Wordless Wednesday - Motion

Motion

 The last couple of basketball games I've been working on an old technique to try to capture the motion of the game. This involves slowing the shutter speed down and panning the camera with the players. The hope is to get the player in focus, but those things that are moving fast will be blurred. In basketball that will typically be the hands and feet. Panning the camera also adds a motion blur to the background.

The down side to this technique is that you need to be sitting along the side of the court, which means that you miss some of the action under the basket. Obviously, the up side it that a new level of action is introduced into the image.

Wordless Wednesday

 Hoopin' & Hollerin'

This past week-end found me back at the local Boys & Girls club watching the grand son play basketball. His team finished the regular season undefeated. This coming week-end is the championship tournament, so you know where I'll be.

This is one of the grandson's team mates and he is very good. I could have captured an image similar to this several times during the game.

Here, the grandson is letting a shot fly from just inside the three point arc. The young man on the ground is supposed to be defending "The Big Guy". I'm not sure how he ended up on the floor.

In this image, the grandson is dribbling to the baseline in hopes of putting up a shot. When he got there...

he was outnumbered. When there are four opponents surrounding you, a team mate has to be open.

Sometimes you just gotta get down and dirty, and fight for control of a loose ball. Well, since we're undefeated, you know that this ended well. Final score 24-12.
If you like photographing sports or you have kids involved in sports, so you are obligated to photograph them, here are a couple of things I have learned. First of all, get low! They're kids, and if you're standing up, you will get a lot of photos of the tops of their heads. Besides, the game looks more interesting and powerful from a low angle. If you watch any sport on television, you will notice that all of the photographers are sitting or kneeling.
For basketball, I find one of the corners of the court and get five or ten feet away from the playing surface. That way no one complains about my presence. Again, for basketball, locate yourself at the end of the court where your team is shooting the ball. This will require that you change ends of the court at half-time.
Here are a couple of technical notes. If you are shooting a DSLR camera you will want to raise the ISO to 2500-4000 because the indoor lighting is always poor...always. You will be shooting between 1/400th & 1/500th of a second for your shutter speed. Set the White Balance on Auto, it's just easier that way. A zoom lens works best and for basketball you will probably be at 80mm or below. I use a 24-70mm f.2.8 and I set the fstop at 4.5-5. Learn how to shoot in continuous mode. My camera will shoot 7 frames per second and it is critical to catching the right image. Also use continuous focus for most sports applications. If your camera has the option to shoot in JPEG or RAW, shoot in JPEG for sports. If you shoot in RAW, your camera my slow down when trying to shoot in continuous mode because the buffer gets full. Remember, there is a small computer in that camera and it takes time to process the information and it takes more time to process the RAW info that the JPEG info. Well, spring is here so I will be photographing high school baseball, softball, track, and soccer. See you at the games. Now, get out there and shoot it like you mean it! Have a blessed day.

Hoopin' it Up

Saturday afternoon found me at the local Boys & Girls Club photographing the grandson's basketball game. I photographed one of his games for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Today I got in a better position to capture the action.

The grandson is No. 3 in purple and No. 2 is one of his best friends. It worked out great that they are on the same team this year. They may get to play on the same baseball team in the spring as well.

These boys are 12 & 13. While they have a long way to go, some of them have decent skills. Here the best friend is bringing the ball down the court to set up the offense. I'm sure they work on set plays in practice, but they don't always translate to the game.

Still there is the occasional moment that players, family, & even the photographer enjoys. Later this week I'll be at the high school swim meet. That will be fun. Sports photography season is just beginning for me, and this year it may be a year-around endeavor. Have a blessed week.

Shootin' Hoops

 Saturday afternoon found my wife and I at the grandson's basketball game. He's the one in the center.

 At twelve and thirteen years old, the ball can be a bit elusive and everyone believes it belongs to them.

 Here, the grandson is looking for an open teammate to pass the ball to. He found the right person and a score was the result.

 At this age, some of the boys have gotten that first growth spurt and some haven't. There are usually three for four on each team that are several inches taller than everyone else. Here, it is pretty clear than number 8 and number 7 (shooting) have a distinct height advantage over some of the other kids. The grandson hasn't gotten that spurt yet, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be his year.

Sometimes the only way to slow the big guy down is to reach in and foul him. We are the purple team and the final score was in our favor.  I really don't photograph much basketball so I have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. We'll be back on the court Saturday.

Wordless Wednesday

Game On!