[Leica] Sports attempt

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

David Mason showed:
Subject: [Leica] Sports attempt


> OK, I have known that I am *NOT* a sports-photographer. I can admit
> it, I am comfortable with it. It is a very difficult thing to do in my
> opinion. So what do I do? Go out and try it.
>
> I went to see my beloved Chelsea FC (London) play AC Milan (Milan -
> duh) in a friendly match in Philadelphia (too bad Kyle's show wasn't
> on). Luckily I had front-row seats and I took my Leica <cough> D100
> digi SLR with a 300mm, 85mm, and a 18-35mm.
>
> Most of the images SUCK! Here are the better ones. Let me know what you
think!
>
> http://dave.ofmassdestruction.com/photos/CFC/CFC.html<<<<

Hi David,
Hey don't feel bad as soccer is one of the toughest field sports to shoot.
That is unless you're doing it weekly and even then it's tough. Heck it's
horrible to shoot from the stands anytime! :-(

Best position is at field level and at a goal end, always pick the weaker
team as they usually have most action at their end. ;-)

It's a tough thing to do, but wait until they are close to your side of the
field and no matter how good the action is half a field away, unless you're
working with a couple of cameras, one with a 600mm and the other a 300,
forget the across the field stuff.

A wide broad shot is required sometimes to show the crowd size and or lousy
weather conditions if it's a major down pour. But rarely do wide shots get
used unless you've got two players right in your face. It's staying tight,
as in trying to fill the frame as tight as possible on whatever action
you're working. Big empty spaces mean nothing as that's just wasting picture
space. Besides some sports editor will take a large pair of scissors and cut
the picture up using only the players out of your shot to fit a 2 column
space as a filler. ;-( Of course most times when they do this they destroy
"what you thought was one of your best action pictures of the night!" :-)

The worse cut job is when they cut out only a head & shoulder from the
picture and throw away everything else! :-( And not much point arguing with
them as many sports writers, read editors, aren't the brightest in the world
when it comes to anything other than sports.

You'll find this out very quickly when your assignment editor says..."
Sports department not sure what they need, but they said to make sure you
bring "YOUR ONE COLUMN CAMERA" as they think it'll be all head shots! True
story and the sports editor who made the request was absolutely serious, as
he thought when we shot heads we used a smaller camera! :-) And we used the
4X5 for th big action photographs.

But if you concentrate on several players working the ball it's much better.
Or watch for a tight moment of a header when they get near the goal.

I think in your case you shot when the players were too far a part or as a
single. And in some cases didn't crop tight enough where you could've
tightened it up. Like I said we know what the field looks like so get rid of
it and stay tight on the players.

Hopefully this might help in the future.
ted