Who Shot It Better? Nathaniel Butler vs. Heinz Kleutmeier: Jeremy Lin

Who Shot It Better? Nathaniel Butler vs. Heinz Kleutmeier: Jeremy Lin

Unrecruited, undrafted, released from two teams, Asian-American, first Harvard graduate in the NBA in 50 years — who comes virtually out of nowhere to set the NBA record for most points in 5 NBA starts. Whatever angle you view Jeremy Lin from, he’s become the feel good story of the past two weeks, and with the defeat of the defending world champion Dallas Mavericks yesterday, he’s cemented himself as a bonafide baller. This, of course, means he’s showing up on magazines, and we’d be linsane crazy not to cover it.

In this episode of Who Shot It Better, we pit Sports Illustrated’s Heinz Kleutmeier (he of Michael Phelps fame) against NBA/Getty stalwart Nathaniel S. Butler.

SI’s February 20th cover features Lin surrounded by all five Los Angeles Lakers players as he drives the lane en route to a 38 point game. A perfect illustration for the “Against All Odds” headline. As far as action shots go, this one is pretty darn good. Player facing the camera with intense expression. Legs are in a good position and off the ground. Interesting foreground and background elements.

The February 27th Asia edition of Time features a leaping Lin, and with the exception of the ref in the background, this is a pretty great poster image by Nathaniel Butler who covers a lot of the Lakers games for NBA Entertainment/Getty. The benefit of shooting for NBAE/Getty is that Nathaniel has access to the strobe lights mounted at the top of the arena, which gives him crisper images albeit with the inability to motor drive 10 frames per second.

Verdict: Nathaniel Butler. I do like the Kleutmeier image, but it might have been more graphical in nature had he had a higher shooting position. The Butler image is classic hero — low angle, peak action, pure isolation. Perhaps not as great an action shot, but definitely the better cover shot in my opinion.

p.s. Michelangelo Di Battista’s portrait of Whitney Houston on the cover of People (from InStyle’s January 2010 feature) is lovely. RIP.

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Allen Murabayashi is the co-founder of PhotoShelter.

There are 9 comments for this article
  1. Jason Bleecher at 9:23 am

    The Si cover is without question the better shot. It tells the story without words. All five defenders in the shot and who has the ball? The TIME shot is just another Michael Jordan style flying dunk shot. They probably could have order one of these for any player in the league. There is also the issue of the ref coming out of his foot. It set the tone, you know what you’re going to see inside this magazine – but again, the SI image tells the whole story.

  2. Per-BKWine at 2:24 pm

    I would agree that from a sports photography point of view the SI picture is better. But that is not necessarily the best question to ask.

    Is it a shot that would be best for Time Magazine? Probably not. I think Time has chosen an image that works better for the cover of Time. So The SI image is best for SI but the time image is best for Time.

  3. Daniel Fealko at 10:29 pm

    I have to agree with Per-BKWine on this one. Each magazine has a signature style shot comes to expect; great action shots on an SI cover, and Time’s highlighting of individuals on their cover. Either photo would look somewhat out of place on the other magazine.

    Now if the photos were judged on their own, separated from the context of the magazine, I’d pick the SI image as the winner. It tells a compelling story without words.

  4. Greg Smith at 10:42 am

    I’m with the others: The SI picture tells the story of a point guard who makes things happen. The Time cover, while solid, is a more generic, under-the-basket shot.

  5. Fred Rollison at 9:54 am

    I think the SI cover is better too. I like Lin’s expression and being surrounded the entire team (except those on the bench) does it! Plus, I always like to see Heinz’s work.

  6. Radu Rosca at 9:26 am

    Actually, Nat Butler shoots for the NY Knicks, not the Lakers 🙂
    I think both are fantastic captures, the first one with a lot of elements and very well framed, the second one with a straight look at Lin who is about to finish with a nice layup!

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