Sports Photography

Sports photography is about one thing above all else: the decisive moment. Getting there requires fast glass, a camera with reliable subject tracking, an understanding of the sport you're covering, and the anticipation to be ready before the action peaks. This section covers the gear and technique for shooting sports at every level, from local games to professional events.

Capturing Fear: Photographing a Parkour Community Training Event

One of my regular gigs is photographing the training events hosted in London by Parkour Generations. Winterval, a day of hard training outdoors regardless of the conditions, takes place every January and shooting it can be a daunting prospect; winter in London is often grim, with short, dark days made grimmer by drizzle or worse. This year we got lucky with glorious sunshine, albeit accompanied by a biting breeze.

The Most Mesmerizing Paragliding Video You've Ever Seen

When trying to get creative, we often get discouraged thinking everything has been done, and no matter how hard we try, our work is going to be inspired or a remote copy of someone else’s idea. However, there are still some exceptionally brilliant minds that find ways to innovate and make the impossible possible. Valentin Delluc, a French speed rider, and Dino Raffault managed to create a unique video that will make your eyes light up even if you don’t know what speed riding is.

Sigma 500mm Sport Lens Real-World Experience

Super telephoto prime lenses are not very common except in the world of professional nature and sport photography. Today, Australian photographer Blake Parry talks about his experience with the Sigma 500mm f/4 lens.

Four Tips for the First-Time Sports Photographer

So your kid just started playing pee-wee football, or maybe you are a portrait photographer who just landed a sports gig. Maybe you’re shooting your first assignment for the college newspaper. In any case, while sports photography isn’t for the faint of heart, here are four technical tips to get you started on the right path.

The World's Most Technologically Advanced Yellow Line

If you grew up in a house with a football-loving father like I did, you probably had your young little mind blown every NFL Sunday by the yellow line darting under the players' feet. My dad's answer? "Hollywood Magic." Up until the moment I stumbled across this video that was the only answer I had ever gotten.

Motorsports: An Interview With Photographer Larry Chen

I recently spent three days in Ensenada shooting with the talented TEMPT Media crew during the Baja 1000. On the second night while unwinding at our Airbnb, in walks a guy with three beefy rigs with all the lenses wrapped in gaff tape, underneath what would appear to be a layer of dust that most normal human beings wouldn’t subject their Canon 1DXs to.

Photoshopping Climbers Out of Images Becomes Funny Rock Worshipping Scene

In one of the more ridiculous things I've seen on the Internet lately; simply removing the main subject matter from these bouldering images has revealed a completely different photo. The people left appear to praising or worshipping these large rocks, and the variety and groups of people in some of the photos just adds to the level of absurdity.

Photographer Has a Close Call With Flipping Car

When using a camera on a race track it's best to be cautious, and in this case really lucky. What looks like a back woods rally circuit, there are a multitude of onlookers and spectators for the day's racing. We see the number 50 car becomes airborne on a ramped corner in the beginning of the video, and while attempting to hold the line over compensates for the turn and careens toward a camera man pitched at the end of the inside of the turn.

The 15-Month Journey of a Lucha Libre Photographer Across Mexico

It was supposed to be a quick trip in Mexico to cover the Lucha Libre World Cup for Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine. But Photographer Jerry Villagrana, based in Detroit, eventually spent the next 15 months in the country shooting Mexican wrestling both for major promotions in 18,000 seat arenas as well as local neighborhood areas with dirt floors. Here is his story.

Mountain Biking Meets Drawing for a Unique Video

In many artistic disciplines and sports, people are told they should concentrate on one thing and one thing only. Being specialized seems to be the trend and what most industry leaders appear to believe in. However, there are exceptions to this. First, those industry leaders themselves that are more often than not great educators as well. But then, there are those people that truly shine in different domains such as Micayla Gatto. Watching her recent video where she rides her bike on mountains and her drawings is just an amazing experience, one you should see with your own eyes to believe it.

Atlanta Stadium Debuts Its Roof That Opens and Closes Like a Camera Lens' Aperture

When Atlanta and their NFL franchise announced that they will be breaking ground to a new stadium, they wanted to shoot for the stars and redefine the benchmark. After nine years of planning and constructing the new stadium, Atlanta last night debuted their first big game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. While it's a magnificent piece of architecture, one feature in particular catches the photographer's eye more than others. Let's take a look!

