Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/10/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Lawrence Zeitlin wrote: > > > With all due respect, Ted, while remarkable sports shots, they don't > prove anything except that you know the sport and where to position > yourself in the arena. To get a decent picture of a basketball layup > or a diver in a mid air tuck is a piece of cake. In most sports, there > are a few locations where players converge and dramatic actions can be > recorded. The basketball goal posts, the hockey net, home plate or > first base on a baseball diamond are good examples. You know where the > action will take place, you can prefocus, and then wait until the > player moves into position. But you have no idea if the hockey goalie > will actually stop the puck or the soccer player will actually head > the corner kick. Nor do you have any examples of adventitious pictures > of events that can't be predicted like a basketball midcourt steal, a > Grand Prix tire blowout, or the knockout punch in a prizefight. Good > as you are, there is at least a fifth of a second from the time you > think about taking a picture until the shutter actually opens. In that > time, a jumping basketball player can leap three feet, a fastball > thrown by a big league pitcher will travel 26 feet, and a speeding > race car will travel 35 to 40 feet. I suspect that you click the > shutter when the action starts and, like most of us, trust to luck > that you will record a memorable picture. > > Come on now, be honest. How many shots ended in the wastebasket to > produce the ones on the web site? If you say that you get every > picture with one click of the camera you will give the rest of us a > horrible inferiority complex. The above was OBVIOUSLY written by someone who has never covered sports of any type for a living. First of all NO ONE who is a professional photographer PREFOCUSES...this is a HUGE misconception by amatures about how to photograph sports. I have covered events from the NCAA championships, the World Series, Super Bowls down to high school football. I NEVER prefocused a single shot. Mid Court steals? Try that with a 400 2.8 my friend. And yes I have quite a few of those shots...show them to you? Go dig through the Betteman archives as they were shot for UPI and are lost somewhere in a salt mine somewhere. Photograph a player making a mid air reception with the ball on his fingertips? Yep..been there done that also. http://www.pbase.com/2plus2/image/32936855 http://www.pbase.com/2plus2/image/32936857 Admittedly those were shot with a Canon FD system, but my EOS 1DII shoots just as fast as that old F1N did. I am sorry but shooting kids is no where in the same ball park as shooting sports is. I have kids and I have covered pro sports...believe me sports are FAR harder. Period. -- Harrison McClary Photography harrison@mcclary.net http://www.mcclary.net ImageStockSouth - Stock Photography http://www.imagestocksouth.com