Week 7 Forum

     

Topic 1 

1. Two tips from the textbook I learned about shooting sports photography are to check with staticians on various sports teams to see if any major records are about to be broken, and see if you can capture the moment as well as summarizing the entire experience into one photo, say for a newspaper. Both of these tips are extremely useful in furthering my knowledge of the art. For the first tip, this means to always be aware of what you are shooting, and know when you could take the biggest photo possible. There is a difference between a routine double and a franchise record for most consecutive doubles in games throughout the season. The second tip covers the issue of taking that one picture that will give viewers everything they need to know. If it is a basketball loss, try to catch the winners celebrating as well as the losers dragging their heads within the same picture.
2. Without these techniques, I bet there would be a lot less dramatic sports photos throughout the years. What both of these techniques do is add emotion to the shots, giving the viewers a sense of what was going through the participants' minds when these events occurred. It also gives an incentive to these photographers to attend these important events, where maybe even more crazy things might happen than expected. It will also help out with the filling of the story. 
3. Taking these tips into consideration when shooting my own assignments is paramount, because it will make my photos and their "captions" 1000x better. If I don't remember these tips, I might miss a huge moment or a perfect summary of whatever event I am at. I will try to look for reactions and emotions in faces from now on. At the end of every event, I will be look to get both teams in the shot, so I can show how the event was concluded. I will start asking around for anything out of the ordinary, like a bench player having a big game or a starter about to break his schools' record. I think my photos will drastically improve moving forward. 

Topic 2

1. I think I will try to shoot a youth basketball game or a playoff volleyball game. I know it will be harder to capture a "beautiful shot" in these harsh lighting environments, but I will try my best. Football is getting tougher and tougher to shoot with the extreme weather conditions and it is not baseball season yet really, so I am going to try to shoot a gym-based sport. 
2. I heard about a youth basketball game going on on Thursday, the 17 at the Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis. I will be there to take pictures using my newly acquired tips. 
3. For the different angles, I want a close up of a free throw being shot. Players show immense concentration when shooting free throws, and I think it would make for a good photo. For the medium, I want to try a routine jump shot, but try to get one that is contested so I can get both the defender and the attacker, to make for an extra dramatic shot. For the overall, I was thinking to take a good picture of the jump ball. The jump ball is like the calm before the storm in basketball, where players are poised and ready for action.