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Workshop at the Ranch – March 2013 – Sports Action Tips and Strategies

Volleyball Kevin Barnett (c)Dave Black www.daveblackphotography.comHi, and welcome to this edition of WATR. With Photoshop World Orlando coming up April 16-19, I thought I would write a preview of my presentation catering to those who want to improve their action sports photography. 

It is this mindset of excellence that fuels my passion for whatever I am photographing. Passion can motivate a person only so far, then I believe that improvement breads encouragement and is needed to continue driving a person’s passion. During my 30 plus years of photographing Professional and Olympic sports I have applied several guidelines that have helped me improve my image making at each event I covered. Let me add that these guidelines can apply to any photographer no matter what subject they shoot. So even if you photograph weddings, portraits, wildlife, landscapes or whatever, this article is for you.

 

2013 March WATR 1Image #1   Know Your Subject … Mary Lou Retton:  I began my sports photography career as the team photographer for the men’s and women’s USA Gymnastics teams in 1980. I grew up in the sport and competed at both the High School and NCAA Division I collegiate level. I even coached for some years before stepping into the photography position for the US team. Photographically I knew only what I had learned in a single semester B&W photography class at the University, but I knew a great deal about gymnastics. This in-depth knowledge of my subject, gymnastics, gave me a distinct advantage over even the best photographers in the sports magazine industry. I knew the athletes, their routines, their new skills, and all the best angles to capture the action from. It was as if I had seen a video of the competition the day before. I always seemed to be more than 1 step ahead of the photographers from Sports Illustrated, Time, and Newsweek. So, when Mary Lou Retton landed this vault scoring a perfect 10.0 and won the Olympic gold medal she became the biggest story of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The sport became very popular and I then became the go-to guy for Gymnastics images. This led to other major sports event coverage both Professional and Olympic, and the rest, as they say, is history. Anyone can improve their images just by knowing something about their subject. The great wild life photographers know the habits and best season to photograph specific animals. A great wedding photographer knows the layout of the church in advance so they can move quickly into position for key moments. And the portrait photographer makes conversation and builds relationship with their subject so as to capture the mood and personality of the individual. If you want your pictures to improve, Know Your Subject, whether it’s an athlete, a bride, a moose, or the environment.

2013 March WATR 2Image #2   Get There Early …Peyton Manning:  Back in 2003 I was hired to photograph Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts during the final regular season game. Sounds simple enough accept that he was scheduled to only play 3 downs before being pulled to save him for the playoffs. Although I did get a nice image or two of him handing off the ball 3 times, this pre-game picture was more to the liking of my client. I had photographed Manning several times over the years and knew that he liked to come on to the field early for stretching and warm-up throws…(sound familiar? … Know Your Subject). While other photographers were still preparing gear for the game I headed out to the field very early just to capture this image. Stylized by underexposing the image –1.3 stops and then lit using 2 Nikon Speedlights rubber-banded together, I held them well off camera in my left hand. I made a single frame of him running onto the field. Get There Early, you’ll never regret it.
2013 March WATR 3Image #3   Stay Late …Troy Aikman:  If getting to the game early helps you make a unique picture, then staying late can also be of benefit. When Troy Aikman was injured in the 4th quarter it seemed natural to follow him off the field at the end of the game, but no other photogs seemed to think so. After all, it might be his last game of the season. Apparently TV also thought it was important to stick around and get coverage of him in civilian clothes and a sling. I was the last photog on the field when Aikman disappeared into the locker room. It was a small bit of Aikman history that sold and resold several times over the course of his career. My advise is this, after the game is over and your job is seemingly done, stop, don’t pack up the gear yet, but look around to see what might make an interesting picture. More often than not, something will catch your eye, and if it does, then make a picture of it. Stay late, a good picture might be waiting for you.
 


Images 4 A,B,C,D,E.  Think Coffee Table Book…Kentucky Derby Day: These next 5 images were made at Churchill Downs during the week of the Kentucky Derby. Whenever I cover a sporting event I try and make a collection of images as if I was working for a coffee table book publisher. Not because I am working on a book, but because I want to make a total package of documentary coverage. You never know what the magazine editor or school’s sports information director will want. So why not give it all to them, from sunup to sundown, from close up, too wide angel, and from event ambiance to heart pounding action. This allows your client to pick and choose, and perhaps publish more pictures. Yes, it’s more work, but so often my client would request a single image in advance, but when the magazine came out I would have several photos published that they didn’t request. Think Coffee Table Book and watch how many more of your pictures get published. Besides, it’s just fun to make pictures.

