Meet our Photographer | Andraž Kramberger
Hi Andraž! How about we start with you telling the nice people about yourself?
Hi, I'm Andraž Kramberger! I’m a photographer from Maribor, Slovenia which is the second biggest city in the country but still tiny by worldly standards and I like to take pictures of dogs, street scenes, concerts and sports (mainly ultimate).
When did you start photographing ultimate?
I have just recently gone through some of my earliest photos of ultimate, which are horrible by the way, and figured that my first tourney I photographed was in April 2014. It was a weekend tournament organised by my local team and I just showed up with my camera. At the end of the weekend some of the organisers came up to me and asked if they could have those pics for Facebook and I said "sure". After that and some more local tourneys the U20 Slovenian national teams took me with them to WJUC 2016 where I met the famous Adriana from VC Ultimate and that absolutely changed my life! VC brought my girlfriend and me out to Royan for WCBU 2017 and a year after that to the other side of the pond to WUCC, WMUCC, WJUC and the Canadian Ultimate Championships.
What's been your favourite tournament to photograph?
That’s really hard to answer since all of these were really fun and also exhausting but the beach tournaments have a special place in my heart for sure. WCBU 2017 and EBUC 2018 were just phenomenal from the perspective of a photographer.
Windmill is absolutely one of the wildest and most fun. The fact that there is awesome ultimate going on in the day and then it just flows into a huge party with live music and awesome games is just amazing.
How easy is it to get started taking great photos of ultimate?
Well the trick is to shoot a lot more than you think is necessary since you really don’t know when the big play is going to happen, so 95% of the photos taken will never be seen by anyone else. But to get started you just need a camera and a lens (zoom preferably) and as you progress you see what style suits you best.
Of course better gear makes it easier and opens new possibilities. I am currently using a Nikon D850 and I just switched my Nikon Z6 for a Fuji X-t4. I usually run a double camera set up with a 70-200mm lens on one and a 150-600mm on the other so I don’t have to switch lenses every time the game comes close or goes far. But I do switch to a 15-30mm every now and then to get some different looks.
What's it like photographing a tournament for Lookfly?
I would never have thought that I would one day be working with one of the biggest companies in the game and I was a bit intimidated before the first tourney but then I got there and got to know the people behind it and now it’s absolutely the highlight of every year (that we get to do it). With a crew like that even the hard/hot days are a blast!
What have you learned in your time photographing ultimate? What are your top tips?
What I’m still working on is to capture the emotion and the electricity on and off the field during a good game. It’s not just the layouts. But if I would give one advice to people wanting to dabble in the Ultimate photography game would be: just be patient, there is a lot of luck involved to get that perfect shot.
What have been your favourite shots?
Team Canada just after they scored the winning point at WJUC 2016 (first photo) since I’m pretty sure is the shot that got me the job! Or Adam Vaslet of GB at WU24 where he almost landed on me but I somehow managed to capture his amazing layout score.
What have been your favourite interactions with a player whilst taking photos?
I’ve had a few of “did you get that?” right after somebody lays out, I had to call downs or outs (which is absolutely nerve wrecking). And every now and then somebody comes around asking me if I was Nathan Kolakovic.
What's your favourite ultimate kit?
Oof that’s a hard one but the first thing that comes to mind is probably the Denmark national teams kit, but also Rainbow Brigade or Toronto GOAT (since there is a little hidden Slovenian flag on it).
What's next?
Hopefully get back to the fields when it's safe to do so and try to capture some of the awesomeness the best players in the world bring to the field!
