Volleyball is one of the easier sports to photograph for most scholastic photojournalists if they know the correct shooting positions and have access to the proper lenses. The court size is fairly small compared to playing areas of other sports. Since it is played indoors, however, lighting problems may still occur. Using fast films will help. So will using lenses with large aperture openings (F4, F3.5, F2, etc.). While some photographers may use flash, it can be quite bothersome to players while they’re concentrating on their next move.
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Tennis is one of the most interesting sports to shoot but it can become the most frustrating as well if you’re limited in your shooting positions. During matches, photographers are usually not permitted to shoot within the fence unless it is from a court that is not being used. Most student photographers do not have the access professional photographers have at court side; drool over those wonderful Wimbledon and U.S. Open photos in Sports Illustrated but be realistic about what you can capture based on your access to the court while a match is underway.
Most of the action takes place at known points-the bases and the batter’s box-but distances are great, and a 300mm or 400mm telephoto is usually necessary. Flood-lit games at night are common, and call for high-speed film and ideally, a wide-maximum aperture. One of the classic baseball shots is of a player sliding into a base in a cloud of dust. This is best caught with a ground-level position. Pre-focusing on the base may help.
As a field team sport, football’s action can range over a considerable area, so shooting opportunities are difficult to predict. Most of the important action is likely to be concentrated close to either end. Goals and touchdowns are important for professional photographers, but a photographer shooting for his own pleasure may find more opportunities from a midfield touchline position. Less important and “friendly” games give more open access to photographers. As the distance from the action is unpredictable and varies, a zoom lens (such as 80 to 200mm) can be useful, or else a combination of two cameras, one with a medium telephoto (such as 100mm or 150mm), the other with a medium-to-long telephoto (300mm to 400mm).
One bad habit that just drives me nuts is misplacing things. I even put my keys on a big, pink, stretchy bracelet only to get in the habit of taking it off everywhere – in the darkroom, by a computer, at the overhead projector…. Many staff members seem to have similar habits requiring them regularly to hunt for notebooks and pens.
Give a well-organized, enthusiastic, go-getter type the responsibility of advising the yearbook and she still may be reduced to a sniveling, jumbled-mumbling zombie by the second deadline (it is impossible to remember first deadlines – too hideous). What is it about yearbook deadlines that makes them so elusive many schools admit missing some, most or even all of them during the year?
Sometime before the first grading period is over (alas, sometimes by the end of the first week) the realization may come that you made a serious error in allowing someone on staff. Of course, in schools where counselors provide the line-up, you have no choice. However, many yearbook sponsors select their staffs, and still live to regret it.
Despite our differences, our common purpose is what motivates us: to produce a good book for our audience at a reasonable cost in manpower and dollars. We want to be proud of our efforts. And we have every right to have fun, too.
Yearbook photographers have the opportunity to go to a game, try their hand at it, see what they got on the negative or memory card, and then go out and try again – all for the same yearbook spread that is awaiting five to seven nice moments of baseball action. Working hard at pursuing a variety of great baseball shots can provide staff designers with some visual variety.
A thinking photographer gets more out of each sports shooting experience.
Of all the equipment a shooter takes to a sports event, perhaps the most important and least regarded is that equipment located just above the shoulders. A thinking photographer will bring back better images – maybe even stunning images – from any sports shooting experience. A photographer whose head is in the game will be a real asset to his or her yearbook staff. Here are a few examples of some sports where a little planning and a little thinking go a long way toward capturing nice images.
