Country-by-country, thousands of athletes paraded into the massive Greek stadium in Athens, Greece, for the 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremonies, to the cheering delight of the 70,000 fans from every corner of the earth in the stadium and millions more observing on television. One of the most photographed events ever, camera flashes popped constantly throughout the six-hour performance, a harbinger of the days to come where dozens of sports would be observed through camera lenses almost as much as through human eyes.
The athletes, garbed in their homeland uniforms, cheered back at the crowd, but also mimicked it in another way: Many of them carried their own camcorders and digital cameras, snapping shots of the venue, crowd, and each other and documenting the beginning of the world's largest sporting event from the inside out. Figure FM-1 shows the athletes looking back at the world.
Figure FM-1. Notice that several of the U.S. athletes in this photo taken at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremonies were carrying digital cameras and camcorders, recording the event from their perspective.
Kodak, a major sponsor of the Olympics, was pervasively visible throughout the many sports halls and facilities, provided roving personnel able to sell film and digital Flash cards on the spot, and featured a large facility at the main Olympic site where attendees and athletes could process film as well as digital images on the spot. And, while the photography company still provided much for the film photographer, it was clear that the company is firmly committed to the digital format.
In fact, the Athens Olympic Games were the first time in history that film photographers were in the minority. From point-and-shoot to high-end SLR, amateur to pro, digital was experiencing its own form of Olympic victory as the format of choice.
So, welcome to the world of sports photography, where you get to experience, up close and personally, what may be the sport of your dreams, the athletes you idolize, or maybe just your 10-year-old engaged in an early and memorable moment of athletic drama. Digital photography provides a way (and even sometimes an excuse!) to be close to the action, to remember and share the moments, and maybe even to make a living at the same time!
As a professional and official photographer at the Olympic Games, I was there to shoot for the International Fencing Federation. I also was there on behalf of Corbis (the global leader in stock and assignment photography images), the United States Fencing Association, and numerous publications and fencing federations around the world. My assignment was to capture all the fencing action for nine days of competition, plus the events surrounding the sport, including the opening ceremonies. Everything I photographed was digital, and by the end of eleven days in Athens, I had more than 13,000 photos stored on multiple DVDs and several hard drives. Even before I left Athens, many of these images had been posted online on my own Web site (www.FencingPhotos.com), on Corbis, on various fencing federation Web sites, and on news services.
Among the other pro photographers shooting fencing, digital photography was virtually the only format used. On occasion, I noticed a film camera in use, but by far film was in the minority. Several photographers, shown in Figure FM-2, anxious to get photos of gold medal matches and ceremonies uploaded as fast as possible, sat at the fencing finals taking photographs with a wirelessly connected laptop beside them. In some cases, the athletes had barely left the podium with their medals by the time their images had been posted on the Web for the connected world to view.
At the same time, the crowds watching various sports also captured their favorite athletes and competition with their own digital cameras and, in many cases, were able to e-mail or post images home from Internet connections in their hotel rooms. Others simply took their flash cards to the Kodak center for processing, walking away with CDs and prints of their images.
For many amateur and hobbyist photographers, this may have been their first time shooting high-level sport. At the Olympics, with so many venues, environments, lighting situations, types of seating/positioning (both good and bad), and types of action, these same enthusiastic shutterbugs inevitably found that taking a good shot of sports action wasn't necessarily easy, even if their shiny new digital cameras were packed with features and options making them seem almost capable of capturing shots by itself.
Figure FM-2. Virtually digital: Athens 2004 Olympic photographers after a gold-medal fencing final and awards ceremony. The author is third from the left. © "Panos," member of the Greek Olympic media support staff.
Arguably, the two most frustrating aspects of digital sports photography for the consumer armed with a point-and-shoot digital camera are how to manage lighting and dealing with shutter lag, which is that pesky tendency of less-expensive equipment to respond less than instantly when the shutter release is depressed. Although the camera may be perfect at taking a good image of a still subject that is lit well, a moving athlete in tricky lighting — which is often the case in sports — makes for a challenge to even the most feature-rich point-and-shoot device.