2013 March WATR 4A2013 March WATR 4Bphoto by (c)Dave Black2013 March WATR 4D2013 March WATR 4E

 

 
2013 March WATR 5Image #5   “Go Big or Go Home” …Michael Phelps:  This is a quote from Mike Powell, one of the former owners of the All Sport picture agency, which became the sports division of Getty. What he meant by this was if the photographer next to you is using a 300mm lens, you should use a 400mm. If they are using a 400mm, then you should use a 600mm. And, if they use a 600mm, then put a 1.4 teleconverter on your 600mm. Simply said, use a longer lens to draw in your subject and make a different picture than your colleagues do. Here is Michael Phelps winning gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Swimming imagery is all about the face, but that’s a very small subject within the Olympic pool. Most photographers had 400mm or 600mm lenses, but I went with a 600mm and 1.4 teleconverter all on a Nikon D2h with DX sensor. Yikes! Some would ask why not just crop the image later, because I want to capture it in such a way that it would have impact when my editor opens the file. I want my picture to get noticed immediately, and have a chance of making the cover, or a double page spread. It takes practice and sometimes it takes courage, and sometimes you can fail, but for sudden eye catching impact, “Go Big or Go Home”.
2013 March WATR 6Image #6   Have an Edge …Phil Mickelson:  I had shot very little golf coverage during my career prior to being asked by Golf Digest to do documentary coverage of the 2004 Masters. I would be part of a team of 4 other photographers who were the best in the golf business, and here I was, nearly a rookie in the business of golf. I felt I needed to walk into Augusta National with an edge that would help my work standout and contribute to the magazine’s coverage. I had brought all my normal cameras with long lenses, but decided to include a small Nikon Coolpix 8700. Sounds crazy, but I felt I could use the silent shutter and RAW file of this small consumer camera to capture a very rare moment in golf, the top of the golfer’s back swing. Clicking the shutter on a 35mm DSLR camera is highly unethical at golf tournaments. The abrupt sound can cause a golfer to loose concentration and result in the golfer’s caddie grabbing your camera and throwing it into the lake, not to mention having your credential taken away (no kidding as Tiger’s caddie had done to other golfer’s.) The silent shutter of the Coolpix 8700 along with its RAW file capability was my edge. The editor’s were blown away when the first round of back swing images came across the computer screen. STOP, they said. You’ll get us all thrown out. “It’s OK” I said. “The shutter is silent.” Here is Phil Mickelson at the top of his back swing making his final drive off the 18th tee on route to winning his first major, the 2004 Masters. Have an Edge, and walk in with confidence knowing you can offer your client something new and unique.
photo by (c)Dave BlackImage #7   Take a Chance …Olympic Ski Jump:  I don’t think of myself as a gambler. My wife would suggest otherwise and say my entire business as a freelance photographer is based on taking chances. After all, I have no daily guarantee of being hired, of making picture sales, or of receiving a paycheck at the end of the month. Well, here I am still in business 30 plus years later partly because I do take some chances…and they have paid off. Most of the photographers at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway used fast shutter speeds to freeze the 85mph flight of the Sky Jump finalists, but not me. I took a chance and decided to use a slow shutter speeds like 1/30th, and 1/15th during the entire competition. This included photographing the jumps of the three eventual Olympic medallists’. Not an easy task seeing that I was using a F3 film camera with a 600mm f4 lens and a 1.4 teleconverter…hand held (a monopod tends to sink in deep snow). My editors at Newsweek applauded the risky approach and the unique images. So, Take a Chance, you might win.
Volleyball Kevin Barnett(c)Dave Black www.daveblackphotography.comImage #8   Capture the Moment …Kevin Barnett:  If you don’t capture the key moment, you’re toast. Simple as that. It’s not going to go well for you back at the office.  This image of Kevin Barnett serving up the winning point during the final game of the World League Volleyball Championships was Sports Illustrated’s first digital Leading Off. Many of the guidelines and advice that I have mentioned contributed to the making of this picture. Although I’m not an expert on volleyball I did Know My Subject from previous competitions and was very familiar with Kevin’s perfect serving style. Once Jimmy Coltan, SI’s picture editor, had assigned me to cover the championships I began planning my Coffee Table Book approach so that he could provide plenty of choices regarding the magazine’s Leading Off section. I Got There Early during the practice days prior to the week of international competition and spent time with the event organizers in an effort to secure permission to do something special. My Edge would be to install my Nikon D1 as a remote camera in the catwalk over the colorful court, and use Elinchrom Sport Strobes to illuminate the court. I would trigger the camera/strobes using the wireless Pocket Wizard Multi MAX system from my courtside photo position. This would of course mean I would need to Stay Late after the court was cleared to retrieve the remote camera and shut off the strobes. In 2001 digital imagery was quite new to the magazine industry and I felt I would need to compose the scene very tight in order to have enough quality to be published as the Leading Off double page spread. Cropping the image was not an option so I decided to Go Big rather than Go Home and used a 70-200mm lens at 200mm. To Take a Chance and position the remote camera over only where Kevin served was a bit risky regarding composition, but I felt that if I could pull this off I would have an exceptional image. This image is not cropped. All my planning and careful study of Kevin’s airborne serves helped me position the camera precisely over the area of court where he achieved perfect form. Capturing The Moment of Kevin serving the final match point to win the World title for the USA was just what Jimmy Coltan at SI expected,… as did I.

 

Well, there you have it, Sports Action Tips and Strategies. Perhaps it takes more effort than some would care to apply, but when a photographer, regardless of their chosen genre, incorporates even some of these guidelines into each event, portrait, wedding, or landscape they photograph, I guarantee that their imagery will improve significantly.

Hope to see all of you next month here on Workshop at the Ranch.  Adios. Dave