Sports Photography - True Photography?

I am still glad that Brad brought up this discussion. Everyone is making such awesome points and although I think Brad has found a broader respect for shooting sports (as he mentioned in an earlier post after reading the first half of the discussion) I think we should keep it going until it's exhausted for the others that "don't get it".....

Primroz makes a fantastic point...probably the most important one. I have been shooting sports for a while now. I have hundreds of images sitting un-loved and un-wanted on my hard drive because although they are "cool" they arent good enough to add to my portfolio. A Pro friend once told me "only show your best" meaning that when others see your pictures they are only ever blown away. When it comes to sports, you dont want to show a shot that gets mediocre response. Sports photography is all about WoWing your viewers/clients/boss..​.Those kinds of images are really hard to get. Out of 1000 shots I take at a race (and I am still learning) I end up with only about 300 that are almost there and from those about 50 or so I would show and then only about 20 that an editor would even look at and then only about 5 that make people say wow. Scary isnt it! I am still but a Sophomore in the college of sports photography and its been 4 years since I started to focus on it. I am determined to get the keeper rate up and I wont stop until I get it right!

I am curious, Pros...Can you give us examples of your "keeper"/"WOW" rates? Inquiring minds want to know!

mlav wrote in post #5286943
Anyone with a fast DSLR that can spray at 6.5-10 frames a second with no thought...isn't much of a photog.

I know what you mean.... but the way it is worded....everybody here is not much of a photographer then.

Good one Mark1, but I do know what youre talking about Mlav

I've been shooting sports, specifically gymnastics and ice skating, for about three years. I just finished shooting an event two weekends ago where over the space of three days I took over 13K pictures of over 510 competitors on the floor, vault and beam. While I agree that most people want to see the "WOW" pictures, I have found that there are also people that are more interested in the not so "WOW" pictures as well...namely the coaching personnel. For example, while shooting the beam, you'll do a minor spray of around 10 pics to capture a front walkover. Sometimes the competitor misses the beam on the downside and comes off. Normally that would definitely NOT qualify for a WOW shot! However, I have found that coaches are very interested in those shots becuase they use them to show the competitor where they need to change something during the particular move in question, or show the competitor what happened during that move.

Anyway, sometimes even the non WOW shots are great to keep. btw, of the 13K shots I took over that weekend, I kept 10.5K as useable with around 5k being what I consider to be worth something.

just my .02!

So what is a sports photographer, anyway? I consider someone photographing little kids at play and selling to parents a sports photographer but some of the responses here seem to indicate that it is something more. Photographing kids at a level that wows their parents is quite different than photographing a pro game for SI.

Tandem wrote in post #5292197
So what is a sports photographer, anyway? I consider someone photographing little kids at play and selling to parents a sports photographer but some of the responses here seem to indicate that it is something more. Photographing kids at a level that wows their parents is quite different than photographing a pro game for SI.

Great photography at the point of attack is great photography at the point of attack...

Of course a photo of Little Susie at shortstop that satisfies Aunt Peggy probably won't have to be as good as "The Catch" from SB XLII on the cover of SI, but why should the photog not try to make one as good as the other?

If someone is out there shooting and is satisfied with only half *ssed images of Little Susie then guess what? They aren't ever gonna get near the sidelines of a Super Bowl...

James, wow thats a lot and another great point...I have taken pictures for crew members at races during a pit stop, say the jack man or the front tire carrier, and they say that seeing them can help with technique as well...I actually had a crew member ask me take a shot with my 400mm on the next pass so that he could make sure the piece of tape he put on the grill was still there....So you are right there are definitely some benefits to the "not wow" shots. I was leaning more towards the SI type shots when I posted earlier.

Tandem, anyone who shoots sports on a consistent basis with stealth and accuracy is a sports photographer in my mind.

Tandem wrote in post #5292197
So what is a sports photographer, anyway?

Who is sports shooter? Anyone shooting sport. I don't count myself, even if I'm shooting World Cups and World Championships, as anything more then someone shooting little league. Afterall... what the difference between World Championships and little league from photographers point of view? You some more restrictions, but that's about it. Ok there's few more but still.
Yes you have famous names on WCH, but when it comes down to photo, crappy photo with World champion on it, is still just crappy photo, while on other side great photo with 10 years old neighbor's son playing soccer, is still great photo.

craftgirl wrote in post #5291698
I am curious, Pros...Can you give us examples of your "keeper"/"WOW" rates? Inquiring minds want to know!

Wow photos for my standards? If I get 15-20, or better to say one every month so 12, such photos in year I consider it as good year

craftgirl wrote in post #5292622
James, wow thats a lot and another great point...I have taken pictures for crew members at races during a pit stop, say the jack man or the front tire carrier, and they say that seeing them can help with technique as well...I actually had a crew member ask me take a shot with my 400mm on the next pass so that he could make sure the piece of tape he put on the grill was still there....So you are right there are definitely some benefits to the "not wow" shots.

let me be the devil's advocate here.

sure, that's beneficial, but is that "photography"?

---------------

i too have thought about what the OP said before. my personal take is a bit different than many opinions here.

IMHO, whether a photo get sold a lot to coaches for coaching purpose, or sold to parents as a momento alone is not the criteria for being "photography", it is just utility and business.

for sports photos to be photography, the photo itself needs to adhere to the general criteria of being a good photograph.

eg.
- good composition
- good exposure/color contrast
- etc
- and on top of that, sports photos need to have good timing showing the subject in a good posture.

in fact, i think sports photography when done correctly, is photography. in fact, it is much more difficult than many other photographic disciplines due to the lack of control in:

- the subject
- the subject's movement
- the fact that the decisive moment may only happen once and it is gone forever
- the lighting
- limited angle of view in many venue

so to get a "wow" photo in the sport venue is much much more difficult.

although it is difficult, it is not something that is unattainable. the true sports photographer (just like any other type of photographer) needs to plan ahead of time:
- learn to understand the sport
- scout out different locations in the venue to maximize lighting and pleasing angle of view.
- catch the player's posture at a pleasing angle and moment
- learn to anticipate and time the shutter to catch peak action, and most importantly,
- visually plan out what type of shot one is looking for in your head, just like any other photographers would do, and strive to achieve the look.

what one should not do is to just clicks the shutter 10,000 times and hope to be lucky, that's not photography.

I shot sports for the very first time a few weeks ago at a Spring Training game from the stands.

I don't do any kind of sports shooting, but it really didn't take long before I started to realize the amount of thought/preparation/et​c. it takes to shoot sports. It simply isn't spray and pray, and in fact, most of the pics I took using that method, didn't come out all that hot.

IMO, you need to know the game, how it flows, the best angles, learn how to anticipate plays, patience, when to use portrait and landscape, shutter speed, framing to indicate what type of action,, etc, etc....that's a lot of stuff to think about when there is action!

I don't think I did too poorly, but I definitely learned a lot of things, even in one outing. I don't anticipate doing a lot of sports shooting, but I would be better prepared next time...well hopefully!

It dosen't matter if we think it's a "WOW" photo. It's what our customers think that counts. I had a shot of a HS football (US) player in a pre season scrimmage. The kid was injured in the next scrimmage and couldn't play the entire seaon (team went on to win state class championship.). The shot was not special but it was to his parents and thats what it's all about.

I agree with NickSan completely, he put it all in one paragraph.

I (we) shoot horse events and every bit of the above applies for and about each shot. At least it has for the last 40+ years.

"jmpsmash" pretty much summed it up.
I think the most challenging photography has to be on location/event
photography.