Geting started

[Corey Jenkins]

Hello,

I'm new here, it seems like a cool site. I have a few questions here. I'm going to be a freshman in high school next year. I've been taking pictures for a little while and its a lot of fun. I was thinking it would be a lot of fun to shoot the sports at my school. I have a Nikon D80, and a few diffrent lens's. 75-300mm f/s 4-5.6, 50mm f/s 1.8, and a standard kit lens. I shot a baseball game the other week with the 75-300mm and it seemed to work great, it was in the middle of the day though. Most games are at night in high school though, so would I be able to get away shooting football games or baseball games with my lens? I don't have a job yet but I was looking at Nikon's 80-200 f/s 2.8. It seems fast and cheaper than most long and fast lens's. If any one had any info about shooting high school sports, or any good tips that would be great!

Thanks,
Corey

[yesimaddicted]

get permission from the school. i was just a freshman and u git in trouble from the track coach for taking pictures on the track. so u might want to find the 'rules'

[livin4lax09]

plenty of tips, but it's really dependent on what you will be shooting...but some universal tips...

shoot low. photos from 5'10" are boring
shoot with your lens opened up all the way to isolate your subject
get clean backgrounds
1/640 seems to be the minimum for freezing action

and never be afraid to try something new

the 70-200 is a great lens, many people here shoot with it. I shoot with a canon 70-200 and it is great for many things. throw a 1.4x teleconverter on it and you essentially have a 100-300mm f/4. f/2.8 lenses are basically a necessity for stopping action games under the lights or at night.

good luck!

[JSPhoto]

No matter what sport your shooting you have to know the sport, what to expect, and that will go a long way to getting your best shots, location is everything. Your best bet is to get on the school paper/website and go that route to be able to shoot the games. Most schools now have strict rules for their photographers and where they stand for football and so forth due to injuries. I saw a photographer get creamed last Sat at a game and she wound up with two breaks, one her ankle the other her lower leg just above the ankle. In fact, most schools won't let freshman shoot games here, they have to learn the ropes first, and most kids on the sidelines are sophmores and seniors. It's an insurance issue as well.
As for the 80-200, thats what the Nikon users around here use, along with flash. Even with the f2.8 and even though a field may look well lit to your eyes it inevitably doesn't work out that way for the camera as it sees the light differently and you will lose faces and other detail. There is one field I can shoot without flash, but even there I still use it as a fill flash to get the extra detail.

Do a search here using football, soccer or basketball to get ideas on shooting them, there are lots of threads that will help you. After that if you have questions ask away, we'll help as much as we can (ask JETA) and we do have some Nikon shooters here too, such OT who can help with Nikon questions.

JS

[Corey Jenkins]

I played football last year, and I've played baseball for a pretty long time. I guess my best bet is to contact the guy who runs the photography club and see what he says about the rules and how I could get started with their news paper. I was thinking I could go to a game, upload my pictures on my Flickr and send a message to the players so they can see them selves playing etc. Then I guess I would show the newspaper people my photos and they would pick witch ones they want?

[BLS439]

Check out other photographers pictures to see what they are doing. Take that knowledge and do something else. Find out how you can make your pictures different - you have to be creative with photography.

Sign up for the school paper, photo club, yearbook club, etc. These should get you access to the HS sports venues and your shots will be distributed through the school.

[Old Timer]

The 80-200 f2.8 is an excellent lens and one I would not hesitate to recommend. As others have pointed out if you do any night time sports you will have to have an f2.8 lens. I would also recommend trying to get on the yearbook or newspaper staff. These two routes are you easiest way to field access. I was a yearbook photographer in college and it gave me easy access to about anything I wanted to shot at home and on the road.

[JSPhoto]

School papers, at least high school are not too picky, although some will specify a particular player they want pictures of. I shoot for several local papers and they are pretty easy , they want good action and sideline shots... a coach being very animated always works, just be ready though as the coaches normally do not appreciate it I have a couple though that like it. I got all the basketball coaches in "disagreements" with officials last year and those photos were used in an article on officials and coaches, the pictures really told the story without reading the article. A couple of the shots were also used by sister papers for similar stories as their photogs didn't get the same intensity. Crowd shots are also good, especially playoff time or big rivalry games. Win or loose you can't go wrong with crowd reactions.
Since you played football you should understand it enough to be able to plan ahead each play. I have followed these 4 schools so long that I know how the coaches think in certain situations and set up accordingly as to where I am positioned, some coaches will actually tell me what play they are running and that really helps. Even knowing how a team lines up defencivly helps on that side of the ball. It really helps though when the paper gives me a particular player to shoot. Normally I get the requests for particular players towards the middle of the season, although each week they do want player shots for the weekly game preview. I always try to get every player though as it never fails they ask at the end of the year for a player the staff photog didn't shoot

JS

[Corey Jenkins]

Thanks for all the info, I'm sure it will be very helpful once school starts. I'm going to try and sign up with the school news paper, yearbook, and photo club and see what they say.

Thanks,
Corey

[JSPhoto]

No problem, between now and then though look through the threads on football and flash here for tips and so forth. Make sure you post some photos if you have questions about anything your doing, it helps us see exactly whats going on.

Just an FYI for you and others, but the next few weekends I'll be wrapped up with work so I probably won't be on here over the weekends.
Friday sat, and Sun - By Air By Rail Festival and a bar opening
Next week - USAC Silver Crown Series, Busch & Craftsman Trucks plus Brickyard 400 (basically Wednesday through Sunday I'll be tied up) and then in Aug. I'll be at Kentucky Speedway for the IRL race.

JS