Boubacar Malick Dia - Sports Photography

I had the pleasure of shooting Boubacar Malick Dia - an under 17s Senegal international goalkeeper. He’s incredibly tall, I mean everybody’s tall compared to me, so the first time I met him, it was like, ‘Hello, I’m so short!’

But he’s a really nice kid and I got a load of shots of him at the university, as part of him training. He then got me back with his other team mates to do all the goalkeepers in the university team. It was a great little shoot and a really fun one to be part of.

It was one of those ones like, ‘How does he get that, how did you get that?’ People kind of forget that I did start my career as a sports photographer and I’ve shot football a number of times.
Predominantly my stuff was running and a bit of bike race triathlon and various other things that I’ve shot for and I’ve had the pleasure of shooting for the likes of Newcastle United and British Triathlon and various downhill biking teams and that sort of stuff. I do like fast moving things, to capture footballers winging their way across the pitch.

It was another shoot to be able to add into my sports portfolio. It’s not something that I shout about as much as I should do, but it was just a really, really good thing to be part of. It was great to capture him and he’s using these pictures all over his social media and it’s been great seeing his journey since then. I know he’s been out in Senegal, working out there as a coach I believe, so it’s just fantastic to see his journey and fingers crossed I get to shoot him again soon.