Action photography

A Photographer’s Guide Photography for me is an opportunity to see the world around me and meet incredible people. There are not so many enriching opportunities around us.

One of them is traveling. When traveling, we do not just discover the world, we discover ourselves. There are many amazing people in the world who feel and live life to the fullest. My mother is a psychologist and for many years she believed that people involved in extreme sports are potential self-destroyers.

They do things that, reluctantly, can bring them closer to death. After some time and meeting my friends, watching the development of my work, she radically changed her point of view. People who practice active sports experience life differently. More complete and rich. They are not motivated by pragmatic desires to make more money, get promoted in the office or take an exam. Their motives are on a different scale and may not always be clear to the society. How can you spend hours, days, weeks or months trying to learn a particular trick? How can you prepare for months or years to climb to the top of the mountain risking your life, relationships and other affairs?

My task as a photographer is to convey their feat, to show their story. I want to inspire people to open their eyes and see the world from the other side. I want to show its incredible richness of nature and human culture. Show the feat of the human body.

Photography of extreme sports is a path where you do not have a final goal, but you enjoy, feel and breathe deeply, feeling your every step and every moment.

Kirill Umrikhin

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Interview

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Why I Use SanDisk

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Iconic Photos

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Tips & Tricks

One of my personal qualities is persistence.

If I have planned something, I go and achieve it. – Kirill Umrikhin

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Kirill Umrikhin:

I want to be the first photographer to fly to the moon Dream big, they say. This motto certainly is something Russian photographer Kirill Umrikhin lives by. His profession takes him to some of the world’s most exciting locations for sports and action photography but for Kirill, not even the sky is the limit.

It started with a Zenit camera With his grandfather being the chief architect of the plant that manufactured the famous line of Soviet Zenit cameras, Kirill fell in love with photography early on. His interest in photography didn’t go unnoticed and so his grandfather bought him his first – a digital – camera and with that, Kirill’s path for the future was set. “I took photos of everyone and soon I was my school’s designated photographer,” Kirill remembers. To nurture his passion and refine his skills, he went on to study at the faculty of photojournalism at the Institute of Journalism and Literary Creativity in Moscow.

Persistency is key Since then, Kirill has come a long way. His photos made it into the top 100 photos about Russia of a decade and he was a finalist of RedBull Illume. One of his images was in the top 10% of the World Press Photo competition. “Every year I submit pictures to World Press Photo and dream of seeing action sport photos among the winners. So far, they have never won. Perhaps, someday it will happen, so this belief motivates me more than my defeats,” Kirill says. That he still has big plans for the future becomes clear when he talks about a dream he had a while ago, “I recently dreamed about Elon Musk who offered me to fly into space. Half the night I was preparing for the flight, but then I woke up.”

It’s not a walk in the park His ambitious mindset shows in his images.

It is easy to forget what is actually necessary to achieve such action-packed shots. Apart from meticulous planning, shooting in the mountains and on – or in – the ocean, 7

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The ocean and the mountains do not forgive mistakes.

– Kirill Umrikhin

requires very good physical health. The weather conditions can get harsh. “It might seem like the sun is out, the water is warm, and your job is a walk in the park, but try shooting for 6-8 hours in the scorching sun for several days in a row and you will change your mind,” Kirill says. And it’s the same story in the mountains. To get a good shot with a snowboarder or a skier, you must ride perfectly with them, hike through back country areas and always carry a heavy backpack. Hence it is vital to be prepared for such adventures, otherwise they can turn into hell.

Working with friends can be tricky So where does Kirill find the athletes who help him turn his photos into such stunners?

It is mostly Russian athletes as there are quite a few real talents in extreme sports, who Kirill has known for a long time and now considers friends. “I even married one of my main athletes,” Kirill jokes. His wife Olya, a professional windsurfer, is the star of some of his photo projects, for instance the underwater windsurfing series he shot in Egypt. However, working with friends can also be challenging. Kirill often worries because his friends risk a lot – even their own life – for a good photo or video frame.

But Kirill tries to be rational about it, “It’s their choice. My job is to make their dream photo come true.”

Never without his camera Kirill fell in love with photography at an early age and was determined to become a photographer. Today, he is working as a sports and action photographer full-time, traveling around the world. However, Kirill also uses his camera in less adrenalnie-packed situations.

To the world’s edge Kirill proofed once and for all that he is the adventurous type when he decided to venture to the Commander Islands, a group of islands that is inhibited but hardly explored and that he discovered by chance while browsing Google Maps. No one had ever surfed, windsurfed, or kited there so Kirill felt inspired and made the expedition happen. He got a team together and they sailed to the farmost border of Russia. While 8

luck certainly played a role, trust in his own strength and experience was pivotal. “I am very glad that we have shown this remote and inaccessible corner of the planet and that we were able to return home in one piece,” Kirill says – and is probably already contemplating how he can leave the Earth behind to make his trip to the moon happen.

Selfie in freezing water Shooting from the water in Kamchatka is not easy. The region is located in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, where even in summer the water temperature never reaches more than 15 degrees. In winter it is about 6-8 C degrees.

Fortunately, modern wetsuit technologies have developed greatly now and in a 5-6mm wetsuit I can work for more than an hour, but the face always remains open. When I duck dive, I feel like a thousand needles are piercing my skin. It's hard to do this if you don't like it, but I do.

Canon EOS-1DX MkII, EF600mm f/4L IS II USM, 1/1000 sec, f 4.5, ISO 80

Winter look On the one hand, the photographer should be unnoticed and use dark clothes in order not to be seen, but sometimes for safety, it is better to dress brightly.

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Most important thing in my backpack My son, who was just one week old, settled comfortably in my camera backpack.

He’s yawning and about to fall asleep.

Withstanding the elements

Nothing affects the quality As a sports and action photographer Kirill is often exposed to the elements – and so is his gear. Hence, it is vital to have durable and sturdy equipment that he can rely on.

For the last two years I have used mirrorless Nikon cameras. Currently it is a Nikon Z 6II. I also use Nikon lenses, SanDisk CF Express cards and MicroSD. I fly with a DJI Mavic2 Zoom drone. The flashes that I use

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are Godox. I trust filters, bags and tripods by Manfrotto and my best underwater housing system is Outex. I work on my MacBook Pro and my Iphone12 Pro goes with me everywhere.

My favourite lens is 400mm 2.8 with an open aperture. No other lens provides this depth of sharpness and makes your object stand out. If I'm shooting from the water, it's 1430mm or fisheye.

You must be prepared for the most challenging shooting conditions. Wind, cold, salty spray, sand. Your equipment must be able to handle all that. I trust all the brands that I work with and I know that if I can endure these conditions, then the equipment can too.

Mauritius working set What I use most often when I shoot in Mauritius.

Which one is your favorite product and why?

My favorite products are CF Express cards with a card reader. I have never worked with such a speed before. I copy a daytime of shooting to my computer within a couple of minutes. I used to make myself a cup of tea while I waited for the photos to copy but now before the water boils, the photos are already there. The speed of these cards is insane. The same goes for SSD drives

by SanDisk and G-Drive. While working with them, we stopped noticing the speed limits and the fact that discs can now shake in backpacks and bags on trips and nothing affects the quality.

We just don’t think about it anymore, we grab our cameras, put them in backpacks and off we go shooting.

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Kirill Umrikhin's

Iconic Photos During his career, Kirill has taken too many photos to count.

Yet, we asked him to pick his ten most iconic shots. Enjoy the following selection of images and the story behind them.

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Bubble snowboarding, Athlete: Ivan Pchelin This idea came to me when I saw a photo of raindrops on the hatch of a car and an airplane flying above. I thought about repeating it with snowboarders. This became a challenge for me. I had many attempts of making even drops, finding focus and assembling it under the kicker. I love complex technical tasks and the search of ways to implement them.

