Golden Rules for Sports Photography

[chakai87]

With rugby then generally longer is better. If you have a long lens (ie more than 400mm in 35mm terms) then you'd get decent results sitting behind the try line and having a go with that. Do not be afraid to go tight, there's no problem with shooting just the top half of players for example.

If you're restricted to shorter focal lengths then you'll be better off running the lines. I wouldn't recommend this to most people starting out but if you have a rugby background then you'll have a good idea where play is going to go and you can probably get away with it. Note that at the highest level people running the lines have a long lens as well.

You get very different images shooting from the end and shooting from the side as well, so ignore anything you read about finding a best spot and sticking to it.

And just in case Reportage wonders ( ), this advice comes from being the club photographer for the Newcastle Falcons since 2000, having shot at all the Six Nations stadia barring Rome, and having shot a Rugby World Cup. I have photographed players such as Dan Carter, Jonah Lomu, Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Burke, Carl Hayman, Richie McCaw, Shane Williams, Schalk Burger, etc. I also happen to have a pic of me with Jonny and a certain Webb Ellis trophy... shame I'm in it but can't do much about that

I do also happen to be a bit of a rugby fan, if you hadn't guessed.

Hahah Jed the people you have had the chance to meet are actually enough to make any Rugby fan jealous. I once met Jonny, when he came to Singapore, but didn't get to talk to him.

With regards to your advice on running the lines, I may give that a shot when I go to a few School/College matches because there's more freedom to roam around and less fans in the way. Sadly for us, we don't have many terraces/stands so the fans crowd around the fields mostly.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jed]

Hahah Jed the people you have had the chance to meet are actually enough to make any Rugby fan jealous. I once met Jonny, when he came to Singapore, but didn't get to talk to him.

Ah, I said I've photographed them, doesn't mean I've met them The people who've come through Newcastle I'll know (Jonny, Carl and Burkey from that list) but most of the others are just people on a pitch really.

With regards to your advice on running the lines, I may give that a shot when I go to a few School/College matches because there's more freedom to roam around and less fans in the way. Sadly for us, we don't have many terraces/stands so the fans crowd around the fields mostly.

In relation to the PM, you won't be able to run the lines at Headingley. Or Newcastle for the matter. But you should have no problem whatsoever doing that at the Uni games over here, or the club level stuff I was telling you about. This is really better for stock work rather than action, as a general rule. But again you get different stock from the side (passing, rather than running) than head on (the other way around), and different action too.