My Love-Hate Relationship With Catwalks

The view of the Tucker Center's basketball court in Tallahassee, Florida from the catwalks above the arena in 2014

Normally, when people talk about being in the nosebleed section of a stadium or an arena it's usually a sarcastic reference to being relegated to crappy seats. When I tell people that I'm headed to the nosebleed section it's not with any sarcasm my voice, it's with a mixture of excitement and fear. You see, my version of being in the nosebleed section of an arena is a bit different and a lot higher than the cheap seats - it's the catwalks that ring arenas high above the facility.

The catwalks and all the steel girders that support the structure

While I'm climbing up and down ladders and ramps, negotiating obstacles, cables, and lights, I am scared beyond words. I don't like heights. Actually, I really, really hate heights. But when I sit at my computer after a game and look through the images that I get from the catwalks, I know it was well worth the effort and the anxiety.

The arena lights just in front of the steel grates that make up the floor of the catwalks

Shooting from  the catwalks is not for the faint of heart. Many photographers set up remote cameras up there and then trigger them from the floor because spending one minute more than is necessary while perched on a catwalk sends shivers down their spines. I refuse to trust a camera's autofocus capabilities, or worse yet pre-focus on a spot and set the camera to Manual Focus, as a way of generating images. I'd rather not hope that a given shot sequence is in focus only to later see if the images are sharp. I prefer to do it old school and actually shoot from above.

The opening tip taken from the side

There are some guidelines I follow when venturing up to the ultra cheap seats ... errr ... catwalks. As far as equipment, I only take one camera body strapped securely around my neck with a lens attached. Since basketball is the sport most frequently photographed from catwalks, I'll concentrate this blog post on shooting basketball from the heavens.

Rebound in the lane, taken from a side angle

For basketball, my lens of choice is usually a 300mm f2.8 that I hand hold. On occasion I will also take a wide angle lens or my 15mm fisheye for artsy stuff. If I take one of these extra lenses, it is stuffed deep into a pants pocket. I leave everything else on the arena floor and that includes camera bags, lens hoods, cell phone, monopod, and anything else that might accidentally be dropped from up above. Not only are these items superfluous, they pose a risk of serious injury (and possibly even death) to the people below if accidentally dropped.

Another shot taken from a side angle

Some arenas do not have catwalks that run directly above either basket nor directly above center court but you can still position yourself to nab some cool stuff. I like to shoot the fisheye or wide angle lens for team introductions or a shot of the venue but after that it is usually put away. The 300mm on a full frame camera body is ideal from up top because it lets me get close enough to the action while still allowing me to follow it so I don't miss too many shots.

The best shots from overhead are when players are looking up at the rim or at the ball

Even if you aren't directly over a basket, image perspective can be altered somewhat in Photoshop to make images look more like they were taken from directly overhead as in the four examples above that were shot from the side.

By moving around the catwalks and changing locations I get different vantage points and thus different images. I shoot some images vertically but most of the time I stick with a horizontal orientation.

Not your usual game action shots but still interesting images that help tell the game's story

If you're lucky, your arena will have a location from which to shoot that offers a view directly over one or both of the baskets, or at least close enough to being directly overhead that your looking straight down at the basket. That is the ideal situation as you can mix some shots from the sides with shots taken directly overhead.

The grate over the center catwalk supported by girders underneath. Top/center of the image depicts a small opening without a grate that is almost directly over a basket at the Tucker Center. That is what I shoot through over the railing

To me the most desirable images are when the players are looking up, such as the opening tip, going for a rebound, about to release a floater in the lane, or just before a dunk. 

Images shot from almost directly overhead of the baskets

But with a little imagination, other images can add some pop to a set or a portfolio and are there for the taking. I didn't know how the images below would look until I downloaded and opened them in Photoshop. As soon as I did I was very glad I did not delete either of them while shooting.

You never know what will take place on the floor below so you have to stay ready

I usually keep an eye on the game clock and anticipating the media time outs. When I know one is approaching, I'll boogie over to a spot directly above one of the teams and wait for the coaches to do their thing. Not your traditional, vanilla time out image but a unique one.

