Sunday, September 4, 2011

Football Season=Photography Season

It's that time again...  The start of football season (and many other college sports) is also the start of new kind of photography "season."  Sporting events can offer a tremendous amount of material to photograph: players, coaches, fans, cheerleaders, the band, tailgaters, etc.  There's plenty of stuff around, so definitely pack your camera as an essential piece of equipment for sporting events!

I myself just attended the first Husker football game of the season.  The game gave me an opportunity (finally) to take a few pictures.  I'm not sure what it's like elsewhere, but it seems like there are awkward periods of time in Nebraska when there's nothing outside to photograph.  The occasional sunset will be pretty this time of year, but there's really nothing blooming and storm season is basically behind us.  Plus, life gets busy in the fall, so there's not always time to seek out an interesting subject.  Football game photography provides multiple easy subjects and is a welcome change from what I normally photograph.  I love nature, but you can only take pictures so many insects, flowers, and skies before you start to crave something a little different.

Below are a couple shots from the first game of the season. My seats were not extremely close, so I didn't really attempt to get much player action.  I experimented with a few settings, but my favorites from the day were my panorama shots and my regular shots (which were edited to look like tilt-shift photography):





So, as I said before, always pack that camera before you head to sporting event!  A couple things I would recommend:

1)  If you're close to the court/field, try out your "sport" setting.  Almost all regular digital cameras have some sort of sport/action setting that is meant to capture people or objects in motion.  A sporting event would obviously be a great place to test this one out.

2)  If you're in a large stadium or arena, a panorama like the one shown above might be a good idea.  Stadiums are huge and you're usually at an elevated position, so I don't think you can really go wrong with a wide shot.

3) Still pay attention to the game! Don't miss out on the action because you're taking pictures nonstop the entire time.  Snap a few at key moments, but do remember to focus on what's happening!  Don't be that annoying person who is preoccupied with their camera the entire time. :)

Have fun!  Before I go, I can't help myself....GO BIG RED! 

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