It was a double heart breaker for me yesterday afternoon at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Not only did Satria Muda Britama take the Singapore Slingers down in the third and deciding semi-final game of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), the visiting team’s star player Alex Hartman was responsible for breaking my AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens.
I have always considered the photographers’ zone at any basketball game as some sort of a war zone. With stray basketballs flying at any direction at top speed and players crashing into you (these guys are big), photographers require quick reflexes to pull their cameras away from their face and either stop what’s coming towards them or brace themselves for some heavy contact. While I have been rather quick and fortunate all these years sitting at the Slingers’ court with a fantastic view, I guess I wasn’t quick enough on Sunday.
Nevermind that I caught a number of really interesting shots during the first two quarters, it was during the middle of the third quarter when the incident happened and everything went downhill from there. It all started when Slingers’ import Marcus “Dude you are really killing me with your reckless drives and turnovers” Ng drove into the paint for a very contested layup and drew a foul. Hartman in the heat of the moment, caught the stray basketball and threw it at the photographers’ direction with his right hand in frustration. That was when the ball went straight towards me, hit my lens and sent it flying towards another photographer.
My last shot before the incident
With that, my lens was pretty much busted and all attempts to self repair was unsuccessful. A small but significant piece of the lens broke off. Hartman in an unsportsmanlike conduct pulled off one heck of a dumb-ass move. While I was able to mount my lens on the camera, it was extremely loose and the photos captured were completely dark and off. Well done Hartman…well done!! You broke my heart!! Honestly I don’t really care if that was unintentional. Everything is on tape and I’m pretty sure at least half the spectators saw what happened (does anyone have a copy?). Thankfully, a fellow media photographer passed me his fish eye lens and I continued shooting knowing that I could have gotten better results if my lens wasn’t broken.
Left: The busted area | Right: The piece that broke off
Moving on, I’m probably going to write to the ABL and Satria Muda Britama about the incident. These teams are normally insured and I hope to get the team to either replace a new lens or bear the full cost of the repair. More of that soon ~cross fingers~
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