NIKON D5, Nikkor 45.0 mm f/2.8, 1/320 sec, f/22, ISO 400

Yin&Yang I’m a big fan of action sports like surfing and snowboarding where a person is as close to nature as possible. But sometimes I also work in technical sports. This shot was taken during a demonstration performance of freestyle on jet skis and flyboard. I asked some athletes to jump together, but I could not imagine that such a composition would come out, vaguely reminiscent of yin-yang.

NIKON Z 6, NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S, 1/2500 sec, f/14, ISO 400

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Frigate Pallada, Pacific Ocean For about five years I have been participating in various sailing regattas on large yachts. Working on this class of ships is a rather difficult and dangerous job. Travels last at least two weeks and take place in the open ocean. One of my main tasks is to take pictures of a sailboat rushing in full sail. This requires specific wind conditions and perfectly coordinated work of the whole team. It takes about 2 hours of physical work for over 100 people to set all the sails. Another hard job is to launch a drone from the deck, shoot and return it back. At the moment of landing, you breathe out and understand that your main purpose of the trip is done, and you have taken unique, if not historical, footage.

DJI MAVIC 2 ZOOM, 1/1250 sec, f/3,8, ISO 100

White water, Athlete: Olya Raskina When you look at this picture you doubt whether it is water or snow, a glacier or a wave. And only from the sail on the water you can guess what it is. One of the most powerful forecasts in the last 10 years was predicted too come to Mauritius. We waited for it for a long time, changed tickets, rescheduled the helicopter rental. Very fast waves come to the spot called One Eye and the depth on the reef is only half a meter at high tide. All this makes it one of the most challenging windsurfing destinations in the world.

NIKON D4, Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8, 1/2000 sec, f/8, ISO 800

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Big set, Athlete: Petr Tyushkevich Sometimes you paddle for a very long time to get to the line-up. Big waves and strong currents stand in your way. And when you think that you have finally reached it, a large set comes from the ocean and falls on you, pulling you back.

This sometimes happens in life too.

Ocean photography and surfing taught me a lot. The correct choice of time and place, patience and perseverance. This is the only way we can achieve results.

NIKON D5, Nikkor 400.0 mm f/2.8, 1/3200 sec, f/4, ISO 200

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Night in the ocean Night watch on the yacht Liberty during the expedition to the Commander Islands in 2018. We were sailing for 2 days in a row with a big storm chasing us and we managed to return home on its first gusts. One of the nights the sky was so starry that I decided to take this photo of silence.

You stare into the darkness for hours, yet you still find yourself alone for hundreds of miles. And underneath you is a depth of more than 5000 meters. These moments were very special to me.

NIKON D850, Nikkor 16.0 mm f/2.8, 10 sec, f/2,8, ISO 40000

Surf explosion, Athlete: Olya Raskina One of the wonders of nature together with rainbows, northern lights and volcanic eruptions, is a wave breaking on a reef that you observe from under water. It looks like an explosion and it is something unique. The breaking wave looks especially impressive when a surfer dives under it.

He seems to go through the portal of salvation, as in science fiction films.

NIKON D800, Nikkor 16.0 mm f/2.8, 1/6400 sec, f/5, ISO 800

Underwater surfing, Athlete: Olya Raskina If you can imagine it, it exists. The underwater windsurfing project was born in my head during a half-year quarantine in 2020, which I spent in Dahab on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba in Egypt. We could not return home to Russia, and we were not very eager to do so either, because there was no understanding of how dangerous the virus was. While shooting windsurfing from the water, I noticed how beautiful the board and the fin looked from underneath, so I decided to try to shoot the whole thing from underwater. The task was quite difficult to implement and required a lot of effort both in regard to preparation and for the shooting itself, since we dived holding our breath, without scuba gear. But the result was definitely worth it.

