Sport Photography Mentoring

(With thanks to Megan S for allowing me to use her images)

One of the most rewarding elements of what I do is helping others improve their photography.

Last summer I was approached by Megan S who asked me if I would mentor her for a period of 6 months as she wanted to improve her sport photography as the ‘skills’ element of her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

Start of Project Image - Image copyright Megan S

(Nikon D500; 70-200mm @ 80mm (123mm); 1/1000th Sec; f/5.0; ISO 500)

I started by going to her website and selecting a number of her football images.  I critiqued each of them, saying what I liked about them and suggesting what she could have done differently.  I recommended that she go out again and take some more football photographs, using the techniques and camera settings that I had mentioned in my critique.

I asked her to send me a dozen or so of her favourite images, which she did.  Instead of commenting on them myself, I asked her to critique them herself.  This made her look differently at her own photographs and forced to become more objective in considering her own work. 

“Michael gave me really good feedback on my photos, which I then went out and tried and they turned out so much better. I entered some photos into my photography club competitions and most of them got 10/10.”

The improvement was significant.  I then suggested that she go out and cover as many different sports as she could, applying the principles that we had established with football in other situations.  This enabled her to practise adapting to changing circumstances, which is essential with sports photography.

Image copyright Megan S

(Canon EOS 5D Mark III; 150-500mm @ 500mm; 1/2000th Sec; f/6.3; ISO 640)

Megan kept sending me photos and we discussed them together.  She kept being frustrated by the weather when trying to photograph cricket, but I was able to arrange for her to join me at a Hampshire match, and we spent an enjoyable day together watching and photographing the cricket (see above).

“Michael managed to get me into the Utilita Bowl to photograph the Hampshire cricket team. He taught me a lot about the game and what to expect, as that is very important to make sure I don’t miss anything.”  Megan S

She is also a member of a camera club, and the scores that she was getting for her images in competitions started to increase.  Towards the end of the 6-month period, she sent me another selection of football photos, and this included a particularly good image (see below). 

I suggested that she enter it in the next competition at her club.  To my surprise – and disappointment – it only received a score of 9 out of 10.  Very respectable, but I didn’t think it received the recognition it deserved.

Megan did tell me however that her club was going to enter it into a competition being run by the Southern Counties Photographic Federation.  I also had 3 photos entered in that same competition – so, we were going ‘head to head’!

End of Project Image - Image copyright Megan S

Nikon D500; 70-200mm @ 200mm; 1/1000th Sec; f/3.2; ISO 200)

The competition was being assessed by 3 judges, each of whom could award up to 5 points, so the maximum score was 15.  Each of my 3 images scored 12 (4 each from each of the judges) and Megan’s scored 13, which meant that one of the judges awarded it full marks.  I can’t express how thrilled I was that she did better than me – and how proud I am of her.

My work was done.  All that was left for me to do was to complete the form for Megan’s Duke Edinburgh Gold Award and to confirm how much she had achieved in a relatively short period.

“Michael has given me more confidence to go out and try new sports to photograph. I am very grateful I got to meet and learn from Michael, he is very knowledgeable in all sports, he explains thing very well and clearly making sure you understand - and is also very patient.”  Megan S

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How to Photograph Pickleball

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My experience of photographing pickleball stems from a day at an indoor festival arranged by Sam Basford, one the leading lights of UK pickleball.  Alongside the six festival courts was a Franklin Premier Pickleball League tournament featuring some of the best players in the country, being played on a further four courts – so plenty of high-quality sport to photograph!

As usual, I had done as much research as I could beforehand, including watching some excellent videos on the rules of pickleball (and the scoring system) and looking at what other photographers had produced.  I couldn’t find much specifically on how to photograph the sport.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 171mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 1000)

I took two Sony a9IIs with me, along with two zoom lenses: a 24-70mm f2.8 and a 70-200mm f2.8.  I ended up using the longer lens almost all the time.  The light in the large hall was very variable, with light patches here and dark patches there, but the cameras coped well for most of the time. 

