The Pre-Season NFL football games have begun indicating a quickly ending summer. From my one season of trying to photograph football from right on the field, I learned much about photographing sports – football specifically, and I learned about other applicable photography skills that I could use off the field. In researching how to better photograph the practices and the games, I visited lots of blogs, watched online videos and slideshows. One sports photographer that made an impression on me was John McDonnell.
Football Photography
At the Washington Redskins training camp, preseason and a regular season game, I had the opportunity to meet and watch Mr. McDonnell work as he covered action on the field. He has been a sports photographer at the Washington Post since the Superbowl years. You can view his images at the Post every day as the season unfolds both online and in the paper. I was not the only photographer that kept my eye on John’s shooting position! He is in the perfect position to capture the action more than most. I learned that there is always something that would be good capture to more complete the story of the game. This can be both on and off the field – there are coaches, trainers, people in the crowd, players on the bench – so much to get, that you have to keep your eye to the camera before the moment passes.
Attending an NFL football game in person is designed to be overload the senses. Trying to capture this event in camera is a challenge that definitely takes years to be comfortable doing season after season. Not only are the thousands of fans adding to the frenzied action, obstacles on the sidelines to avoid, but American football is a game of inches! Keeping track of the ball – who has it, who is getting it, and the game situations that could affect where the ball is going next keeps everyone on their toes.
Thankfully, I will concentrate on photographing ballroom dancers. They have a much easier environment for photographers to work, but they have their own challenges. You should always keep your eye to the camera – dancers always make for fun moments to capture!
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