One Extraordinary Photo: Silhouetted in Sunlight
LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Wasson has worked for The Associated Press since 2023, based in Seattle. This is her fourth Olympics. She also covers news and enterprise throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond, including the aftermath of the Maui wildfires and breaking news events like the Charlie Kirk assassination and the Vancouver Lapu-Lapu Day car attack.
Why this photo?
I was assigned to be on the course for the men’s slopestyle final and was heading up with my crampons while the athletes were warming up when I noticed the sun was in just the right spot on the last jump to be able to potentially make a nice silhouette or two — something I hadn’t gotten a chance to try yet at this Olympics. Practice runs before events often give us the most time to play around and try something out that might be too risky for main competition in case the athlete crashes or totally nails their run and has a great celebration, so I decided to spend some time working the idea.
How I made this photo
Because there were some light passing clouds, I knew I’d likely be able to get a rough outline of the sun if I stopped down more or less as much as the camera would allow. In this case, I was at f22 and 1/32000 on a 70-200 lens. I only had a short time to try this out and in that time only a few athletes hit their practice jumps in the right spot to cross the sun. There is a lot of trial and error with these types of photos.
Why this photo works
Sometimes reducing sports to the most graphic elements and minimizing all the clutter that can be around the athletes during an Olympics (including drones!) is a great addition to our overall coverage.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics