Sports Photography How To

Social media has clearly taken the world by storm and photographers have been quick to catch on. That is indeed true for extreme sports photographer Christian Pondella, who has a strong following on several social media platforms, particularly Instagram.

There’s not much we can say about this video other than the fact that photographers should really know when to say when.

Ask a Pro is a new Q&A column from professional photographer, writer, and educator Scott Kelby. Scott is here to answer all your photography-related questions, so if you have something you’d like to know, e-mail him at editorial@shutterbug.com (with “For Scott Kelby” as the subject line) and your query could be featured in the next edition of Ask a Pro.

One of the things I love about sports photography is that no matter which sport you’re shooting, the actual camera techniques themselves have an awful lot in common. For example, while baseball and tennis are very different sports, the skills you need and the settings you use for shooting both are just about the same. To help you capture better images of “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,” here are my top 10 tips to help you no matter which sport you’re shooting.

For a sports photographer, the thrill of the game is superseded only by the thrill of capturing that peak moment of action. For the uninitiated, photographing a sport—especially football—can be intimidating and certainly challenging. Hit-or-miss, in fact. But not to a seasoned pro like Peter Read Miller. This illustrious Sports Illustrated photographer, who now largely shoots for commercial clients, shares with us his experience and knowledge of how to shoot the game of football.

Professional sports photography for the editorial market is an endangered species. Unfortunately, a lot of it has to do with editorial clients turning away from the professional photographer to sports enthusiasts who are willing to trade their photos for season tickets.