True to his word, Bradley delivered at the Gabba on Thursday night, as the only snapper to catch the first of Eddie Betts’ sensational marks, over Brisbane’s James Polkinghorne midway through the second quarter.
Speaking to carltonfc.com.au, Kanaris was man enough to admit he didn’t even know he’d captured a genuine contender for Mark of the Year as he shot the game for AFL Photos on his trusty Canon 1D Mark 4 Digital SLR camera with a Canon 400mm f2.8 Lens.
“I didn’t think too much of it until I heard on the news that night that everyone was raving on about it,” Kanaris said. “I thought ‘S..t, I better send that on to the AFL.”
Kanaris, who perched himself by the players’ interchange some 50 metres from Betts’ launch on Thursday night, conceded he was initially disappointed with the fact that he shot the mark from behind.
“But when I had a better look at it I realised I got the whole series of six separate images,” he said.
“Normally when I shoot I watch the kicker (in this instance, Chris Yarran) and I look away from the camera to where I think the kicker’s kicking it to because the camera robs you of your peripheral vision of course. I then focus on the pack and on this occasion out of nowhere came Eddie Betts.
“When I first took it I thought I might have been a bit too far away and having shot it from behind I initially didn’t think too much of it.
“I then looked up on the big screen where the mark was replayed and I said ‘Oh my God’ what a mark! It was fantastic.”
Kanaris, who will more than likely submit his entry in the AFL Media Awards’ best photograph category (“maybe as a series”), also believed he was the only photographer on duty to capture the mark because he knew where the others were positioned at the time.
“There was another photographer from AFL Photos, a guy from Getty Images and another guy right beside me from AAP. Eddie had his back to all of them when he took the mark, but they didn’t get it, so I was a bit lucky there,” Kanaris said.
Photographer Bradley Kanaris.
“No-one got it from front-on either because as soon as I took the shots I looked up to see if there was anyone there... and there was no one around, not one photographer.”
Kanaris rated Betts’ grab as “probably the most spectacular mark” he’s captured on film.
“Because he (Betts) wasn’t front-on, it probably wasn’t the best shot strictly from a photographer’s point of view,” he said.
“If he’d spun around so that I’d shot his face I’d say it would have been the best shot I’ve ever taken in AFL.”
In respect of Betts’s follow-up fly over Cheynee Stiller, Kanaris explained “there were too many players in the way” to allow him to capture the image.
“That’s the nature of photography - you do need the right skills, but you also need a bit of luck on your side,” he said. “It’s a combination of skill and luck... right place, right time.
Eddie Betts' electric performance against the Lions has earned him two nominations for the AFL Mark of the Year.
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