Sjef’s photo diary: Top 10 from Dublin

Sjef van den Berg came second at the 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Odense, Denmark. He also earned his first Olympic cap at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, and counts photography among his (non-archery) hobbies.

I walked around the courses at the World Archery Field Championships in Dublin to see if I could capture some stills of some impressive archery, in a discipline that I like to watch but don’t make time for in my schedule.

Here are my top 10 pictures from Dublin 2016…

In this photo I tried to show that it’s sometimes a lonely sport which makes you contemplate a lot of things about yourself. It might not have been what JC was doing at the time – but for me this picture provokes the thought.

Simplicity is key.

I like the blurry background and the fact that these arrows look so luminous. It’s also sometimes considered a bold move to use green arrows in a field shoot. (You know why.)

The organisers did a great job setting the course, and made great use of the paintball field on the venue. It does mean there was sticky paint everywhere and a lot of unpopped paintballs on the course!

Have fun! It’s important to not forget to have fun, even though you’re shooting in a World Championships. Getting super stressed about shooting precisely enough might just make matters worse.

I like the barebow class. It’s nice and pure. In this photo I tried to put some of that purity into an image, by showing how easy it is to store your bow using nature only.

No matter how good a bow you manufacture, archers tend to give it their own swing. Not only do looks matter, it’s nice to know your bow fits you, too.

This example is the bow of Sydney 2000 Olympic Champion Simon Fairweather, who decided the grip he used back in the 90s is still the way to go.

Concentration. Preparation. It shows that inhow an archer wants to make sure their sequence is perfect, some go to further lengths than others.

Arrows in mid-flight are always cool, and not very difficult to take pictures of – plus I really like how this one turned out. I had to play around with the aperture a bit before I got the result I was looking for.

This photo is just so dynamic, I really like the look of dedication on both of their faces. The blue shirts give a nice contrast to the green background which makes the photo easy to look at, too.

If I named my photos, this one would be called: “Back to archery’s roots”. Pun intended. 

The 2016 World Archery Field Championships run 27 September to 2 October in Dublin, Ireland.