Tag: Sports
Last winter, we had the opportunity to photograph the State Games of Michigan. This past August, the State Games of America came to Michigan and we got to photograph athletes from all over the country. We photographed a variety of sports from mountain biking and cricket to ice hockey. One of my favorite shots came from mountain biking (lower right). What I love about this shot is that it looks more like an environmental portrait than an action shot, but I promise he was on mile ten of a twelve mile race, but he wasn’t too tired to smile for the camera when he came around the corner.
My favorite event to photograph during the summer games was probably figure skating. It was fun to try to guess how the skaters were going to move and when the best time would be to press the shutter. Even though we probably spent the most time at figuring skating, they were not my best shots. Although its not noticeable if you’re just a spectator, ice rinks aren’t that bright. With my telephoto lens, it was hard to keep my shutter speeds fast enough to freeze their motion and many of what looked like great shots at first had blurry faces.
Next month, we will head back to Grand Rapids to photograph the winter games again. Unfortunately, figure skating isn’t one of the sports this time so I will not be able to perfect my skills yet. Stay tuned to the blog for those images later this winter!
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A few weekends ago, we had the opportunity to photograph the State Games of Michigan. I’ve never photographed sports before but I wasn’t about to turn my nose up at press credentials for a sporting event. We knew we wanted to try to catch skiing so we rented some longer telephoto lenses. Chris shot with a behemoth 150-600mm lens which allowed him to see people’s nose hairs at the top of the ski hill (ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration). I shot a 18-300 mm that allowed me to reach about halfway up the hill, but I found it was better for catching the end of the runs. I really enjoyed capturing when they stopped and sent the snow flying. Photographing skiing was a lot of fun and would love to be able to do it again some time, but something tells me I’m going to have to wait until next winter.
When shooting any kind of sports, freezing motion is key, so you want a fast shutter speed. We were lucky that this was a sunny day so I was able to keep my shutter speed quicker than 1/1000 second at ISO 100.
Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with Nikkor 18-300 mm f/3.5-5.6, handheld
Date Taken:
February 18, 2017
Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. If you are interested in renting lenses, I highly recommend LensGiant. They have a great selection and reasonable prices. They frequently run sales too. If you are in the metro Detroit area, you are able to order from them and pick it up/drop it off at the Northville UPS store which can save a bunch of money on shipping.