Two versions of a timeout, one where the team uses its bench to sit (top) and the other where seats are placed on the court for the payers to sit (bottom)

If you're fortunate enough to have catwalks available for use, my recommendation is that you give it a go. On your first visit, get there early and get a feel for what it's like up there and explore the vantage points that exist. Take plenty of test shots to dial in the right exposure and then get ready to create some pretty cool images. If you're like me, your heart will be in your throat until you are safely back down on the court but when you download your cards and take a peek at what you got, you'll be glad you did.

Photoshop User Magazine Reprise

Two years ago, I was asked to write what turned out to be the cover story in the December 2013 issue of Photoshop User Magazine dealing with sports photography. I was recently asked to write another article which I have now finished and submitted on astrophotography. If you are interested in learning some of the ropes in shooting images of the heavens, I tried to walk you through the process, starting with images that can be taken with basic photo gear all the way through shooting through a telescope with a CCD camera. Look for the February issue which should be out soon.

Those of you who aren't members of NAPP or who don't subscribe to the magazine, copies of the issue are usually sold at Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, etc. As time permits, I will do a multi-part blog post that covers the information in the article.

Sports Photography 101 Part IV - Image Stabilization Feature On Lenses

Welcome to Part IV in this series of posts on sports photography. I'll start by reminding you yet again that what I say in these posts is strictly my opinion based on personal experience - what I do and how I do it works for me. There are many out there who do things differently and it works for them. Regardless of which way you elect to shoot, make sure you test out anyone's advice (including mine) for yourself before you give it a go on game day.

Today, we'll discuss something simple - the image stabilizing feature that comes with many newer lenses. Nikon calls it "VR" for "vibration reduction". If I'm not mistaken, Canon calls it "IS" or "image stabilization". TURN IT OFF. Not tomorrow or the day after, if your equipment is going to be used for sports photography, go to your camera bag right now and flip the switch(es) to OFF so you don't forget.


When I read advice blogs, posts or discussions on photography forums by well intentioned folks advocating the need to use VR when shooting sports I have to shake my head. I reiterate, I am the furthest thing from God's gift to sports photography but I try to develop a fairly good understanding of what my equipment does and doesn't do. I also make it a point to get some hands on, personal experience with the various features incorporated into my camera bodies and lenses rather than take the word of a part time Best Buy sales associate who thinks that a 16 MP point and shoot camera will take better quality photos than a 12 MP DSLR because it has more MP.

Don't misunderstand, in my view, VR is a wonderful advancement that has its moments, just like a lens that is capable of going to f22 and beyond has its moments. In either case, sports photography ain't one of those moments. The purpose of VR is to minimize the effects of camera shake in sloooooooowwwwwww shutter speed conditions. When using the shutter speeds necessary for freezing action (beginning at 1/500th second), VR will do absolutely nothing, unless e.g., you're shooting at a dead run or are being jostled about on a plane with turbulence.

Depending on how steady you can hold your camera will dictate when you should activate VR. I can comfortably hold a camera body with a short to medium zoom fairly steady down to a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second; I can sometimes push the envelope down to 1/20th second; and sometimes I can go a bit slower if I have something on/with which to brace myself or the camera. In sports photography, if you're shooting at anything less than 1/500th second, you're seriously running the risk of blurred or soft images. More often than not, you're shooting at a minimum of 1/1000th second. Under these conditions, there is absolutely no reason to have VR or IS switched on.

Many people confuse image stabilization with subject stabilization. They mistakenly believe that with VR switched on, it will somehow help them freeze a moving subject. It won't. VR does nothing to freeze a moving subject. There are only two things that will keep a moving subject sharp - a shutter speed that is faster than the subject's movement, or when the shutter speed isn't faster than the subject, panning with the subject. 

