Barefoot and out in the field

Peter Bush talks with Dave Lintott about his career’s journey from journalism to the photography arena

Dave Lintott at 45 still looks as if he would be more likely found in front of the lens than behind it. When he arrived at our clifftop home, or should I say bounced up the driveway, he looked as fit as many of the sports people he frames in his lens.

Clad in a light, short-sleeved shirt, tan shorts, with a camera bag slung over one shoulder and, of course, displaying his traditional bare feet (size 11), he looked ready to cover any assignment you could throw at him.

I can place on record that I have seen Dave pad barefoot around some of the more upmarket playing fields and arenas in Europe, the rougher paddocks in New Zealand, and everywhere else in-between. Bare feet aside, Dave is a very talented, hard-working, independent photographer, whose work ranges right across the spectrum from sports fields to corporate-boardroom assignments.

Dave grew up between Manawatu and Taranaki in a farming family, finishing his schooling at Palmerston North Boys’ High. A bright scholar, and a total sport enthusiast, he remembers how he missed the end of year First XV team picture to go for an interview at The Daily News, and while he wasn’t in the team shot, he did land the reporter’s job — that was back in 1988. After a year as a journalist he swapped the pen and pad for a camera, beginning a new life as a press photographer. He never looked back.

One of his very first published pictures was of an early morning horse race at the New Plymouth racetrack — he said he thought there were only two horses in the race. Later he followed the trek of many provincial news people to Auckland, Wellington, and other cities.

Disaster struck the young photographer while he was working for various suburban newspapers in Auckland, when he had all his photographic gear stolen from his car, which was parked in a suburban street. He recalled that it was a touch ironic that the night his gear was stolen he was meeting Andrew Cornaga and Niels Schipper to discuss setting up their own photo agency, but the loss of over $5000 worth of Nikon gear put a dent in any agency plans for Dave. Andrew Cornaga, however, went on to start the very successful Photosport Agency.

Dave flew off to try his luck working in the UK in 1995. He absolutely loved it from the start, and made his main base in the midland city of Ipswich. Over the next 10 years he was nothing if not versatile, tackling everything from working on the docks to running his own landscaping business, then spending the occasional weekend photographing weddings and sports events to pay for new gear, and to keep his photographic eye sharp.

I first encountered Dave when photographing the 2007 Rugby World Cup held in the UK and France, and I watched with some fascination as he strode barefoot around the French stadiums, without attracting either an eye or murmur of official dissent. It had me thinking that maybe going barefoot helped with his photography.

In those early days of his return to New Zealand, Dave worked part-time as a carpenter for his brother Hugh, a contract builder. It never seemed to bother Dave, after a day scampering up and down ladders reroofing suburban Wellington houses, to then head to the stadium and cover a Super 14 rugby game. It was all part of a day’s work. On a more selfish note, I was glad Dave was covering these mainly night games as I was able to get a lift to the ground with him, even if it was in the cab of a five-ton work truck, courtesy of his brother.

When it came to gear Dave was using a hybrid collection of cameras and lenses, half Canon and Nikon, so to catch up with his latest equipment he gave me this detailed rundown.

“I no longer use a monopod as it restricts where I can go, because I move around so much there’s the potential to injure someone. Plus I’d twice had the monopod catch and break while on the move — it becomes expensive.”

Dave continued, “One of the main factors in my buying the Nikon 200–400mm zoom is that I can handhold it for some length of time, and then have a variety of ways of bracing myself with the lens.

Dave says on an average day his camera bag contains two D3 Nikon bodies, an 80–200mm zoom, 8mm fisheye, 14mm, 50mm, 55mm macro, and 500mm mirror lenses, an SB flash … and the list goes on. I asked him if he has a small donkey to help him carry the gear. He does have a pelican case, which I have seen him carry like a school lunch box. He also carries in his car his studio-lighting gear for anything involving indoor locations, and I nearly forgot to mention, he now proudly takes his six-yearold daughter, Charlie, to some assignments as his keen and able assistant.

At the end of our late-afternoon interview I realized the gulf that separates us — Dave at 45, myself at 84 — suggests it’s too late for me to reinvent myself and start again.