Barrington, US
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Please read the Rules and Objectives here before you submit a photo for this Assignment.
The September Assignment is “MOTION~ACTION~SPEED”.
There are a number of subjects that will fit the bill here. While I am not looking necessarily for sports photos, those will work; in fact, with school about to start, there may be a whole host of opportunities pursuing the school sports venue. For those of you new to action photography, check out Steve Johnson’s (Reuben) discourse here.
But sports shots are not the only potential subjects. I am looking for photographs that convey to the observer a sense of motion, action and/or speed. Perhaps some carefully planned blur, or well-executed panning is in order. Use of slow speed rear curtain sync or stroboscopic flash could produce some interesting results.
I am not looking for pictures of cars frozen on a road or race track or planes frozen in the air – there is no conveyance of motion, action or speed. If the shot is well panned, or there are spectacular contrails, that is a different story.
Please consider your backgrounds too – often you have no choice; but at least if you are thinking about it, you may be able to work around a background that would otherwise be unacceptable.
So, whether you are setting up to take a carefully planned shot or are at a sporting event hoping to catch some great action, please:
• Be imaginative and go for the unusual shot. After all, that’s what makes this fun!!! Also, when you view the shot, does it reflect motion, action and/or speed?
• Do not use a shot in your archive – the whole point of this exercise is that it is an assignment.
• Submit only artistic shots. Naturally, we want to see your very best work with regard to subject matter and composition - translation – snapshots are not permitted.
• With respect to sports shots, ask yourself – would it make the cover of Sports Illustrated?
• Include shooting data, and ideally, please include your thinking behind the scene – what were you trying/hoping to capture, and did you succeed?
Being a sports photographer, this assignment was right up my alley.  I generally try to capture sports from a unique angle. The general action shot does not do it for me. Yes, I take them, but I am rarely happy with them. I like to be up close and personal – in your face, if you will; yet the shot needs to convey that there is action involved. Often, I am fortunate to capture an awesome expression on the face of the athlete – for me that is a bonus. But it is the unique action shot that I am after.
During the summer, I shoot a lot of sailing events. Most are dinghy events, and ideally the conditions will be wet and wild. I yearn to capture a boat pitch poling (I almost did once) or surfing down a wave with its kite up. Shooting sailing events is a challenge because often the photographer is in the midst of the event, rocking and rolling on a boat. Shutterspeeds need to be up, especially if you are using long glass, and with all the white sails, the EV needs to be managed carefully to preserve the detail in the highlights. So, when I am shooting sports, I am not just flicking off eight frames a second hoping to catch a magical shot; instead, I am watching the action (knowing the sport helps here) and am trying to anticipate the next move, and all the while I am keeping an eye on the data in my viewfinder to be sure my variables are where they need to be for the shot.
I have posted two examples. These are not sequential shots, although they are nearly so – there was a frame in between these two but these two were the better shots. The skipper happens to be my one of my twin daughters and she and her crew were coming two weeks ago to the start of a race on the first day of the Junior Olympic Sailing Festival off Fort Getty in Narragansett Bay. The wind had just picked up and was blowing in excess of 20 knots against a very strong current which kicked up the waves. She was screaming in on a reach and caught a wave that she literally blew through – hence the sequence shots. Note the expressions – they are of pure excitement. The spray, IMO, has speed written all over it.
Both shots were taken with a D2X with a 300mm F2.8 VR (handheld) at 200 ISO, F5 (A priority), -.3 EV (to preserve the highlights), 1/1600 and 1/3000, respectively, WB set at Cloudy -1 to give nice skin tones. Interestingly, I had the metering set to spot (normally I would be matrix metering – I must have forgotten to change it – hate when that happens). Fortunately, the focus point was the back of her crew's head so the metering turned out okay.
As it turned out, the race never got off as the wind increased to over 30 knots and the race committee saw fit to abandon for the day (rats – it would have been a feeding frenzy for awesome shots!!)
(Please click image to see larger version.)
(Please click image to see larger version.)
I look forward to seeing how you fulfill this assignment!
Good luck!!!
Rob
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Visit Nikonians at Photokina in Cologne, Germany ~ Cologne Exhibition Center-Hall 2.1 A015 September 26 thru October 1, 2006
Rob
My Nikonians Gallery
Team Page
My Website
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