fred_sickler

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?

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?

OK, let's not get into discussions about low visibility and second class citizen status. Let's just think of sports photographers as the Rodney Dangerfields of photography and exclaim 'We don't get no respect!" while collectively adjusting our shirt collars. For PN members with no experience of shooting sports there is an article on this site that explains some of the issues we face and makes the cogent point that photographing sports takes some of the skills possessed by the athletes we photograph. The article can be found at http://www.photo.net/photo/sports/overview. I doubt that many members of PN have read this article, but then I didn't read it until a few days ago and I wonder how many you have read it?

 

While the article does provide a lot of insight, from the comments above it seems that people are looking for a few other things like a place to post and discuss the technical and aesthetic merits of individual shots away from the fine art, nature and children photographers, and questions and advice on specific techniques for shooting particular sports. I'd like to add another possibility: posts on shooting at specific locales. This would not always be questions or discussion topics, but posts by experienced photographers on shooting at particular locales that would form an archive of information. This could include tips on where to shoot to capture the ambiance of Wrigley Field in Chicago, the best spots to capture the action at an annual rodeo in Busby, Montana, or in my case, where an amateur can get good racing shots at Road America in Wisconsin. Does this work? Will the PN site administrators care if we occassionally remove our work from the normal critique forums, become a bit cliquish and keep our comments and thoughts to ourselves? And does anyone else have any other thoughts or suggestions?

Yes, I did see that and I remember being surprised that a sports shot had made it to Picture of the Week. I'd like to hear from the author of that photo on his opinions of the proposed forum.

Nestor.....I don't know what "PoWed" is so I can't check it out as you suggest. Can you provide a link?

 

Bob......I might be able to co-moderate a forum, but before I volunteer I'd like to know more about what's involved.

Please excuse me if I posted this in the wrong area.

I'd like to hear the opinion of other PN members and the site's

administrators on the creation of a Sports Photography forum. In my

year of participation in PN most of my posts and critique requests

have been in the Sports category. In that time I've gotten some

valuable comments from other sports shooters in my area of

specialty, auto racing, and hopefully given some useful comments and

information in return. I've also found that I, and several others

from this site, have engaged in a lot of off-site e-mail

correspondence on technical issues such as appropriate shutter

speeds, composition, vantage points, etc. for sports photography

that if included in a forum might make it easier for someone just

starting in this area to use as a reference. For example, Mike

Dougherty posted a question about where to best shoot the CART race

at Road America in Wisconsin. I'd answer Mike's question, but he

posted it four years ago. I've answered a similar question both on

and off the PN site lately. I would guess there are other

photographers shooting other sports with similar questions. What

are other's thoughts on a Sports Photography forum?

I've never been interesting so being on a "Most Interesting" list doesn't work for me. Is there a list of least interesting people? How can I get on it?

From the 2004 Chicago Gay Pride Parade.<div></div>

As someone else has noted, it is quite dark. Perhaps if you had set the exposure for the tire or the tire gauge the exposure would've been better. Second, consider cropping the image so that just the heads, the tire and gauge fill the frame. Everything else is superfluous. Finally, I don't recommend fill flash when photographing CART pit crews. These are serious people responsible for millions of dollars in equipment. Blinding them with flash may get a wrench thrown at you. Hope this helps.