The Sony a9 Review We've All Been Waiting For

While we all might not all be a fan of his on-camera persona or his punchy photography style. I think we can all agree that Jared Polin aka FroKnowsPhoto does a great job of testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest in the Photography industry. In his newly released “Real World Review” Jared takes the newly released Sony a9 and puts it through the paces at a professional soccer event in Philadelphia. 

Pan"Tone" - Sports Photography Project With a Color Twist

When a D1 collegiate athlete becomes a photographer, you should watch out. Zach Ancell is a commercial sports photographer from Portland and has been shooting for almost 10 years now. As any self-respecting creative, he does his own personal projects between the commercials he shoots. Pan"Tone," which is one of Ancell's recent shoots caught my attention, and he kindly agreed to share all we want to know about the set.

First Images From the Sony a9 Mirrorless Camera - Sports Photography With Full-Frame Stacked Sensor and 20fps

Last week Sony unveiled their most ambitious Alpha camera to date with the a9. The 24.2-megapixel mirrorless camera takes on the general form factor of previous a7 II bodies and packs in their latest photo technology with a strong emphasis on autofocus, speed, and removing distractions such as shutter noise and screen blackout in continuous shooting. This all adds up to a product that has the potential to make a large impact on the sports photography scene. Today I'm excited to share a number of images I shot with the Sony a9 of a range of track and field events plus hockey and ice skating.

Pushing the Panasonic GH5 Stabilization to the Limit

The somewhat flawed auto focus system on the Panasonic GH5 has claimed plenty of attention since it's release, but if there is one feature which is undoubtedly five star, it's the dual stabilization technology, and here is the proof.

Photographing an Indoor Rock Climbing Boulder Competition

I spend a couple days a week inside a rock climbing gym when I’m not traveling. So when I got the opportunity to photograph Rock Spot Climbing's Boston Boulder Brawl, one of the bigger local bouldering competitions, I got really excited. As an adventure photographer I've photographed climbing in all sorts of environments but this would be my first attempt at shooting indoor climbing. Of course indoor gyms come with a completely different set of difficulties compared to shooting outdoors.

Dreamland: The Coolest Bike Ad Out There

I came across this video while just browsing around and it ended up being one of those videos that just took me back. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to drones, but also a huge fan of some good drone work for photography and videography. I expected this video to just be a narrative/documentary about a mountain biker, when suddenly it turned into much more. Flying through the trees, up to the mountains, into caves, and out to the snow and ice; this video takes you on one big journey with the mountain biker himself.

Drone Captures Amazing Footage of Big Wave Surfer Ride and Rescue

In late February an approaching storm sent the big wave surfing community into action when forecasts predicted good conditions for some monster swell near Nazaré, Portugal. Surfers and photographers alike drop everything when big wave conditions appear for the chance of winning one of the Big Wave Awards offered by various companies and organizations. On February 28, drone footage of several surfers was captured in a rescue attempt after one surfer wiped out towards the end of his ride. The resulting footage is an amazing example of how drones are bringing the size, danger, and pure intensity of big wave surfing to spectators and couch surfers at home.

Are You a Woman Who Shoots Sports? Apply for This Internship

I'll admit that I'm not the biggest sports fan. And while that may be a huge understatement, when I do watch sports, I usually notice that the photographers on the sidelines tend to have a Y chromosome. The women shooters are few and far between. So, on International Women's Day, I'd like to shine a small spotlight on a new internship offered by Getty Images to get women into the sports photography arena.

BTS: Shooting a Free Runner in China at -18°F Temperatures

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to shoot in -18°F? Action Photographer David Robinson brought a free runner, Jason Paul, along with him to China to experience it, and now shares his story with us. At first, you may wonder what a free runner and such cold weather have in common, and you would be entirely right to do so. But wait until you discover the pictures to see how beautiful the combination of an icy landscape and this sport is.

BTS: Wakesurfing with the Phottix Indra500 TTL

Action sport photography has always been something that I have been drawn to, but I just don't have the access and opportunity to shoot it very often. So when I got the chance to shoot some wakesurfing, I Instantly jumped at the opportunity. The one thing I wanted to do going into the shoot though, was come out with something different.

