Welcome - what categories should there be in this forum

Welcome to the new Sports Photography forum!

 

First question - what categories should we have? One for each major

sport? If so what counts as a major sport? Every sport? There are a

LOT of sports!

For major sports, let's start with Ultimate Frisbee.

 

Ok, just kidding. I may be the only person on the forum who plays that one a lot.

 

I'm not sure it makes sense to categorize by sport. There are commonalities that cross specific-sport lines, such as: indoor vs. outdoor; under the lights; perhaps a general case for youth sports shooting; and I'm sure some others as well.

As someone whose solution to the exercise problem is choosing to have a manual gearchange, I'm very much an outsider - but wouldn't it make sense not to have any categories at first, just wait and see which categories are needed after a few weeks?

Let's see what develops, but auto racing I'm sure will be one.

I know not many follow it but air racing(the world's fastest and most dangerous sport)/airshow photography, and I'm sure others will pop up.

<p>This is how I would break it down:</p>

 

<p>Football (American Rules)</br>

Football (Rest of the world, aka Soccer)</br>

Baseball</br>

Hockey</br>

Basketball</br>

Volleyball</br>

Auto Racing</br>

Track & Field</br>

Surfing</br>

Skiing</br>

Other Winter Sports</br>

Boating</br>

Other Water Sports</br>

Youth Sports</br>

Profession (i.e. becoming a sports photographer)</br>

Other Indoor Sports</br>

Other Outdoor Sports</br></p>

 

<p>That should be a good start...</p>

Add Boxing/Wrestling/Muay Thai/Martial Arts/Combat Sports

 

: )

I'd say too many categories is bad. How'z about Motorsports (all encompassing), Winter Sports, Summer Sports, Individual Sports, Team Sports, Pro Sports. A question/problem in one of those categories would be of interest to more than just (one sport) ski shooters (biathalon shooters face the cold too -- pun intended). Leave poker out though. I'm speaking from a biased point-of-view <a href="http://www.jaypix.com/pix/bss.jpg"> My Bias </a>.

Yeh. I was thinking of not including chess either...

 

Not a bad idea to "wait and see", though it does mean work for whoever ends up as moderator since the existing posts really should be moved into their appropriate categories once they are created.

 

Maybe categories aren't really needed? It's certainly an option to have none - or maybe just a few. One for "Administration" is always useful.

I appreciate the desire for categories relating to individual sports but would it be best to

walk before we run.

 

I would split to:

 

Fast motorised

Indoor

Close access

Distant access

 

These would be an attempt to split sports coverage to the types of technique/equipment

needed top handle different sports. Individual sports each have their own points ie vantage

points/angles/action to capture, but keep it simple and see what developes.

 

louis

If I could add my two cents.....

 

There are a lot of sports and it's too early to guess how much participation this forum will yield and whether a breakdown into individual sports is worthwhile. But rather than break things down into individual sports, maybe we should consider categories based on the photographic techniques used. My thought is that we group sports as follows:

 

Racing - This would include auto, motorcycle, air, bicycle, etc. where the technique involves capturing and expressing motion.

 

Team Sports - Included would be baseball, football, soccer, basketball, etc. where freezing and isolating action is the primary goal. And as the Sports Photography article on PN also notes, a lot of these shots are in portrait rather than landscape format because it suits the human body.

 

Individual Sports - Included would be running, skiing, and other sports played individually.

 

i may be missing a caegory or two here, but the basic idea is to keep them broad, but based on the techniques used.

 

This seems logical, to me at least, if you look at some PN members portfolios. Tim Adams, for example shoots both auto and air racing, and Santi Martinez Romero shoots both motorcycle and auto racing. All of those require similar photographic technique.

 

Also, I wonder whether we should eliminate any distinction between professional and amateur sports. I shoot both amateur and professional racing and I'd bet that a photographer who is also a baseball fan would not only shoot the major league games, but also the ocassional collegiate or Little League game. this is not only for love of a particular sport, but because the amateur events usually allow greater access and the ability to experiment.

 

Any opinions on this proposal?

Hmmm...I just read Louis McCullagh's remarks above and I think he and I are talking about basically the same thing. I'd want to hear more about how particular equipment is a variable here, as most sports photographers I've seen are using long telephotos. Louis, can you enlighten me?

I am with Louis on this one for a number of reasons. Mostly because it focuses on the fact that we are here as photographers who happen to have a passion for a particular sport first and not sports fans with cameras second. Don't get me wrong.. I definitely want to discuss motorsport with other fellow gear-heads but I am on other boards for that and I am here to hone my skills as a photographer so in setting up categories such as Louis put them "Fast motorised", "Indoor", "Close access", and "Distant access" it better defines in what photographic area we are looking for advice. Just my two cents worth.. but I am just glad we have a forum for this. Thanks again! :)

Agree with Bob's suggestion that catagories are not necessarily very important at this (starting)point. Better, I think, to let catagories evolve from preponderance of questions along specific themes.<br>

Specificly, I have doubts about catagories being delineated with specific sports.<br>

I think problems and their solutions are more cross-sport. For example there is already a post about handling exposure to simeltaneously cope with high-contrast lighting, and the need for fast shutter speeds. The post was in reference to motor-sports, but shooting rodeo, I have the same issue - retaining detail in white hats, faces in the shade of those hats, and black horses. All under bright overhead sun, of course!<br>

In this spirit, some possible catagories might include:<br>Access (already mentioned?), <br>gear (unavoidable!), <br>legal (copyright, releases, liability,...), <br>philosophy &/or artistry (relation of the genre to photography in general),<br>your ideas,..?<br><br> Bear in mind this is somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction, and I will not be offended if it is tossed/ignored/overuled, or otherwise disposed of.<br>Hope nobody on the forum (including me) gets too firm in their mind-set at this early stage, and we cut each other lots of slack as trial ballons float about.

I agree with Wayne's idea.<br>

<br>

Access<br>

Gear<br>

Legal issue<br>

Event (Location, date, ticket price, local or global etc)<br>

---------------------------------------------------------<br>

Indoor<br>

Outdoor<br>

<br>

It seems to enough for me.

At this point I'm thinking along the lines of:

<ul>

<li>Indoor Sports

<li>Outdoor Sports

<li>Motor Sports

<li>Passes and permissions

</ul>

Not being a sports shooter myself, I'd imagine that all indoor sports shooters have similar problems. Mainly light and getting enough of it to stop action with a fast shutter speed (or strobe).

<p>

I don't know what the problems of outdoor sports shooters are, but I'd imagine that they're common to many sports such as football, soccer, baseball, tennis etc.

<p>

Motor sports covers anything done on anything driven by an engine - bikes, boats, cars, planes.

<p>

Passes and permissions covers how to get access to an event.

<p>

As I said, no real need to jump into categories right away though.

Bob, that works for me.

I was wondering if "Under the lights" would be needed, it sort of crosses over between "Indoors" and "Outdoors." "Team Pictures" involving the business and practical sides of shooting group and individual participant pictures. And maybe a "sticky" "Beginner's Guide" that could get into the numerous questions like "I want to buy a digital camera and take pictures of my ... playing .... and I can't send over $..... ."

I second the motion for a "Team Pictures" category. I would like to branch out into doing local Little League and other orgnized league groups. Included in this category could be questions ranging from posing and props to recommendations for labs that have experience in processing and packages for this kind of business.

 

Peter Zisson

I'm missing flash as a category, because it is used quite often even outdoors, with skaters for example.

I just think its a great idea to have a sports photography forum. Bob's categories look fine to start with,