Since VR is a needless feature for sports, that's what makes a used Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 D ED AF-S my choice for the budget conscious sports photographer as a viable alternative for the newer 70-200mm f2.8 that comes equipped with VR. You don't need it, or at least not enough to where you should drop hundreds of dollars more on a lens that has it.

Not only do you not need VR, VR can actually impede your sports shooting. When you have VR switched on, you'll hear some  whirring noises and the image may move a bit in your viewfinder as the VR feature stabilizes the lens. Admittedly, at fast shutter speeds, image stabilization is minimal if not imperceptible, but during this process the shutter will not fire. When it finally decides to fire, the peak moment may pass you by. I may be old school, but I never want a camera to tell me when it's good and ready to fire even if the shutter delay is imperceptibly small. I want to be the Master of this domain and have it fire when I tell it to.

Reason #2 to shut off the VR feature - it chews up battery power. Before you fire a shot, battery power has been used to drive a motor that focuses the lens. If you're shooting with one of the auto-tracking focus modes (strongly suggested and a topic for another day), battery power is keeping your focus locked in. Last but not least, battery power causes the shutter to fire and then record the image on your card. If you're like me, when you have some down time, you're reviewing your images on the back of the camera to see if you got a shot or shots and deleting images that are useless. Battery drain. A lot of time I'll zoom in on an image to make sure it's sharp. More battery drain. On top of all that, why chew up battery power (and if you're auto tracking, VR is working the entire time you're tracking the subject) by engaging a feature that is superfluous and/or counterproductive?

Reason #3 to switch VR off is the strange artifacts you can get on your backgrounds when VR is engaged. One of the reasons sports photographers love f2.8 lenses is that they create a blurred, out of focus background setting for the tack sharp image of the subject. A blurred background not only makes the sharp subject stand out, it doesn't detract from the target of the image - the subject. When viewers look at a sports image, you want their gaze to immediately snap to the athlete in all his or her glory, not some fan in the stands or the official lurking in the background. VR can often times create some strange artifacts that can distract a viewer's attention as their mind attempts to interpret what that funny looking thing is in the background.

So there you have it. My take on the image stabilization feature on lenses in the world of sports photography. Look for Part V which will cover another topic.

Sports Photography 101 Part III - Noise, Flash and RAW/Jpeg

In Parts I and II of this series, we discussed what makes sports photographs special in terms of content. We also discussed equipment from the standpoint of a reasonable budget. In this segment, I will go through some thoughts on some topics that will hopefully help you lock in and nail those images.

Before I begin, I want to re-emphasize that the following is simply my personal opinion. I'm simply sharing what I do and how I do it based upon over 8 years of shooting sports with digital equipment (an many more with film). I do not pretend to be the Master of Photography such that anything I say should be etched in a stone tablet for posterity. It's simply an effort to share with you what has worked for me through the years and just because I do things a certain way doesn't mean that it's the best way to do it or that it's right.

ISO and Noise - If you are going to do any kind of shooting at night or indoors, you're going to pump your ISO to levels that would make most photographers shudder. I spend most of my life shooting at ISO 1600, a lot of times at ISO 2500-3200, I have pushed to ISO 6400 when needed

There's no doubt that these ISO levels will generate noise in your images and the higher the ISO the more noise you will see. First and foremost, resign yourself to the fact that there is nothing you can do to avoid noise altogether. Accept it and embrace it. Find peace with those images because noise is what it is.

Luckily, the only people who find a certain amount of noise abhorrent are photographers. We're obsessed with it (at least I must confess I am). We photographers are so conscious of it that it can drive us crazy. Here's some good news. Non-photographers don't even see it. They look at a great sports image and are in awe at the depiction of a frozen player flying through the air with outstretched arms while reaching for the ball. They don't see those globs we call noise, especially if it's not over the top. Having said that, there are ways to minimize noise and as with any kind of photography, we should strive to generate the highest quality images possible.

