One Extraordinary Photo: Players avoid injury and create a moment of parallel soccer symmetry

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HOUSTON (AP) — Ashley Landis is a staff photographer for The Associated Press and is based in Houston. She has been with the AP for the last six years of her 21-year career. Landis specializes in sports, news, and features.

Sweden’s Gustaf Lagerbielke was running at full speed Saturday toward Cody Gakpo of the Netherlands in an attempt to take control of the ball. I could see that there was potential for them to collide in a fairly severe way, so I held down the shutter to capture that moment. Fortunately, the collision wasn’t harmful, but it did show off their athletic skill as Gakpo flew over the top of Lagerbielke.

Our cameras have very fast shutters with high frame rates. Those tools made this photo happen. My shutter speed was 1/2500 of a second, and my frame rate was 20 frames per second. Those settings helped me capture a sequence of images, and I choose the peak moment.

This photo captures the agility of Lagerbielke and Gakpo. Instead of what could have been a horrific collision, one went low and the other went high in a photo-friendly parallel instant of soccer symmetry. I could see their split second decisions happen in real time, as they were able to control their bodies and avoid injury.

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