Winners are Grinners
OK, so after that less than flattering picture of David, I thought I'd better finish with a more attractive shot, before David hunts me down.
Seriously though, if you are hoping to get a good player reaction photo, look out for crucial times in the match. In this particular case, David was playing in an important teams match which was best of 5, and was 10-8 up with two match points. Knowing David to be fairly expressive on the court, I thought he would be likely to give a big cheer if he got the win.
So I tracked David throughout the rally, waiting for the winning shot, and then starting shooting in burst mode as David celebrated, figuring I'd be likely to get at least one good photo out of the 5-6 that I took. And so it proved, with this photo capturing David in full song. I hoped to have the score in the left of the photo, which turned out as planned, but the ball just showing low down on the wrong side of the net, and capturing the umpire turning the winning score over was just a nice bit of luck.
Be prepared!
One final tip - read the manual that comes with your camera - it wasn't until a year down the track that I read that the automatic focus in sports mode only works properly when you place one of the automatic focus points that are on the viewfinder onto the player, and then half press the shutter button to set the focus. Go figure. That cut the number of out of focus photos I took in half!
Oh, and take lots of photos - the more you take, the better your chances of taking a great one - and nobody has to know about the other 200 terrible ones you shot! But hopefully this little guide will help you take a few more good ones and a few less bad ones along the way. Happy shooting!
Seriously though, if you are hoping to get a good player reaction photo, look out for crucial times in the match. In this particular case, David was playing in an important teams match which was best of 5, and was 10-8 up with two match points. Knowing David to be fairly expressive on the court, I thought he would be likely to give a big cheer if he got the win.
So I tracked David throughout the rally, waiting for the winning shot, and then starting shooting in burst mode as David celebrated, figuring I'd be likely to get at least one good photo out of the 5-6 that I took. And so it proved, with this photo capturing David in full song. I hoped to have the score in the left of the photo, which turned out as planned, but the ball just showing low down on the wrong side of the net, and capturing the umpire turning the winning score over was just a nice bit of luck.
Conclusion
Before I give myself too much of a swelled head, I'll just finish by saying that even now I still take many more useless photos than good ones. I've learnt a little about positioning myself and reading the play in order to get better action shots, but I'm still pretty poor at taking candid photos between rallies and off the court - often by the time I realize that something would make a good photograph it's too late and the moment is gone. When shooting, I should really carry my camera around with the lens cap off and ready to go.Be prepared!
One final tip - read the manual that comes with your camera - it wasn't until a year down the track that I read that the automatic focus in sports mode only works properly when you place one of the automatic focus points that are on the viewfinder onto the player, and then half press the shutter button to set the focus. Go figure. That cut the number of out of focus photos I took in half!
Oh, and take lots of photos - the more you take, the better your chances of taking a great one - and nobody has to know about the other 200 terrible ones you shot! But hopefully this little guide will help you take a few more good ones and a few less bad ones along the way. Happy shooting!
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