Lights! Camera! Action!
Those are the keys to exciting photography. And, given today's technology, you might not even need the lights. A digital camera, some fast-moving action, and a bit of knowledge about how to take the best pictures of moving subjects will launch you on the road to some of the most interesting photographs you've ever taken. You've got the camera, the action is all around you, and this chapter provides the knowledge you need.
Action photography has never been easier with digital cameras. With a few vexing exceptions, even the simplest digital cameras have continuous-shooting "burst" modes that let you snap off sequences of shots quickly—often two or three shots per second in clips of 5 to 10 images. More advanced digital cameras have long zoom lenses (up to 12X) with the equivalent reach of 432mm telephotos on a 35mm film camera. At the top end, digital SLRs provide even more action photography power, with even faster burst rates (as much as 8 frames per second) and virtually zero lag time between when you press the shutter release and when the photo is taken.
Although when we think of action photography, we automatically think of sports, this kind of picture taking is not limited to spectator sports, of course. You can grab some great shots at football or baseball games, soccer and tennis matches, or even those semi-organized bouts of mayhem they call rugby and hockey, of course. But you can also capture fast-moving subjects at amusement parks, the beach, or while mountain climbing. Action photography is a great tool for capturing the excitement of participatory events, from skydiving to golf, and non-events that involve moving objects, such as juggling or driving your favorite car around a tight mountain curve. If it's in motion, you might well want to photograph it. Action photography, on any level, is not a spectator sport.
My first full-time job that didn't involve tossing rolled-up newspapers on my neighbors' front porches was as a sports photographer for a daily newspaper. I didn't officially become a writer until the paper's sports editor began publishing the two- and three-page cutlines I was turning in with each photo, each written in inverted pyramid style, complete with quotes from the coaches. Later, I photographed college sports while working as a sports information director for a small upstate New York college. More recently, I've been taking a lot of photographs of high school sports and professional baseball (the former for my kids' sports teams, and the latter because I purely love baseball and photography). So, I've got a lot of advice to pass along to you in this chapter.
Although the main focus of this chapter is on sports photography, most of the lessons here apply to taking pictures of anything that won't sit still and pose for you.
Those are the keys to exciting photography. And, given today's technology, you might not even need the lights. A digital camera, some fast-moving action, and a bit of knowledge about how to take the best pictures of moving subjects will launch you on the road to some of the most interesting photographs you've ever taken. You've got the camera, the action is all around you, and this chapter provides the knowledge you need.
Action photography has never been easier with digital cameras. With a few vexing exceptions, even the simplest digital cameras have continuous-shooting "burst" modes that let you snap off sequences of shots quickly—often two or three shots per second in clips of 5 to 10 images. More advanced digital cameras have long zoom lenses (up to 12X) with the equivalent reach of 432mm telephotos on a 35mm film camera. At the top end, digital SLRs provide even more action photography power, with even faster burst rates (as much as 8 frames per second) and virtually zero lag time between when you press the shutter release and when the photo is taken.
Although when we think of action photography, we automatically think of sports, this kind of picture taking is not limited to spectator sports, of course. You can grab some great shots at football or baseball games, soccer and tennis matches, or even those semi-organized bouts of mayhem they call rugby and hockey, of course. But you can also capture fast-moving subjects at amusement parks, the beach, or while mountain climbing. Action photography is a great tool for capturing the excitement of participatory events, from skydiving to golf, and non-events that involve moving objects, such as juggling or driving your favorite car around a tight mountain curve. If it's in motion, you might well want to photograph it. Action photography, on any level, is not a spectator sport.
My first full-time job that didn't involve tossing rolled-up newspapers on my neighbors' front porches was as a sports photographer for a daily newspaper. I didn't officially become a writer until the paper's sports editor began publishing the two- and three-page cutlines I was turning in with each photo, each written in inverted pyramid style, complete with quotes from the coaches. Later, I photographed college sports while working as a sports information director for a small upstate New York college. More recently, I've been taking a lot of photographs of high school sports and professional baseball (the former for my kids' sports teams, and the latter because I purely love baseball and photography). So, I've got a lot of advice to pass along to you in this chapter.
Although the main focus of this chapter is on sports photography, most of the lessons here apply to taking pictures of anything that won't sit still and pose for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment