BEIJING (AP) — Han Guan Ng is a staff photographer based in Beijing since 2001. Here’s what he had to say about this extraordinary photo.
Why this photo?
The assignment was for the half marathon event involving humanoid robots. This is the second year for this event and robots have evolved from where most would fall or stumble forward in an unnatural way last year to this year where most are running past human runners.
How I made this photo
I positioned myself inline with where the human runners taking part in a parallel half marathon would be in the background and also further back from the stage where officials fire off the start guns in front of a board depicting a robot runner between human runners. The media zone is packed with TV cameras so a stepladder allowed me to get above them for a clean shot. The rest is down to waiting for a good moment when the robot, human runners and backdrop align.
Why this photo works
In this frame, the robot was caught in mid-sprint, suggesting a fast pace. The surprise on the faces of some of the human runners summed up how fast humanoid robots have developed since the first half marathon last year. The fastest autonomous robot this year broke the human half marathon record.
The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race kicked off. (AP video by Borg Wong, Nicky Zhu, Wu Jia and Liu Zheng)
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