Shooting Sports

Taking great pictures of sports is a highly specialized skill that requires a combination of talent, equipment, stamina and great reflexes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get good shots of your kids with the minimum of hassle.

What kind of success you’ll have will, to a large degree, be determined by the level of sport that you’re shooting. In other words, if you’re trying to snap action shots of Junior in the 5 year-old soccer league, it’ll be somewhat easy and maybe even obtainable with a point-and-shoot camera. Why? Because the action is slower, the field is smaller and your access is better.

With each successive jump in playing level your job becomes more difficult. At the high school soccer level it becomes – if you pardon the expression – a whole ‘nother ballgame because the kids are faster, the field is bigger and your access is more restricted. And at each level after that it gets even more difficult. 

I bring this up, of course, because what level of sport you’ll be shooting will determine what kind of equipment you’ll need. But let’s, for the sake of discussion, assume that you’re shooting sports on full-size fields with total access. So, that means a digital or film SLR that will accept specialized telephoto or zoom lenses that will allow you to get close to the action. The bigger and the faster the lens – the better – and, of course, the more expensive.

At a minimum, you’ll need a 200mm lens on your camera body and it should be as fast – f2.8 is optimum – as possible. Even better would be a 300mm f2.8 or better.  But much bigger than that and we’re entering second mortgage territory.

Next, you need the talent – so the advice here is practice, practice, practice and then practice some more. Start out by shooting daylight events to increase the odds of success. It’s very important to position yourself in the right spot on the sidelines so make sure the sun is behind you. (It doesn’t matter which side of the field your kid’s team is on – the sun is more important here.) Don’t try to chase the teams up and down the field. Stand in one spot and let the actiion come to you. But, If it becomes obvious that one team is dominating the play, then get your butt down to that end of the field.

Moving up and down the field and carrying equipment as you go requires that you to be in pretty good shape.  And this is where the proper technique comes in for holding the camera (see previous post). A monopod can also help you in this regard.

Once you get your eye up to the viewfinder, it comes down to tracking the action, focusing and firing away at the right times. Again, this only comes with practice so learn to operate your focus zones and be able to change them in an instant. For exposure, you’ll want to have the highest shutter speed possible and you can pump up your ISO number to 800 or so in order to achieve this even in broad daylight.

The more photos you can bang off, the better your chances of getting a keeper so don’t be shy about taking a lot of shots. (It’s the pro’s secret.)

Only when you start getting good at daylight sports should you even consider taking on the dubious pleasure of shooting night sports. The fields around these parts are lit so horribly, I wouldn’t recommend this for the faint-hearted. (And we’ll tackle those issues in another post.)

My personal ratings on shooting sports is this:

Easiest to shoot:  Baseball: It’s usually played in broad daylight in good weather and there’s a very limited amount of spots where the action will take place – the pitcher’s mound, home plate and the three bases. Therefore the shooter can plan for his shots pretty easily.

Toughest to shoot: Soccer under the lights is absolutely horrible to do. The lighting is bad, the action is all over the place and your flash unit won’t reach more than 30 feet away. (I’d rather have a toothache and a hangover – at the same time – then have to shoot soccer under the lights.)

Today’s advice: Taking great sports pictures will tax both your patience and your wallet. But it’s not brain surgery and could lead to some fun if you’ve got lot’s of the aforementioned items.

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