The exception was when some additional lights were switched on as it became darker during the afternoon which, although they made the hall lighter, had a very strange effect on the pictures, with strong banding (see image below).  I switched from electronic to mechanical shutter and put the Anti-Flicker feature on and this seemed to resolve the issue.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 100mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 6400)

I set out my ‘standard’ camera settings in my first blog,  'Getting into Sport and Music Photography' and also in my Sport Photography Top Tips.  In the case of pickleball, I generally kept the lens wide open to achieve a shallow depth of field and blur the background, as usual.  I used 1/1000th second to freeze the ball and had the ISO set on ‘Auto’, with an upper limit of 8000.

In many ways, photographing pickleball is very similar to tennis.  Whereas with ‘contact’ team sports, such as rugby, you get plenty of opportunities to capture opponents with each other, in pickleball it’s difficult to capture opponents – and even partners – together in the same photograph.  The image below tries to do just that.  I was quite close to the player, so lost the end of the paddle and her feet, but the wide shot does provide some context by showing the hall in which they were playing. 

(Sony a9II; 24-70mm at 24mm; f/3.5; 1/1000th sec; ISO 4000)

So, most of the time I found myself photographing individuals.  The first problem I encountered was the challenging backgrounds which, unless I managed to position myself so that the player was wholly in front of one of the blue curtains, were very distracting – see the photo below.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 165mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 5000)

Related to this issue was whether to stand or sit.  I normally advocate getting as low as possible because this makes the participants look larger and brings you into the action.  I did try this, but the problem was that I was then shooting slightly upwards and therefore exacerbating the distracting background issues by including the top of the blue curtain and the ironwork above (see below).

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 2000)

As you would expect, I was shooting in ‘continuous high’ and, almost always, I selected the shot where the ball was closest to the player, because this created more drama.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 140mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 5000)

Pickleball can be extremely fast and there is always the problem that you miss the ideal shot because the ball has already left the frame – see below.  This is for the simple fact of reaction time: it takes a while for your eyes to tell your brain to tell your hands to take the shot.  So, unless you have ‘Pre-Capture’ technology in your camera, which enables you to ‘go back in time’ before you fully depressed the shutter release, you need to anticipate the action by starting to take your burst just before it happens.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 1600)

Bearing all these constraints in mind, my more successful images tended to be taken from behind the baseline towards the far end of the court, so that the net was in the frame.  This angle meant that I had the best chance of getting the player’s face straight on, so that they would be instantly recognisable.  Below is a standard, stock shot of a player.  As already mentioned, either just before or just after the player has hit the ball seems to work best.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 3200)

Recognising that I wouldn’t always be able to get a perfect background, I concentrated on getting a good separation between the main subject and the background, as in the photo below.  After all, the background provides context and shows the environment, counterbalancing any distractions.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 3200)

I also took photographs along the baseline, particularly of serves, thereby providing some variety.  In the photo below, the ball has just left the player’s hand, producing some movement to the image.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 4000)

This was also a good angle to capture the end-of-game tradition of ‘bumping paddles’, showing a more relaxed side of this highly social sport.  Note that the photo below was taken from low down, at net level, which gives it additional impact and intimacy.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 70mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 4000)

Wherever possible, I try to capture the essence of a sport, including its ‘idiosyncrasies’, so I made sure that I took photos of players leaning forward to avoid encroaching into the non-volley zone, which is something unique to pickleball. 

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 105mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 8000)

On the basis that you should always capture reaction as well as action, I am always on the look out for those moments of happiness – or disappointment – that make sport so special to photograph …

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 173mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 6400)

All in all, part of the fun of photographing pickleball is to capture the infectious enjoyment that everybody is having.  Why not give it a try?

With special thanks to Sam Basford Pickleball

If you have enjoyed this blog or if you have any questions/comments, please leave a message in the comments box below.