In some cases, these same cameras can take surprisingly high-quality photographs of sports action. It may be that their automatic settings are directed just right, or the photographer may have intervened and used as many manual settings as possible after testing images beforehand. Whatever the case, when these cameras work well, they work very well and produce images suitable for printing and framing that rival some of the best work by a seasoned pro. But you need to know what you are doing to get consistent results.
The factor that differentiates pro photographers from consumers — other than equipment — is the ability to replicate photographs of great sports action over and over again. Nearly anyone can catch a lucky shot on occasion, but to catch a spectacular moment intentionally takes practice, knowledge of lighting and composition, command of equipment, and positioning. Knowing ahead of time how to take the photograph, even if it's of something unexpected, requires some preparation and training. Furthermore, it takes a bit of knowledge of the sport to understand when something remarkable might happen and to be as ready for it as possible.
The photo in Figure FM-3 was just such an occurrence. It shows United States foil fencer Jonathan Tiomkin leaping into the air above Russia's Renal Ganeev in a bronze-medal team battle in Athens. I've shot more than 150,000 fencing photos of high-level fencers, and I had never seen anything like this move. It was completely unexpected and literally came out of nowhere. Fortunately, I had begun shooting my camera, a Canon 1D Mark II, which is capable of shooting more than eight frames per second with no shutter lag, as Jonathan quickly advanced against his opponent. He was moving fast, and I diligently recorded nearly every action in semi-finals and above, ready for a moment just such as this.
After Jonathan landed and the touch had been scored (ironically, his opponent won the encounter), I held my breath and looked into my LCD to see whether the image was focused, centered, and exposed well. My camera had been set properly for the action, and I knew I had captured at least some of it, but even pro photographers have their moments of doubt when something truly remarkable happens. After all, I don't see some of the best shots until they are actually displayed digitally because, if I'm doing my job correctly, the mirror in my camera is up when the shutter opens and closes, so I can't actually see through the viewfinder at that moment of truth.
Does every shot a pro takes turn out perfectly? Absolutely not. I would hate to chronicle the number of incredible images I've missed. However, as a pro, I'm always trying to do whatever possible to hedge my bets, prepare, practice, and improve my percentages. From one shoot to the next, even if I get ten good shots instead of nine out of every hundred, that additional image may be the one photo that takes me to the next level of my career.
In the case of Figure FM-3, preparation, training, and having shot so many fencing images paid off. Furthermore, being a competitive fencer myself and intimately knowledgeable of the sport helped tremendously. The image turned out to be a phenomenal, almost unbelievable shot of one of the rarest moves anyone has seen in the sport. My camera settings and focus were dead-on, my positioning alongside the fencing strip was good, and the composition was symmetrical with the athletes centered in the viewfinder. It was a shot that only a tremendous amount of preparation and a little luck was capable of capturing.
This isn't to say that amateur photographers are doomed with the equipment they have or the limited time they get behind the viewfinder. The good news is that plenty of camera equipment — even the point-and-shoot type — is perfectly able to capture lots of action well if used properly and with some understanding of how to put together a good photo. And, with the right instruction and practice, anyone with a digital camera and an interest can take some fantastic photographs.
Digital photography today is seeing huge growth around the world, and photographers of all types — from those who have never taken anything but a snapshot to Sports Illustrated pros — have made or are making the switch from film to digital. Most sports pros have already made the switch, and for them this book will be just the basics. However, I've asked several of them to contribute photos along with some tips and tricks, which benefit you because you learn from the best.
This book, then, is specifically for the following types of photographers:
Photography enthusiasts, semi-pros, hobbyists, and amateurs
Photographers interested in learning more about how to shoot sports
Parents and spouses who want to have something really creative, memorable, fun, and active to do while watching and supporting children and other family members as they compete in various sports
Sports photographers making the transition from film to digital
So, although the book isn't for everyone, many of you out there are shooting sports digitally and want to know better how to do it. And some of you may even be interested in making, at the very least, a modest part-time career of it — and that's a very viable pursuit with all the products, tools, and resources available today, in terms of equipment, software, and online services.
