Week 7 Forum

Shooting Sports:
Karl Maasdam gave a lot of great tips while explaining how he approaches shooting high action activities such as football, baseball, and other sports.  One tip that I found to really useful was to try and get the eyes in the shot.  Trying to get good shots of high motion moments can seem really daunting, and maybe getting a shot that's in focus at all could be considered a good shot.  But a great shot has the face and eyes in the frame.  It puts a personal aspect to the photo and reminds the audience that it is still just a person catching the ball and not some looming figure.  That makes shooting sports seem easier because it's a good start to make sure you get what you're looking for.  Start by being in front of the players, making sure that their faces and eyes are turned towards you.

Karl also talked about how that background is very important but can also be very tricky to manage.  Sports are very publicized events and lots of fans show up to support.  It creates a great environment but it can also cause the background to appear very cluttered and can cause the subject get lost among the mass of bystanders.  He advised us to keep a very low aperture in order to create a nice depth of field that differentiates between the subject and the background more so the person in the foreground stands out more.  This is also a good tip that will forces me to learn more about my camera.  With the action happening so fast in sports, you need to know how to adjust with the lighting and the motion as fast because the moment will only last a second.

Action/Sports Photos:
I plan on going down to the skate park and trying to get some action shots of the skateboarders and bikers.  I wanted to try something different in order to get some photos that are new and exciting for people.  I will most likely go out on the weekends because that will probably be when it is most busy and I'll have more opportunities to get people in my photos.  For my overall, I would like to get people waiting on the side of the ditch, watching the others.  As a medium shot, I want to try and get to people in the same shot while they are both skating.  I would love to get a closeup of someone doing a trick, hopefully in the air shot from down below.