Assessment 1, Activity 7 - Sports Shooting

Sports photography is often faced paced with a lot of action and fast moments to be captured. For this experiment, I have chosen Rugby League to focus on. 

Part 1:
Some of the equipment needed to shoot an NRL game includes:

• a DSLR camera body with relatively low digital noise levels at higher ISO levels
• a fast telephoto lens of 300mm to 600mm that is capable of an aperture of at least f2.8
• a lens mount capable of holding the weight of said telephoto lens
• a monopod for easy and fast transportation (and so it's not in the way)
• spare batteries
• spare memory cards
• lens cloths
• in case of bad weather shooting outdoors - an umbrella, waterproof camera bag and rain cover/casings for camera body and lenses
• ideally a second lens with a shorter focal length for close ups and portrait or feature shots

IMAGE 1: http://www.nrl.com/Portals/NRL/images/35/35774_32_1.jpg

Both the above and below image were found on the official NRL website: www.nrl.com.

Image 1 very successfully captures the excitement and action of the game.The main subject (the player scoring a try) is framed by his opponent and the corner post and is poised in the horizontally in the middle of the frame. His outstretched leg leads the eye to the secondary focus of the image (his opponent) who is not quite as in focus. The depth of field is relatively short so as to distinguish the players from the background but not so blurred that the context is lost.

Some challenges I can see the photographer may have encountered is the bright overhead sunlight. This has caused shadow to fall across the faces and underside of the players, while there is the danger of overexposing the exposed skin, audience and white corner post.

Another challenge is the angle - the players would have been running directly towards the photographer which would make focusing quickly a challenge from that angle. They would also have been quite close at this stage.

Timing would also be crucial - had he waited another half a second, the player would have crashed into the corner post, drawing attention away from the try and more to the flattening of the post.

IMAGE 2: http://www.nrl.com/Portals/NRL/images/35/35792_32_1.jpg

Image 2 I believe is an important one as the game is not only about the impact and action but about the emotion and the sense of team spirit that comes with it all and the photographer has captured this well.

This could not have been easy to capture as there are so many people to fit into the frame and to organise at one time. The photographer has crouched down to a lower angle to get the shot, making the players look bigger and more victorious.

Another challenge is the bright stadium light in the top left of the image over the coach's head. It means a bit of loss of detail to the coach's head and is rather distracting. As it looks to be getting later in the day by this stage, the stadium lighting would have made exposing the player somewhat difficult also.


Part 2:

Image 1: 191mm, ISO 1600, f/10, 1/4000

The light was going fast when I took these pictures towards the end of the day so the ISO was at 1600 which unfortunately meant some digital noise in the images. Shutter speed was fairly fast to accommodate for the fast movement of the ball and the players to freeze the motion. 

Image 2: 300mm, ISO 1600, f/7.1, 1/4000