Lens Extender

Sports Photographers Need a Vertical Grip Attachment

If you want to capture really good sports photos, and you're using a digital SLR that doesn't have a built-in vertical grip like the professional level Nikon D3, then you you need to get one for the ergonomics of shooting good sports photos.  A vertical grip allows you to easily shoot in portrait mode because of the shutter release that's installed on the grip.  Since most sports subjects are human (tall from top to bottom in the view finder), the portrait orientation of your photos will capture the action better than the landscape mode.

If you're shooting with a Nikon D300 or D700 get the Nikon MB-D10 vertical grip.  If you have a Nikon D200, use the MB-D200 vertical grip.  If you're using a Nikon D80 or D90, get the MB-D80 vertical grip.  If you're a Canon shooter, and you use either the 30D, 40D or 50D, get the Canon BG-E2N vertical grip.  If your Canon body is a Digital Rebel XT or XTI, get the BG-E3 vertical grip.

The other big benefit of using a vertical grip is the additional battery it allows you to use to give you more shooting time without recharging.

My Cool New Camera Stap - The RS-4 Camera Strap

I received my RS-4 Camera strap in the mail today.  This will become my strap of choice for casual shooting as well as for sports shooting (particularly when I've got the 300mm lens attached to a monopod with the 70-200mm lens slung over my shoulder attached to this strap). This is from a company called Black Rapid out of Seattle.  It's a pretty cool rethinking of a better functioning camera strap.

Check out this video describing the strap and how it works.

This strap is now available at B&H Photo Video.

Amazon sells the older RS-1 version of this strap at the link below.
BLACKRAPID RS-1 Camera Sling Strap

You can order the latest RS-4 version of the strap directly from Black Rapid.

Using Cristiano Ronaldo as a Soccer Model for My Photos

One technique that youth players and parents enjoy is to find an action photo of a professional player that's similar to one of the photos you've taken of a youth player.  By displaying this in your gallery, you can create lots of interest in your sports photos.

With the recent news of Real Madrid paying a record transfer fee of 80 million pounds to acquire Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, there should be a lot of interest from parents and players in Ronaldo comparative photos (not to mention that he's arguably the best player in the world as well).  I found the photo above on the internet using a simple Google photo search on Cristiano Ronaldo.  Then I searched my gallery of photos to find this similar action shot of one of my youth subjects.

Here's another example of this strategy, again using a Cristiano Ronaldo photo found in a June 15, 2009 article on Live Mint.   

 

Christiano Ronaldo Entertainment Poster Print, 24x36

Take Many Shots Around the Goal to Get Good Soccer Shots

Always remember to fire an may shots as you can when the action gets around the goal.  This shot turned out to be just one of many during this specific sequence near the goal.

Cycling Photography

These photos are my first efforts at a little cycling photography.  I just happened to be at a local park that has an outdoor velodrome arena.  Fortunately, in my car, I had my Nikon D300 with 70-200mm VR lens attached.  These cyclist were training (thus the moped guy in the photo above).  One technique to keep in mind, is to set a slow enough shutter speed while panning the camera give the bike a sense of motion (with the wheels blurred) while maintaining sharp focus of the rider.  I didn't do that with these photos which is why I've cropped these photos to eliminate the wheels as a focal point.

A Young Sports Photographer Starting Early

That's a Canon D50 attached to a Canon L-Series 300mm f/2.8 lens.  The real photographer is the other guy by the way

If You Have a Chair, Use It To Get a Lower Photographic Perspective

Some times I sit when I photograph the little kids playing soccer.  I do this because it makes them seem much larger when you shoot kids from their height or even lower.  For this photo I was actually sitting in a chair along the goal line close to the corner.  This was taken with my 300mm f/2.8 lens.  When I don't have a chair, I some times get on my knees to capture this lower perspective.

Typical Camera Settings for My Soccer Photography

This soccer photo was taken on a typical Saturday in June in southeastern Michigan.  The time was 6:11pm.  I used my Nikon D300 with the 300mm f/2.8 lens attached.  The camera settings were:

• Aperture priority setting at f/2.8
• Shutter speed automatically set to 1/2500
• ISO setting was 320
• 0 exposure bias
• Continuous autofocus setting
• Quality setting was Fine JPEG mode
• File size was 5.28 MB

I call this typical, because this photo didn't require any unusual camera settings or software adjustment techniques due to the environment when photographing the subject.

Use eBay to Find Good Used Lenses

After shooting a soccer game today, a lady who saw my 300mm f2.8 / camera setup commented that she wished she had a 300mm lens for her Canon camera.  Of course her next comment was how expensive this lens is.  In fact it's very extremely expensive.  If you check the price of this lens at B&H Photo Video, it's $5,300 when purchased new.   My advice to her was to check eBay to see if she could find a good used version of a Canon 300mm f/2.8 lens for her setup.  Ebay is how I found my Nikon version.  It's not the latest 300mm with vibration reduction that's sold new today.  But it is the version Nikon made from 1996 to 2001 that contains the AF-S fast auto focus system. 

When using eBay for a purchase like this, just be patient.  Your prize lens will show up soon enough.

ISO Settings Used for Indoor Sports Photography

Indoor photography of sports like basketball can be challenging when you cannot use flash. School gyms are notoriously dark and less than optimal for sports photography. The only technique available for capturing good images in this circumstance involve using the high ISO setting on your digital SLR.  Check out some examples of this here.