Sports: A Study In Motion

The execution of this photoshoot was one of the more difficult one’s I have dealt with in sometime. Balance had to be achieved between the still and motion aspect of each frame and angular light consistency had to be given up in exchange for drama.

Creating Painterly Surfer Photographs With a Slow Shutter

Recently, I've gotten into surfing. I'm quite possibly the worst surfer in the world, but through surfing, I met some great, artistic friends. I acted as the DP on a super fun all-women's surf film this summer. I had no idea how to shoot surfers, so it was a huge learning experience. Now that I know a little bit more about it (and I stress the "little bit more"), I thought I would try and shoot a personal project just for fun to test out an artsy-fartsy idea. 

Atlas With the Sun - The Most Complicated Photo I've Ever Shot

About a year and a half ago, I was walking on a local beach and realized that for a few weeks of the year, the sun would set in a perfect line of sight down the beach. I thought it might be a fun photographic challenge to create a super telephoto picture with a body builder "holding" the sun in an Atlas style pose. In my mind, the entire scene would be lit rather than have a typical sun silhouette image. Little did I realize how much work I was getting myself into.

What It's Like Photographing Olympic Fencing

When it comes to Olympic venues no other event goes so far to create such a theatrical experience for the attendees while also making for some of the most dynamic Olympic photographs as fencing.

Epic High-Action Nikon D500 Campaign Involves Smashing Messy Fruit

Nikon has teamed up with sports photographer Tom Miles and world champion martial artist Tom "Fire Kid" Duquesnoy for its new #MomentOfImpact campaign – which largely involves epic action photos of the latter smashing watermelons, cakes, and pumpkins. Check out the intense photo series here, and learn more about how it was lit and executed.

Action Flash Photography With a Strobe Attached to a Drone

Drones have grown into a standard item to own not only for videographers, but also for many photographers. Most have used them to capture images from the sky or places hardly accessible otherwise. A few have played around with these small machines to light their subject in a unique way, just like our very own Patrick Hall did when lighting a lighthouse with a DJI Phantom and a Nikon strobe. Photographer David Robinson took this to the next level and strapped an Elinchrom ELB 400 to an octocopter.

Corey Rich on How to Not F-up Your Next Video Shoot

If you've ever picked up an issue of Climbing or Outside Magazine, you are pretty much guaranteed to have seen Corey Rich's images on the cover. One of the biggest names in adventure photography, Corey has worked for everyone; from Nike and Adidas, to Apple and North Face. As a still photographer and director, his production company handles outdoor film projects in some of the most remote environments on the planet.

Sports Illustrated Photographer Uses iPhone 7 Plus Camera at NFL Game

Last week Apple unveiled the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the later featuring a 28mm wide-angle and a 56mm “telephoto” lens, and both sporting a faster f/1.8 aperture with a 12-megapixel sensor. At today’s Titans-Vikings game, Sports Illustrated photographer David E. Klutho shot some of the first images with the iPhone 7 Plus before the phone’s September 16 release date.

Here Are Some of the Best Photos Taken from the Rio Summer Olympics 2016

One more has passed, the event that unites the world together showcasing the best athletes on earth has come to a close in Brazil. We witnessed triumph, we witnessed heartbreak, legacies stamped, and living legends made. Packed in the two weeks of the summer Olympic games were hundreds of special moments, some even iconic that we'll remember for years to come. And it was up to the photographers to make sure these moments would live on forever.

LA Times Photographer Captures Stunning 8x10 Portraits of US Olympic Athletes

In the world of newspaper photographers, you'd be hard to find someone consistently making more exciting and interesting portraits than Jay L. Clendenin. You might have seen his Land Camera Polaroid images from the Toronto International Film Festival, or his 4x5 black and white/digital color diptychs of California Olympians. For this year's Olympics, he decided to go even bigger and bring out his 8x10 Tachihara view camera to capture some amazing photos of American athletes.

United States Olympic Committee Restricts Media Usage Even More

You might remember a recent story in which an athletic sponsor was forbidden from referencing the Olympics when reporting on one of their athletes. It seems the US Olympic Committee is now clamping down all the more, issuing very stringent restrictions.