This was published 7 years ago
Herald photographer Dallas Kilponen: Catching the waves - and the images
By Andrew Webster
Ever been on a retiring Sydney to Hobart yacht, surfing down 20-foot waves with a howling southerly behind you, drinking rum?
Or in the corner just metres away when Manly legend Steve Menzies scores a try in his final match, having been there for his first?
Grand finale: Steve Menzies (headgear) celebrates with Brett Stewart and Anthony Watmough after scoring a try in his final game for Manly in the 2008 NRL grand final.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
Or raced from the pool at the Sydney Olympics, having been metres away as Grant Hackett beat Kieren Perkins in the 1500m before racing from the Aquatic Centre to the Olympic Stadium to take up your position at the end of the straight for the men's and women's 100m sprint?
Photographer Dallas Kilponen has.
One of the Herald greats leaves the building after 23 years on Friday and the logical thing to do was ask him to give us three of his best sporting images from his time behind the lens.
First, there's the moment from 2008 when Menzies came on the field and scored late in Manly's 40-0 grand final win over Melbourne.
Kilponen had positioned himself in the corner with a wide lens and captured an image that no other camera did that night. It ran on the front page the next day.
Oh, and the bloke's a lifelong Sea Eagles fan from the northern beaches.
"I got 'Beaver' to sign the picture for me," he says.
Calm after the storm: Crew members of super maxi Lahana becalmed in Bass Strait during the 2009 Sydney to Hobart.Credit: Dallas Kilponen DAK
Then there's the Sydney to Hobart race of 2004.
He was aboard Indec Merit, becoming the first photographer in history to file from a boat in Bass Strait and then have his images appear in print the next day. He changed the way the bluewater classic is now covered.
The race represented more than that. He was carrying the ashes of his late father, David, who had won the race in 1977.
"I wanted to get my old man to Hobart," Kilponen recalls.
Conditions were appalling that year, though, and his battered boat, reeking of spew from sea sick crew members, was forced to turn around and head back to Eden. Luckily, there was a bottle of rum on board.
As the boat came back to land, Kilponen's mobile phone buzzed. It was the news desk. They wanted him back in Sydney to fly to Indonesia. A tsunami had killed thousands of people …
At the last minute, he was flown to the Yorke Peninsula in Adelaide where bushfires had claimed lives.
"Forty-eight hours ago, I was in the middle of Bass Strait," he told the disbelieving firies.
Try time: Adam Ashley-Cooper dives over the line in the corner to score a try during the Bledisloe Cup match in 2007.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
And, finally, let's go to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Bledisloe Cup match between the Wallabies and All Blacks in 2007.
Because Herald stablemate The Age had all of its staff covering AFL, he was the only Fairfax photographer covering the event.
As it transpired, he was also the only one to capture the cracking photo of outstretched Wallabies winger Adam Ashley-Cooper scoring a try.
"And the Sun-Herald ran 24 of my pictures the next day," he laughs.
Now, as a gun freelancer, he can charge by the image.
Good luck, Dal. A raised glass of rum as we surf down 20-foot waves to you.