sports

Getting on base

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A recent article in a Canadian photo magazine gives advice on how to become a professional sports photographer. The article talks about the excitement of being at sports events and blasting away at ten frames per second. A quick check shows that the author’s web site is filled with fantastic photos … of weddings and portraits.

The author’s advice for wannabe sports photographers is to call sports events and ask for a free “photo pass”. If necessary, the photographer should offer free photos in exchange for said pass. Later, when the photographer has gained some experience, they can sell pictures to the event and enter the exciting world of sports photography.

This information is wrong.
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Last-place finish

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During the past few weeks, there’s been much criticism over some portraits of US Olympic athletes shot by an AFP photographer. Let’s just say that these portraits won’t win any medals. All of the pictures can be seen here on the Getty Images site. While some of the pictures are okay, many are definite last-place finishers.

To be fair, these types of portrait sessions are usually done in an assembly-line fashion whether it’s Olympic athletes or players on a pro sports team. A number of photographers will each set up their own mini-studio, all in the same room, and the athletes will rotate from one mini-studio to the next, spending only a few minutes with each photographer.
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Spray and Pray

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On a sports photography forum, photographers were discussing the best ways to handle the thousands of pictures they each shoot during a game.

On a wedding photographers forum, one person said he usually shoots over 3,000 pictures per wedding. Another said he often does 5,000 pictures.
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Dress Code

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Media accreditation information for the upcoming 2012 World Football Challenge was sent out a few days ago. In this case, “football” means soccer.

One of the rules stated: “Media who are approved for credentials should not wear apparel supporting any of the competing teams.”

Normally, one would assume that this rule is so obvious, it need not be said. But the fact that this professional sports event had to actually mention a dress code means a problem exists.
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A sporting chance

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One type of photography I do is shooting sports events for the corporate sponsors. These sponsors usually want good action pictures with their logo visible in the photo. These pictures are often used in corporate literature, corporate web sites and media handouts.
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Loud and clear

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sports photographer toronto

Basketball coaches seem to yell a lot. They yell to get the attention of their players, they yell when arguing with the referees and sometimes they yell for no apparent reason.

Basketball arenas are very noisy with non-stop loud music, shouting arena announcers and screaming fans. It would seem that the only way to be heard above the ambient noise is to yell.
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The Sport of Photography

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Chess, bridge, billiards, power-boating, hot-air ballooning, flying an airplane and dancing are among several activities that have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee as being a “sport”, although none are (yet) part of the Olympic Games.

From olympic.org :

If it is widely practised around the world and meets a number of criteria established by the IOC session, a recognised sport may be added to the Olympic programme on the recommendation of the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission.

It’s high time that photography be recognized as a sport. It could even be in both the winter and summer games.

Photography is certainly widely-practised. It is one of the very few sports that can be played and enjoyed by people of any age, weight, height or sex, able-bodied or not.
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