Wise Advanced

The Moment - with Nikon Ambassador Joel Marklund

Chief Photographer at Bildbyrån Photo Agency

A photographer specialized in sports, with an eye for perfection

Joel Marklund, born 1985, has been working as a photographer since 2005. He is currently based in Manhattan, New York and Stockholm, Sweden as U.S. Correspondent and Chief Photographer of Sweden’s nr 1 sports photo agency Bildbyrån. He has worked in more than 45 different countries and covered numerous international sports events around the world, among them the FIFA World Cup and six Olympic Games. He started his career at the local newspaper NSD before moving on to Aftonbladet, Scandinavia’s biggest media outlet, in 2007. The same year he joined Bildbyrån as a staff photographer and in 2013 became the chief photographer of the agency.

He is an award winning photographer, frequently honored in Picture of the Year International, NPPA Best of Photojournalism and the Swedish Picture of the Year Awards. Since 2016 he’s a Nikon Europe Ambassador.

Since 2016 he has been part of the official photography team covering the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament for The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. He worked as an official photographer for the International Olympic Committee at the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic Games and 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Joel Marklund’s photographic work has been published all over the world in different media outlets. On the commercial side his clients include Adidas, Nike, the Swedish Football Federation, Nikon, Panasonic, Nocco (Vitamin Well), the UFC among others.

“There is no room for errors or re-dos. As important as speed is, the same goes for reliability and endurance. The cards feel very robust and withstood all harsh conditions I tried them in.”

Equipment

Memory Cards

Wise 512GB CFexpress

Cameras

Nikon D6

Camera Setup

5568 x 3712 (RAW, JPEG)

Dynamic-area (Autofocus)

3D Tracking with Face Detection (Autofocus)

With the coronavirus pandemic severely shutting down multiple international athletic competitions, Joel was pleased to get back to sports again. "Even in a different capacity as there are no spectators allowed, I spent a few days in July photographing rock climbing, athletics and football."

As the first appointed Ambassador for Nikon Europe, he brought the latest professional D series model and took advantage of the updated AF system to chase for the perfect moment. "The autofocus in the Nikon D6 is really impressive, for sure the best I’ve used in a DSLR,” says Joel. “I use different autofocus settings depending on which type of sport I shoot. I’ve found myself mostly using the different Dynamic-area AF settings and the 3D tracking with face detection. Particularly the 3D tracking has been very interesting and reliable."

Joel recalled one of the football matches during the shutdown, he faced not only challenging weather conditions, but also finding a creative camera angles for his shot. “I was able to use a unique vantage point for this particular match – at the roof of the stadium. I knew that the nice evening sun-light could create beautiful shadows when setting at the arena. Also, now with no spectators in the stands, the normal position at grass level is not as interesting. The weather wasn't really on my side this day though. The west coast of Sweden is known for uneven weather and the clouds constantly blocked the sun. I only had a handful of chances of getting the shot I wanted, and when the situation appeared there was no room for error – I needed to nail the shot immediately. At the end of the match, I only had a few minutes of that particular light I had been looking for.”

For sports photography, every second matters. There is no time to edit pictures in a cozy editing room. As Joel puts it, "In the sports photography environment, speed is crucial. Every second we can save in the workflow is extremely important. During the match I normally send most pictures live for remote editing, but remotes are manually handled."

“For me to be able to rely on the memory cards is really helpful when there's only a few minutes to select, edit and transmit the best pictures in half-time. I did find the Wise Advanced CFexpress cards to be extremely fast to process pictures, and as a result more pictures will reach our clients. In my line off work I need to trust the equipment I use.”

In additional to speed, robustness is essential for an unrepeatable moment. "There is no room for errors or re-dos. As important as speed is, the same goes for reliability and endurance. The cards feel very robust and withstood all harsh conditions I tried them in."