Hot off the Track!
Driver: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Team
Well... From the picture, you can most probably guess three things~
One: I am at the F1 track!
Two: I din pay for tickets!
Three: That's not my camera! (But i took the shots of course~)
We were shooting behind some bushes and this results in the black patches in the photos. However, they do provide a very nice framing backgound that we made use of~ I love this shot above~ Seldom do u see two cars so near each other on a practice day (Fri). Well, you should be able to see more of such scenes tonight or tmr~ SO grab your cameras and shoot F1 if ya free~
Actually, we initially are not very geared towards shooting F1 cuz it was simply too fenced up this year. We actually went wondering around at suntec and millinea walk. Here's the proof~! Some "i think very expensive" specs at millinea walk:)
Pictures that speak more than action gives another dimension to the sport. Getting arty is one way. Inspired by my buddy, I decided to try something unconventional. How about slow shutter speeds? Well, the motion blur tells us about the fast pace of the game.
All these photos explore the very human nature of sports. Sometimes, to me, seeing these emotionaly stiring photos are more inspiring than seeing action-packed shots. Here, you have overexcitement in the form of slapping your teammates to tell them: "Hey, you are not dreaming! We scored!".
Like I stress in many of my previous post, knowing the sports is important. It allows you to anticipate how the players is going to react under certain conditions. Also, it allows you to make "more informed" decisions such as what are good shooting angles and what settings / equipment should you use. Just like you know a header might happen upon a free kick and you can prepare for the shot.
Another thing is to be alert during the shoot. It may be common sense but you really need the extra alertness. Usually, I would not advice photographers to review the photo during the match itself as you may miss important moments when you are looking at your LCD screen. But if you are rushing for time (the press always dun have time), then you have to compromise. If possible, try to keep you eyes on the players on the field and not on your LCDs.
Today marks one week of daily posting! I hope that there are still people looking at this blog! We will be looking at a sports that's rather unconventional: extreme skateboarding and biking~!
Today, we look at another ball game, volleyball~! It's another game I am not familiar with but there mainly two types of action you always see in a volleyball game.
First, we have the one of the most signature moves that we see in volleyball matches which is diving to save the ball. During this match i shot, they seldom dive probably cuz it can get quite painful with the wooden floor. It's more common in beach volleyball where the sand floor is kinder.
Another classic manuveur is smacking the ball near the net. As players are in closer proximity, this is the time when emotions run high and you can see a variety of expressions on players faces. 
In this next part of the sports special, we move away from racket sports and look at netball. Frankly, I know nuts about netball. My first impressions about netball is that it involves a lot of physical contact, somewhat like basketball. In principle, you can shoot netball like you are shooting basketball with the main difference being that you bounce the ball in one and you toss the ball around in the other.
Anw, shooting this netball match was not easy, given the lousy lighting conditions. You have to go up to ISO3200 to only get a decent shutter speed [Note: Decent not equal good=(] I guess that pre-focusing can help quite a bit in such situations as focusing can get a bit haywired in dim conditions like this. There are other ways to work around it too.;)
Talking about glam or unglam actually leads to a very important thing in sports: Style! Most seasoned players, in fact all, play with a certain style, patterns that you can observe over time if you are sharp enough.. Players often move in a similar manner as they execute their moves. For example, our lady above loves to do taiji swordplay when she returns a drop shot~ Knowing these patterns can prove to be useful~ More to be said in later parts!
