Shooting Football

Football season is finally upon us so I thought I would share how I approach a football game from a photographers perspective.  Depending on who the assignment is for there can be  many different approaches to getting the assignment completed and keeping the editor, mom/dad, school or whoever the client may be happy.  I shoot a lot of high-school football, and it usually for a local magazine and is also used for the web as a photo gallery.  Football like many other sports, is a lot easier to shoot if you have an understanding of the game and the players involved in the game.  For many high-school teams the kids play both on the offensive and defensive side of the ball.  Unless you are shooting player specific kids the easiest way to figure out who the top players are is to get to the field early and watch warmups.  I arrive to the field an hour and a half prior to kickoff, there are so many opportunities to make pictures other than action stuff.  I try and tell the story of the game, which means I shoot crowds, cheerleaders, tailgate action, band action and of course warmups.  Editorial style images are sometimes my favorite images from a game and there is one big advantage to arriving early, there is usually great light, especially early in the season.  My typical approach from a gear perspective for pre-game doesn't usually change much.  I utilize a wide angle (14-24mm) on one of the cameras and a 70-200mm on the other body.  Once the game starts I switch the 14-24mm to a 400mm.  High-school is much different than college and NFL from an access perspective, the majority of the time you can go where you want and make pictures that are much more difficult to make a college or NFL game.  Use your creativity and practice with angles, slow down your shutter speed and give motion blur a try, the results can sometimes be stunning.  One of the down sizes of shooting high-school football is once the sun sets the lighting can be very difficult to navigate.  It is not uncommon that I use 10,000 to 12,800 ISO and sometimes that isn't enough to maintain a good shutter speed.  With the advent of technology many cameras have an Auto ISO feature which is handy when you are dealing with  shadows or poor lighting in general.  Essentially, you set the parameters of shutter speed and ISO and the camera will do the rest.  For example, I am a Nikon shooter and when I am shooting a game that is half in shade and half sunny I will use the Auto ISO feature because I can't change settings fast enough.  So I may tell the camera that I want to maintain a shutter speed of 1/1250th of a second and an ISO not to exceed 8000.  

Early season light, take advantage of the dramatic shadows a setting sun creates

Remote camera

It is easy to get complacent as a photographer, especially a sports photographer.  Many of my assignments are at the high school level, in gyms with horrible lighting and not a lot of options for remote camera work.  There are no catwalks and shooting from an elevated position usually doesn't provide the desired results because the gyms don't have a lot of height.  I try and find something different at each game I shoot, a different position or an entirely different perspective.  Sometimes, depending on the assignment, the editor just needs action shots and nothing else.  My approach is to get those required shots done first and then I try and look for feature shots, or I will mess around with a remote camera.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  a good frame from a remote camera is a bonus, but I don't rely on them.  I have setup remotes at a few different venues, Wichita's Intrust Bank Arena, Topeka's Expocentre, ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City and a few of the local gyms that I frequently shoot in here in Wichita.  Setting up a remote in an arena is much different than a local high school gym, it requires permission from the management at the arena, a lot of prep work to do it safely and liability insurance.  At the high school level depending on the venue, the options can be limited.  The first photo is an example of an image from a remote camera attached to a guard rail at the top of the bleachers.  Although not ideal, it does give a different perspective but it isn't high enough to completely separate the background.  I used two Manfrotto Magic Arms with super clamps, safety cables and a Pocket Wizard Plus 3 to fire the camera.  The second image is from the cat walk at Intrust Bank Arena.  This type of setup is much more difficult to setup then the previous one but can make for great photos.  I tried to put the remote centered over the basket with focus on the net, and used a little wider aperture to increase my depth of field.  I used a 80-200mm lens for this particular image.  The third image is from the catwalk in the Expocentre in Topeka, Kansas.  There wasn't a spot to place the camera centered directly over the net so I chose a spot where I thought I could make a nice image.  This particular image was made with a 400mm lense, which isn't a lot of fun to haul up to a catwalk!  The last image is from a venue that is one of my favorite places for overhead pictures.  This image was from a remote camera on the roof of ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City at the College Softball World Series.  Of all the images below, this one was the easiest, I simply found a spot on the roof where I would get a nice shadow and framed the pitching circle trying to capture a nice image with a shadow.    I used a 70-200mm lense, ISO 1600, f5 with a shutter speed of somewhere around 1/1600th I think.  The obvious advantage of remote cameras are it allows you to be in multiple places at the same time and make different pictures.  

Remote camera from the top row of a high school gym.

Intrust Bank Arena catwalk

This would have been a better image if it had been strobed, but it is different picture which is what I was going for

From the rooftop of ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in OKC

Shooting in inclement weather

Unfortunately not every athletic event is played under perfect light, or weather conditions. In a typical football season, I count on shooting in rainy or snowy conditions.  Although not ideal, it presents an opportunity to make pictures that are hard to make when the weather is 70 and sunny.   Thankfully, professional camera gear is weather sealed and there are a number of option to help keep the gear dry.  I use ThinkTank rain covers which have proven to be worth every penny.  The image below was made with a Nikon 400mm with a rain cover, although it was raining hard the cover kept the lense and body completely dry.  Rain gear does add some bulkiness and it makes it a little more difficult to manage, but with a little practice it becomes manageable.  

Bronco LB Vaughn Miller (58) tackles Chiefs RB Charcandrick West (35) in a rainy game at Arrowhead Stadium.  

A fire scene

As some of you may know, I have been a fireman for the last 22 years.  Although this website is primarily for my sports photography work, I also love shooting fire scenes.  I don't enjoy seeing ones property burn or seeing loss of life,  but a fire scene is a very surreal place.  Many people see  video clips or pictures in a newspapers which only tell part of the story.  Firefighters are some of the most interesting people I have ever come across, and each one has a story to tell.  There are so many interesting things to photograph at a fire scene.  I was recently in Kansas City and happened to come across a fire in the Midtown area of the city.  For once I had my cameras with me and had to stop and make a few pictures.  

Firefighters are ordered out of the building as conditions rapidly deteriorate.  As fire companies exited the building and began defensive operations, a rainbow appeared as a result of the sun hitting the water streams.