First and foremost is exposure. If you don't underexpose an image, you won't have to adjust it in Photoshop to make the shadows lighter. By bringing the shadows out of darkness, you necessarily add noise to those areas, more so than if the image had been properly exposed. A properly exposed image shot at ISO 6400 will have less objectionable noise than one that is underexposed at ISO 1600. If you don't believe me, take an underexposed test shot at ISO 1600 and then a properly exposed test shot at ISO 6400 and decide for yourself.

The other thing you can do to minimize noise is to resist the temptation to crop the image so as to drastically enlarge a subject in the final image. If you're cropping because you didn't shoot tight enough, it only means you weren't in position to get the shot or it was a shot beyond your equipment's capability. If you're on the 30 yard line shooting with a 200mm lens next to someone with a 600mm lens and the play is on the opposite 20 yard line, your subject is going to be very, very small in your frame. His subject will be large enough where he will not have to crop, or at worst, crop a little bit. You, on the other hand, will have to drastically crop. At ISO 1600, 3200 or 6400, when you crop and enlarge the subject, you will likewise be enlarging the inherent noise by whatever factor you have cropped  - 100%, 200%, 300% or more.

Had you been positioned on the opposite 30 yard line, you might have been able to properly shoot that play with your 200mm lens and capture the subject large enough to avoid meaningful cropping. So, if you don't have the means to have a 600mm lens on your camera, do what you can to avoid cropping high ISO images, i.e. positioning. You'll get noticeably less noise.

Flash - If you ever see or read anything by a well meaning photographer advocating the use of flash during sporting events to compensate for low light levels, stop watching or stop reading and run, do not walk, away from said source. Generally speaking, I can't imagine anyone who knows anything about sports photography advocating the use of a strobe to capture action (unless we're talking about arena strobes mounted in the rafters). There isn't a sporting event that I have attended where photographers were allowed to use camera mounted strobes to photograph a game and no one would dare do so. Anyone even thinking about using a strobe would be quickly escorted off the field or the court.

That doesn't mean strobes do not have a use. Pre-game and post game shots are often times photographed with strobes, using them as fill light or as the primary light source to better illuminate a scene (such as coaches' pre-game handshake, etc.).  I always have a strobe in my case or in a pouch on my waist belt for just such occasions, but once the action begins and until it's over, it doesn't see the light of day.

RAW Versus JPEG - A lot of photographers will tell you to shoot in Jpeg. The reason is simple - Jpeg files aren't as large as a RAW file and you can fit more of them on a card before having to change cards. Another reason is that because Jpeg files are smaller, when shooting a burst of images, you can shoot more images continuously before the buffer will fill up (once the buffer fills up your shutter won't continue to operate until the card has recorded the images shot).

Shoot in RAW. Here's my reasons.

First, cards are cheap. I carry plenty of spares. To me, having to swap a card seems to be a lazy, poor excuse for not trying to record an optimal image and there's no denying that a RAW image is superior to a compressed Jpeg.

Admittedly, there may have been a time when cards were limited to 1 GB (or less) capacity, making card swapping a much more frequent issue. But for quite some time, cards have been available with huge capacities, virtually eliminating the need to swap cards in the middle of a game. Me, I can't fathom filling up a 32GB card during a game. If I ever did, I'd quickly pop the camera open, pull out the card, pop another one in and I'm good to go.

As for filling the buffer, In over 8 years of shooting sports digitally, I think I have filled my buffer once, maybe twice, and only because I was screwing around. Now, I am not one of those guys who presses the shutter as the receiver starts his route and keeps firing until he's getting back up, and maybe as a result, I've missed some special moments. But, by firing in 5-10 image bursts, and more often than not in 3-5 image bursts, my RAW images of the peak action will be of a much better quality, and much more conducive to post-processing adjustments, than the other guy's Jpeg images.

There's a reason why any photographer who shoots for quality (landscape, macro, portrait come to mind) shoots in RAW. I see no difference between other genres and sports and I choose not to sacrifice recording the best, most versatile image possible so I don't have to swap out a card once in a while or so I can shoot 40 bazillion frames of a player getting up off the turf.

