Ready, set, shoot: sports action

Shaakir Lindsey charges into a sea of blue during the second half of the Express' game against Wayne County Community College. Lindsey scored 28 points for the Express Wednesday night. Photos by Sean Ferry.

     

      Stop action photography is one of my passions. You would think sports photography would fit in nicely with that passion. Shooting sports, especially indoor sports, gives me nightmares. 

      First, you are cramped on the sidelines frantically trying to balance camera settings, composition and proper focus. Then, you live in constant fear of a stray ball destroying, or rogue player injuring themselves with, your expensive camera gear.

John Murray sinks a foul shot. Murray scored 24 points during the game.

      I went to shoot the Owens Express men's basketball team play against Wayne County Community College, on Nov. 12, 2014. The game was fast paced and exciting to watch. The VIP of the game was clearly Shaakir Lindsey with four assists and 28 points scored for the Express. After several intense battles up and down the court, the hard-working Owens men came out on top with the final score being 100 to 92.

    The most frustrating part of the night was trying to keep my frame filled while keeping my auto-focus point where I wanted critical focus to be. I know better than to ever use full matrix 3D auto focus and usually keep my selected focus point several spots to the left or right of the center point. Still, it is quite the challenge to keep that point on your main subject. More shots than not my camera focused on the stands or a player in the background. 

      The fast movement of the players running is nothing compared to the motion that the bouncing ball brings to the table. Most of the game I kept my ISO at 2000, my aperture at f/2.8 and my shutter speed between 1/800th and 1/1250th of a second. 

Shaakir Lindsey shooting a successful three-point shot.

      This exposure-combo presented an interesting issue with the composition of my shots. A lot of the action blended in too much with the background of the sparse crowd or benched players. So I decided to start panning a single player and let everything else go to blur. 

      My experience shooting finish-line photos for horse races taught me to use the central focus point and a shutter speed between 1/60th and 1/125th of a second when panning motion. 

      The center focus point is always the quickest and most accurate point for any camera. It is also human nature to place the main subject smack-dab in the middle of the viewfinder, so why not make it easy on yourself. 

      I decreased my ISO to 500, set my shutter to 1/125" and trained my center point on a running player. The problem I ran into was keeping the vertically-moving ball from blurring too much while tracking the horizontal motion of the player.

      In any form of photography we strive to tell a story with every photo we take. In sports this involves seeing more than just the straight action happening on the court or the field. Fan and coach shots help break up the monotony of run, jump and score images. Emotional reactions are another great way to add spice to your photo story.

      I can't say I enjoy shooting sports any more than I did at the beginning of my experience, but I am very happy with the images I was able to capture. 

      So get out and shoot some sporting events! You will definitely learn something about yourself and your camera, and you may even have some fun.

Head coach Dave Clarke reviews strategy with his players during a time-out in the second half.