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How to Photograph Speed Skating

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My experience of speed skating comes from photographing an Open Competition at Aldwych Speed Club in Guildford in April 2023.  I found many of the same issues arose as I had experienced when photographing track cycling and ice hockey, so you might want to read those blogs too.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 2500)

The first issue to address when arriving at any new venue is to establish the best location – or locations – from which to photograph.  This should take into account (a) the view you are going to get of the athletes, (b) any distractions in the background (such as the advertisements in the photo above), and (c) any other constraints which, in this case, included the challenge of shooting through the plexiglass around the rink.

I was shown to the area where ice hockey players sit waiting to come onto the ice, which was ideal – no glass obscuring the view, and an excellent position to capture the skaters coming off the corner.  Moreover, the issue of distracting advertisements around the rink was largely resolved by the plain dark blue padded mats that were placed around most of the rink to soften the blow if a skater were to fall and crash into the side.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 157mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 1600)

I stayed in this position for most of the shoot, because it had so many advantages, but I did try other positions, such as shooting from the end, straight down the rink.  This was good when the skaters were coming directly towards me but, if I ever shot obliquely through the plexiglass, there was a risk of reflections in the glass – see the vertical white line in the photo above.  Moreover, I believe the glass did have an effect on the sharpness of the photos.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 3200)

I was using a Sony a9II camera and, although I did have a 24-70mm f.2.8 lens and a 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens with me, I used my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens almost all the time.  From where I was shooting, half way down the rink, it was a perfect spread of focal lengths.

I set out the ‘standard’ camera settings in my blog Getting into Sport and Music Photography.  In summary, I normally set the camera to Manual and: 

·       Open the lens wide open to make the depth of field as shallow as possible.

·       Select a shutter speed at an appropriate level to freeze the action (in this case, around about 1/1000th sec).

·       Set the ISO level to auto, within min/max parameters of 100 and about 3200 respectively. 

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 3200)

Other settings include:

 ·      Metering: normally matrix.

·      Autofocus mode: AF-C with lock-on tracking.

·      Drive mode: continuous high.

·      File type: RAW in one slot and JPG in the other, for resilience.

·      White balance: auto – and I’ll sort any problems in post processing.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 3200)

The purpose of making the depth of field as shallow as possible is to produce separation between the main subject and the background, as in the photo above.

As mentioned, the fast shutter speed freezes the action and gives a good, sharp image.  But, of course, that may not be the effect that you are after.  As the name suggests, this type of skating is all about speed, and the character of the sport can be more effectively conveyed by blurring the background by panning the camera with a slower shutter speed – see below.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/6.3; 1/50th sec; ISO 500)

There are further examples of panning images in my blog on Motorsports.

Normally I advocate getting as low as possible when shooting sports because that provides the best perspective and also makes the athletes look more dramatic and heroic.  In the case of speed skating, however, I found that getting down low meant that the top of the blue mats was distractingly in the picture, whereas standing up meant that the mats were ‘whole’ and the background was therefore much cleaner, as in the images above and below.

Although the basic premise of the sport is skating around an oval course as quickly as possible, each race has a different story to tell.  So, while it’s relatively easy to get stock shots of individual skaters as in the image above (although panning isn’t so easy!), it’s more interesting to show the skaters in competition with each other, showing who is in the lead and who is trailing behind, as below.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 1600)

While the main excitement for me was shooting the races, where I was standing also provided an excellent view of the start of most of the races, which took place right in front of me.  This presented great opportunities to take character shots of the skaters at close quarters – see below.  The camera settings, while primarily chosen for the race itself, make the subject stand out really well from the background, being so close.

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 4000)

One final word of advice, which may sound obvious!  I visited the rink in Guildford on a lovely, warm day, but I was grateful that I had thought to wear a winter coat as I stood next to the ice rink for over 3 hours.  I had also taken the precaution to put some gloves in my camera case, and I was very glad I did!

(Sony a9II; 70-200mm at 200mm; f/2.8; 1/1000th sec; ISO 2500)

All in all, photographing speed skating was great fun, and the results are colourful and dramatic.  I would highly recommend it if you get the opportunity!

With special thanks to Aldwych Speed Club.

If you have enjoyed this blog or if you have any questions/comments, please leave a message in the comments box below.