There's lots more to cover - autofocus, manual versus aperture priority, shooting vertical versus horizontal, etc. etc. We're getting there so stay tuned.

Sports Photography 101 Part II - Gearing Up On A Budget

Yesterday's segment discussed some basic concepts of sports photography, i.e. what elevates a sports photograph from good to great and how to maximize your chances of getting them. One of the keys to getting those shots is equipment, and that's what we'll be diving into today.

There's no doubt that you can be that blind hog that finds an acorn and manages to score a great photo with a 10MP point and shoot camera during a daytime event. It's clean, sharp, and nails the athlete at the pinnacle of his leap over the top of the line, ball extended just beyond the goal line. His face is perfectly lit by a beam of sunshine and there's a fire in his eyes as he reaches deep inside for one more ounce of energy that will propel him over the goal line.

Everyone gets lucky. The trick is to consistently get those shots, and you won't do it with a 10MP point and shoot camera. Believe me, if it were possible, I wouldn't have invested over $40,000 into equipment when a $200 point and shoot would do the job. I certainly don't enjoy lugging two camera bodies around my neck with lenses attached, a third body on a monopod with a 15 pound lens attached to it, and a bunch of pouches stuffed with more lenses strapped around my waist as I run up and down the sidelines to get in position.

Does all that stuff really help? Yep. It won't guarantee that I'll get the shots but it certainly improves the odds. Is it absolutely essential? Yes and no. As I said yesterday, as long as your expectations are reasonable and you stay within your equipment’s limitations, you can shoot sports on a reasonable budget.

Here's proof that you can nail a good sports image with a modest investment in gear. Taken with a Nikon D2H and an inexpensive 35-70mm f2.8 Nikon lens.

If you limit yourself to sporting events that take place outdoors during the daytime, you can give a lot of sports photographers a run for their money with some basic gear that should set you back as little as $1,000. Increasing your investment to $3,000 and you open new doors. You'll be able to shoot indoors and at night and still capture images of reasonable quality. Just remember to keep your expectations in check. At a nightime football game, you're not going to get every shot that the guy next to you will get with his Nikon D4 and a 400mm f2.8 lens but by moving up and down the field as the action dictates, you will get your share of images. 

OK, let's get into gear in more detail. Some overviews are in order.

You can also get good sports shots with variable aperture lenses. Nikon D300 and an 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 lens.

Full frame (fx) or cropped frame (dx) camera bodies. Your first equipment decision is whether to go full frame or cropped frame, or in camera-speak, an fx-sensored body or a dx-sensored body. Each has its advantages, but if you will only be shooting during the daytime, a dx sensored camera body will rival anything that you will get from an fx sensored body.

Dx-sensored bodies are less expensive. They also enjoy one huge advantage over the fx bodies – the crop factor. Every dx sensored camera body acts as if you have a built in teleconverter (Nikon bodies have a 1.5X crop factor) that effectively lengthens the focal length of any lens attached. That means that with a Nikon dx body, a 70-200mm lens is the equivalent of a 105-300mm lens on an fx sensored body (without any of the disadvantages of a teleconverter such as an increase in the wide open aperture and slight loss of sharpness). The tradeoff is that fx sensored cousins produce noticeably better images at the higher ISO levels (less noise, better clarity).

Tight football shots with an 80-200mm f2.8 lens? No problem if you're in the right position. Nikon D300 and a Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 lens

Frames per second. Next, you will need to consider the frames per second (or fps) capability of the camera body. For sports, a body that will shoot 5 frames per second is the minimum needed to shoot sports. The more fps capability of the camera body, the better your chances will be of getting the shot at peak action moments.

New or used?  Most every camera body and lens I own was bought in used condition for approximately half as much as new gear. Since I only buy from reputable dealers that service the equipment before a sale and have a money back guarantee if the equipment fails to perform, I have only had positive experiences. 

Off brand lenses. With all due respect to Tamron, Tokina and Sigma, my personal experience is that they can’t take the rigors of sports photography. On the other hand, Nikon (and Canon) lenses are built like tanks, will perform through thick and thin, and will outlast any off brand lens.

