Sudbury-based photographer captures World Cup moments

Phamai Techaphan began her photography journey in Thailand, where she worked for newspapers and magazines before moving into freelance photography. (Photo courtesy of Phamai Techaphan)

A Sudbury, Ont.-based photographer has been capturing moments from the biggest sporting event in the world: the World Cup.

Phamai Techaphan began her photography journey in Thailand, where she worked for newspapers and magazines before moving into freelance photography.

While challenging, she said freelancing prompted her to learn all aspects of photography.

“It was like a small publication, really,” Techaphan said.

“You kind of like do everything. So that’s when I grabbed the camera and started taking photos.”

She quickly discovered that sports photography was what she loved the most.

“And then after that, I started kind of like doing portrait studio stuff and I really, really loved it,” Techaphan said.

She ended up moving to Sudbury after a visit in 2018. It’s her husband’s hometown and the couple decided to move to the north in 2019 so their son, Theo, could attend school here.

After the move, Techaphan was contacted by Shutterstock Editorial, which was looking for a good photographer in Canada.

Since then, she has covered rugby, golf, volleyball, swimming, tennis and soccer events. With Canada co-hosting the World Cup, she applied for accreditation in January.

While she was approved to take photos, she said she still has to apply for a ticket for any game she wants to cover. While not a major soccer fan, she is a huge fan of taking photos of soccer matches.

“I love the action and stuff like that,” Techaphan said.

“The main thing is (to) capture the moment and then the atmosphere. Because, like, for wire service, you want to be as broad as possible.”

She aims to capture the expressions of the players and the coaches as they react to the game — their celebrations and frustrations.

“They get angry and then, of course, when they celebrate the goals. And then the crowd (with) the people dressed up,” she said.

“So, it’s like basically everything.”

In the future, Techaphan said she dreams of covering many other sporting events, including the Summer Olympics, and has a busy summer schedule ahead.

“I’m covering two events — the World Cup and the Yonex Canada Open for the badminton,” she said.

“After that, it’s the National Bank Open and then … there’s Beach Volleyball Elite in Montreal.”

For anyone interested in a career in photography, Techaphan encourages them to pick up a camera and just start taking photos.

“To me, experience is everything,” she said.

“You learn new things every day even with studio photography … Once you do a lot of things, then you find out what you really like and then you can go from there (and) kind of specialize.”

To see more of her work, click here.