Digital Sports Photography will help you be ready to take the best possible images you can with the equipment you have. In the predecessor to this book, Total Digital Photography, we looked at digital photography workflow, which is how to manage the creation of a good digital photograph from conceptual beginning to final presentation. And, although workflow is an essential element of sports photography as well, other factors that relate specifically to how to best shoot athletic action and drama with a digital camera must be considered.
In this book, you will examine a variety of sports and what it takes to shoot them digitally, including the right equipment, sports-specific factors, how to process images once in the digital studio, and what to do with them when they're ready for printing, display, and distribution. Whether you simply want to share family photos of your children playing soccer or competing at a gymnastics event, or you're thinking of going pro and selling your work, this book is a foundational primer for getting you where you want to be when it comes to digital sports photography. Sometimes it is personal and professional, as in Figure FM-4 of my son, Alexander, at one of his first national fencing tournaments. It's as important to me as any professional shot I've taken!
Figure FM-4. Even if you're only taking snapshots of family members pursuing their sport, it's important to know what you can expect out of your camera, what shots you're most likely to be able to take best in various situations and conditions, and how to compose a nice shot – and then what to do with it back in your digital studio.
Without putting yourself in harm's way as a photographer, such as shooting in a war zone, for example, you'd be hard-pressed to be able to shoot as much human drama as you find in sports. It can be one of the most exhilarating experiences you have as a photographer and as a spectator, no matter whether you play the specific sport or know one of the competitors. It's just a wonderful way to exercise your skills as a photographic artist and to build your technical abilities with a camera. When you're truly immersed in photographing sports, you become in tune with the camera, and nothing else, for that time, seems to exist. Being in control of your environment and equipment, understanding what's happening, and being ready for the unexpected allow you to concentrate on creativity and visual storytelling to a degree that you may not have thought possible or so rewarding. Furthermore, getting the shot may mean finding the best spot where you can safely have the perfect vantage point for a dramatic image.
Whether you're on a basketball court's sidelines, balanced on a snowboard, sailing five-foot waves, or simply shooting your kids playing football in the backyard, you should be keenly aware of the limitations and challenges that present themselves. And, in the end, getting to the top of the digital sports photography game itself can give you a personal or even a public victory that rivals winning even the most coveted of sports medals.
As a professional photographer, I've shot around the world in a wide variety of locations and venues. Much of my work has been all about sports, and especially fencing. I photograph all the International Fencing Federation Grand Prix events and World Championships, including the Olympic Games. In the last two years, this work has taken me to sports/fencing shoots above the Arctic Circle in Finland, Bulgaria, Cuba, Greece, New York, Las Vegas, Japan, Austria, Qatar, France, Algeria, and Germany — and that's in addition to my other commercial work, workshops I've taught, and what I've done to write this and my previous photography books. I've shot half a million digital images, just since 2001. Yet every time I meet and talk with other photographers of any skill level, I find that I learn new things I didn't know or that I could do better.
Photography, like most sports, is something you can keep improving and learning, whether you're working on major issues or fine points of detail. You can only benefit from seeing images others have (see Figure FM-5) produced and hearing how they approached the problem of getting certain shots.
However, what I have realized in developing the concept for Total Digital Sports Photography is that although I have a variety of sports shots, I still needed to have more images from a variety of other sports. So, by including information from the pros and enthusiasts alike, who are shooting a broad variety of sports, including skiing, boxing, baseball, football, and many more, I'm able to share with you the tips and tricks from a variety of pros out there, and I also have a chance to share some of their fantastic photos from equally exotic and exciting sports shoots.
Although some of the guest photographers are professionals, such as Terrell Lloyd, official photographer for the San Francisco 49ers, not all are doing it for a full-time living. Because I'm including tips and information from many different photographers, you get a cross section of what all types of digital photographers are doing, and how they are getting it done.
So, in advance, thanks to the photography contributors to this book — it's very much appreciated by us all! And, most of all, good luck to you in capturing the best images of the sports you love!