Indoor shooting with a Nikon D3, Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 lens. ISO 1600

I also believe that Nikon and Canon lenses use the best optical glass available which translates into sharper, better quality images. Last but not least, Nikon and Canon lenses have much faster focusing motors which snap into focus at the touch of a button. The other manufacturer’s lenses are slower to focus. In sports photography, a slow focusing lens can make the difference between getting or not getting the shot.

Thus, I will not include any off brand lenses in the discussion below. If you decide to go with off brand lenses, you will definitely cut your equipment costs. Just remember that you don't always get what you pay for when you do, but you always get what you pay for when you don't.

Nikon D3, Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 lens. ISO 1600

Suggested Outfits. The following are suggested outfits that will equip you for the settings described. These suggestions are based upon my personal use of the equipment listed, having provided me with images that meet my expectations of quality.

• Lean and mean – Strictly for daytime use in good light at ISO levels between 200-400. Start with a used Nikon D2H camera body ($300-$400), a 4.1 MP, 8 fps pro body that I used until four or five years ago. Add a used Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens ($300 used, $600 new) and you’re in business for less than $1,000 with an outfit that will reach out to the equivalent of a 105mm-450mm lens on a full frame body. 
• Upping the ante – Still a daytime only outfit, but because of the better camera body you can push the ISO comfortably to 1600 when necessary as light wanes so long as you use some noise reduction software. Substitute a used Nikon D300 ($500-$600) for the D2H and you’re still getting 7 fps in a 12.2MP, tough as nails camera body. Still under $1,000 if you go with a used lens and you’re still reaching out to 450mm at f5.6. 
• Getting jiggy with it – Any daytime conditions are no problem with this outfit, and if you don’t mind some noise in the images (even with noise reduction software), you can try your hand at events played in indoor gyms and at high school football stadiums. Stick with the used D300 but add a $100 used battery grip to goose your fps to 9 fps. Substitute a used Nikon 80-200mm D ED AF-S f2.8 lens ($800-$900) for the lens and you’re right at $1,500. Yes, you’ve decreased your effective focal range to 300mm but you’ve now got a faster focusing, sharper lens that will allow you to shoot in lower light. 
• Doubling down - If you want to press a bit further, pick up a used 1.4X Nikon teleconverter ($250-$275) for daytime use with the outfit above and you’ve extended your lens’ focal length to 420mm at f4. You’re still well under $2,000.
• Best bang for the buck – All of the above, except swap a used Nikon D3 ($2,000) for the D300. The D3 is a full frame, 12.2 MP, 9 fps pro body that rocked the world with its low noise levels at high ISO’s when it came out and still rivals most camera bodies out there. For just a bit over $3,000, with noise reduction software, you can shoot up to ISO 6400 which you will need for acceptable images in high school gyms and at high school football fields. With a full frame body, your high ISO images will look better but your focal range will top out at 200mm without the TC and 280mm with it.

There's a lot more to discuss when diving into sports photography. Hopefully Parts I and II have given you some things to think about. I'm not sure where we will go from here but look for more thoughts on the subject as I ponder what to cover in Part III.

Sports Photography 101 Part I - Great Sports Images And How To Get Them

Sports photography is one of the most exciting, challenging endeavors one can undertake. It involves the creation of images that freeze a split second of action in time without the luxuries that most other photographers enjoy. Sports photographers can’t pose their subject; they can’t re-shoot the image if the exposure or composition isn’t right the first time; nor can they move to a different vantage point for a better perspective once the moment passes.

In order to create a good sports image, three things have to come together for one split second – skill, luck, and the right equipment in hand. Skill and equipment are within our control; luck is not. Fortunately, there are things you can do to have Lady Luck on your side as much as possible, such as having familiarity with the sport you intend to shoot. Knowing the sport makes it easier to anticipate where the peak action will likely take place. With that insight, you are more likely to be in the right place at the right time when a payer leaps to make a catch or dives for a ball.