NIKON Z 6, NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S, 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 500

Mordor Moscow Sometimes you may be lucky and you accidentally take a shot that will later become historic. So it happened with this picture through the window of an airplane landing in Moscow. All flights are prohibited over the capital of Russia, you have to fly around Moscow, but this morning the pilots apparently broke the rules. There was a bitter frost with temperatures of minus 25-30 °C. The visibility was amazing and during the landing we made an almost full circle over Moscow. The plane was empty and I had my photo equipment next to me. On this photo a huge business center called Moscow City looks like the tower of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings. This photo instantly spread around the world and became one of the most popular shots of Moscow.

NIKON D800, Nikkor 24.0-120.0 mm f/4.0, 1/800 sec, f/5,6, ISO 400

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NazarĂŠ, Portugal, Athlete: Andrey Karr on jet and Toby Cunningham on surf NazarĂŠ is one of the most magical places on Earth. The huge waves that come to the cape are a miracle of nature and watching the daredevils riding them reminds me of bullfighting or even gladiator fights of the 21st century. Surfers on such waves are accelerated by a jet and also picked up or rescued. Waves weighting thousands of tons are breaking on the rocks and only the bravest men and women go out into the ocean to ride them.

NIKON Z 6, Nikkor 400.0 mm f/2.8, 1/4000 sec, f/4, ISO 200

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Exclusive insights

Tips and Tricks At SanDisk we have carefully selected a team of high-end photographers who are all masters of their craft. In this section, Kirill Umrikhin share the techniques behind his images.

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Bowhead Whales, Shantars Islands, Russia. Shantar Islands is one of the most difficult to reach and unique places in Russia. But getting away from the crowds is usually worth the effort. Large flocks of bowhead whales come here to rest, and I went to film them. The whales chill in small bays and feel completely calm, so they don’t react to people in any way. You can carefully swim near them on SUP boards or fly over them with a drone.

DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, 1/50 sec, f/3,2, ISO 100

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Underwater Yoga, Dahab, Egypt, Athlete: Olya Raskina.

TStarting to work underwater, I discovered a new world for myself. And I wanted to combine my usual photos with underwater ones. After a successful project about underwater windsurfing, I decided to try to shoot underwater yoga with Olya Raskina. Without expecting any unique result and after looking at hundreds of photos on this topic on the Internet, I managed to do something different. In my shoot I used a wide-angle lens and the yoga asanas were not the focus of my attention, however I tried to show the incredible space around the heroine and her being a part of it. Some people saw her praying to the ocean, others thought she was a mermaid. The light, space and her dedication for yoga created this underwater temple..

NIKON Z 6ii, NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S, 1/2000 sec, f/2,8, ISO 250

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Mirror shot, Moscow Russia, Athlete: Alexey Maglov. How to turn a rather ordinary competition into something interesting? Take a couple of mirrors with you.

Be creative and play with different kind of accessories to achieve unusual and interesting results – it may pay off. I made one sequence shot, which later became a finalist in RedBull Illume 2019.

NIKON D850, Nikkor 8.0-15.0 mm f/3.5-4.5, 1/1600 sec, f/7,1, ISO 400

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Dropping, Mauritius, Athlete: Tom Hartmann. It was one of the biggest swells in a decade that came to Mauritius. We had waited for the perfect conditions for a while. It was tough to stay patient but one day, everything miraculously aligned. We had a good strong wind, a perfect wave direction and a bunch of professional athletes. We filmed this at a time when there were no drones, so we had to rent a helicopter.

The One Eye wave is one of the fastest waves on the planet. It is also dangerous with a very shallow reef, so riding it takes a lot of courage, dedication and experience.

NIKON D4, Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8, 1/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 800

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Sequence mess, Samara, Russia, Athletes: Anton Smirnov (skidoo), Aleksey Kolesnikov (FMX), Anton Mamaev, Evgeniy Joon, Denis Bonus. I work as a photographer at many different sports shows and competitions. For a long time, I wanted to convey in one photograph the whole apotheosis of what’s happening. I used a sequence technique with a multiple exposure of the entire jump of the athlete, but in addition to his jump I shot the movements on all other jumps and rails.

NIKON D5, Nikkor 8.0-15.0 mm f/3.5-4.5, 1/1250 sec, f/8, ISO 200

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Colours palette, Lanzarote Island, Canary, Spain. What you see from the ground may look very different from the air so now and then, try to change your perspective. This is a salt farm on Lanzarote which is one of the Canary Islands. Because of the depth in each pool, it has different colours and from above it looks like a huge artist palette.

DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, 1/500 sec, f/2,8, ISO 100

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Last day of the season, Rosa Khutor resort, Sochi, Russia, Athlete: Artem Sheldovitskiy.

This photograph is a praise to nature for the pleasure we get from riding in fresh powder. I made it in mid-April right after a heavy snowfall, which often happens at the very end of every season. Usually we spend this day just riding for the joy of it without any serious filming. Just enjoying snowboarding or skiing, remembering the season and already starting to wait for the next one. The lonely skier looks tiny compared to the massive mountain range and the pristine snow highlights the remoteness of the location.

NIKON D 5, Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8, 1/8000 sec, f/2,8, ISO 160

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Red wallride, Moscow Russia, Athlete: Konstantin Kokorev.

This was one of the first successful shots in my career. I shot it in 2009. Sometimes you don’t need to go far to find cool locations. We once found a huge abandoned water tank near one of the Moscow airports.

In winter everything freezes here so we started to experiment. We used a winch to accelerate on the ice.

The red wall as a backdrop makes the shot even more exciting. This photo made it to the quarterfinals of the first RedBull Illume Photo Contest.

Canon EOS 30D, Canon EF50mm f/1.4 USM, 1/100 sec, f/7,1, ISO 200

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NazarĂŠ wave, Athlete: Andrey Karr.

A giant wave in NazarĂŠ, Portugal. Shooting these waves with a drone was a very difficult task. You never know at what moment and where THE wave will grow in the ocean, but for a spectacular shot you need to be as close as possible to the water level, basically under the wave with a rider.

DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, 1/1600 sec, f/2,8, ISO 100

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San Disk

Explore our world At SanDisk, we not only strive to provide you with the best gear to safely store your photos and video footage, but we also want to share inspiring images and the passion of photography that we all have in common.

It doesn't matter if you are a professional photographer or casually snap photos with your smartphone, everyone is invited to be a part of our visual adventures.

Patrick Bellair Meet the SanDisk Extreme Team The SanDisk Extreme Team has been carefully selected by SanDisk and consists of the best photographers within their industry. The members are award-winning photographers in, for instance, wildlife, wedding, fashion, or landscape photography – here you can see four of them.

Visit the SanDisk Extreme Team's website and social media channels for more inspiration and information. https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-ie/community/ extreme-team

Light & shadow Beauty photography has its own unique challenges as it seeks perfection in many ways. French photographer Patrick Bellair knows how to capture anything from hair to make-up in the most glamorous way.

Photo by Patrick Bellair

SanDisk - Trusted by the Pros Visit our SanDisk online shop to find our latest products and great prices. For a look behind the scenes and to stay up-to-date, follow us on social media. www.sandisk.com

@sandisk @sandiskextremeteam

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Jonathan and Angela Scott The Big Cat People Jonathan and Angela Scott have dedicated their life and work to Africa's wildlife and know how what is needed to take memorable images.

Photo by Jonathan and Angela Scott

Liz Kreutz Lance Armstrong at the 2017 Epic Rides.

How do you document the life of big athletes both in the sparkling limelight and their private life behind the scenes? Liz Kreutz has spent years walking on the fine line between the two extremes.

Photo by Elizabeth Kreutz

Marcus Bell Weddingscape Marcus Bell is known for the beautiful combination of wedding portrait and gorgeous landscape but also manages to turn even a photo taken at the most boring and mundane location into a work of art.

Photo by Marcus Bell

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