Behind the scenes of "The Shot"

The photo.

It isn’t often we break down a photograph, but the shot carried by the Associated Press of Jan Jorgensen blocking the PAT attempt in Saturday’s 28-27 BYU win over Washington was taken by our traveling companion and colleague Scott Winterton.

There’s a story behind the shot.

Winterton is the photographer who captured the blocked field goal in the BYU win over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl last December in Sam Boyd Stadium. When he took that shot, he was on the sideline and the angle was not that great.

This time, as the situation repeated itself, this time a 35-yard PAT instead of a field goal, Winterton remembered his experience in Las Vegas and made an adjustment. He galloped to the opposite end of the field in the end zone so he could take a straight on shot of BYU’s defense facing the kicker.

Using a 400m lens, from that distance, the camera compresses the shot and the depth of field is much thinner. But what that does is make the action a lot crisper as the focal point is merely a few feet. For techno nerds, Winterton said his shutter speed was 640th of a second.

Winterton caught the shot that told the story. It also showed Jorgensen’s jersey being tugged as a Washington lineman tried in futility to stop the Cougar lineman from making a play.

This shot, circulated nationally, appeared as a five column layout in the Seattle Times, as well as other newspapers and websites across the country.

Good job by Winterton for moving his position, learning from his previous setting in Las Vegas.

Funny thing is, when Winterton sent in his photos, the guys on the desk back at work gave him grief for not capturing the shot of Jake Locker throwing the ball in the air. Now, that would have been a rare feat. You could not anticipate Locker doing such a thing and once he did, he threw it so high (contrary to what ESPN’s Mark May reportered) that it would not have been in the frame with Locker.

Winterton said he counted on the Locker celebration throw and he claims it took three second for the footbasll return to the turf where he landed at the feet of an official. “I think it went up at least 20 yards.”

Editor’s note: The photo is attached to the main game story with the headline “Big block for Cougars”. CLICK HERE to see the story and click the gallery to the right for a large view of the photo.