So where do we begin once you’ve decided to take the leap into sports photography? Let’s start by identifying what makes a sports photograph a great one. Before addressing this topic I want to throw out some overviews. First and foremost, the following is nothing but my personal opinion. Opinions are like elbows - everybody has a couple of them. If you disagree with what I'm about to say, no worries. You're entitled to your opinion as am I. My opinion is based only on my personal experience, nothing more, nothing less.

In addition, the images included in the blog post are images I consider to be some of my better shots. In no way am I elevating them to the category of "great" sports images. They are simply some of the best I've managed to capture with my limited skills and technique.

With that said, let's get into the topic.

What Makes A Sports Photograph A Great Sports Photograph? 

Good sports photographs tell a story within the four corners of the image. A viewer of the image can tell what is happening at a glance. A great sports image takes it one step further. It takes sports fans into the very heart of the game and captures elements that are not visible to them in the bleachers. Accomplishing this task is your mission and you can do so by following a few general rules of thumb.

- Get the face and the ball in the frame. The eyes are the window to the soul. What sets a great sports image apart from a good sports image is being able to see the face and the eyes of the athlete in the image. An image that captures the back of an athlete’s head may have an artistic use but it will be outdone by the same image depicting the athlete’s face and emotional expression. The icing on the cake is having the ball in the frame – in the glove, in the hands, or in the net. Capture these two elements and you’re golden.

- Shoot as tight as you possibly can. Fans in the stands have a wide angle view of the game. They don’t see the grimace on a player’s face when the bat makes contact with the ball or when going airborne to head the ball into the net. You, and only you, can provide a viewer that intensity by shooting as tight as you can.

- Freeze the action. Blurred or “soft” images are no better than if you had missed the shot altogether. There may be some parts of the image that won’t be perfectly sharp due to depth of field considerations but it’s critical that the key aspects of an image are sharp. That’s typically the face of the athlete, but many times it will extend to the hands and feet, depending on the sport.

Now that you have an idea of what makes an image a great one, let’s identify how to you can maximize the opportunities to get those great shots.

- Shoot from the lowest possible position. Shooting “up” at athletes creates images that have a distinctively superior look than those that are taken at eye level. Kneeling along the sidelines or sitting along the baseline allows you to shoot with this ideal perspective. That’s why you see the good pro sports photographers wearing kneepads or sitting under the basket when they shoot. It’s not because they’re trying to rest weary bones, it’s because shooting from the lowest vantage point yields the best images.

- Position yourself where the play will be, not where it begins. Long before the play begins, put yourself in the best possible location for getting that face and ball in the frame. When I’m shooting a specific team or a specific player, I always position myself downfield so that the plays are coming in my direction. If you’re positioned behind the play, you’re far less likely to get both elements in the image. Another reason to position yourself well ahead of the play is that the players will be coming towards you instead of away from you and thus they will become larger in your frame. The larger they become, the tighter you will be shooting.

- Shoot with the sun at your back. When you arrive at a venue, always ascertain where the sun will be during the course of the game. Once you determine this, position yourself so that the sun will be at your back. When shooting with the sun at your back, the players and the field will be lit much better than if you shoot into the sun. When shooting into the sun, players will be backlit which will only serve to create an exposure nightmare for you. If you set your exposure for the available light, the players will likely be underexposed; conversely, if you expose for the players faces, the background behind them will be overexposed. Neither of these scenarios makes for good images.

- Use the right equipment. Let’s say you don’t have any ambitions to shoot for Sports Illustrated or aren’t looking to join the photo staff of your local NFL or NBA team, at least not today. You simply want to get some really good shots of your kids playing on their youth soccer team, or maybe you want to start making some extra cash by taking photos during local Little League games and selling them to the parents. Can you do this without breaking the bank?

You betcha. So long as your expectations are reasonable and you stay within your equipment’s limitations, you can shoot sports on a reasonable budget, especially if you limit yourself to sporting events that take place outdoors during the daytime. In the next segment, we'll take a look at equipment.