Singapore, Happy 44th Birthday!
Singaporeans simply just love fireworks.
And have you taken the pledge at 8.22pm yesterday?
More photos after the link: http://imouyang.multiply.com/photos/album/96/09_Aug_09_Fireworks_Marina_Sq
10 Aug 2009
Table Tennis: Faces
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 12 (END)
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 12 (END)
Sports is not just about action. Sports is about people.
Sports is about the desire of people to excel.
Sports is about fighting spirit.
Sports is about teamwork and sharing happiness.
Sports is about sharing woes together too.
Sports is about the sadness when hard work is not rewarded.
Sports is about the agony when Murphy's Law kicks in.
Sports is about bracing yourself to go on.
Sports is not just about action. Sports is about people.
9 Aug 2009
Table Tennis II: Everything Else of the Game
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 11
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.
A photographer who stop looking for fresh angles might as well put down his camera and sit back and just watch the show. One must be able to look beyond the surface and thoroughly explore what is really there for you to shoot. Strategizing is always part of sports and here we have a duo discussing in "private" as the opponent waits.
You dun need to see faces and expressions to show how tired or distressed a player is. Sometimes, a simple refusal to stand up tells it all.
YTSA=Young Team Singapore Ambassador... Go Team Sg!
Flinging the table tennis bat onto the table. Action speak louder than words?
A candid moment. Not often does a player smile before facing a tough opponent. Great Spirit~
Tmr will be the last part of the Sports Special before we move onto Food Special. I really miss the adrenaline rush when I shoot sports...
8 Aug 2009
Table Tennis I: The action of the Game
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 10
Today, I will be talking about the last sports that I have shot during the holidays, Table Tennis! It's perhaps one of the most memorable shoot during the holidays as well. I was covering 6 days of AYG Table Tennis action at Toa Payoh Sports Hall. It's also my first long-term sports coverage and I really learn a lot and sweat a lot during these few days.
Shooting a multiple day event is a real test of stamina. Learning when to rest and teamwork now comes in. Shooting in a team of two (with my buddy;)), it's important that you place trust in your teammates and just rest when it is time to. If you think that resting is going to let you miss a terific shot, then I can say that you are going to miss more fabulous shots when your eyes and body give way to fatigue.
Shooting a multiple day event is not all about fatigue and teamwork but it also makes you critically evaluate and improve. After shooting for some time, we realise that shots are getting repititive as we understand the games and the players better. Players do the same action and we can have a few shots of players doing exactly the same thing but at different times. In normal one-off shoots, one will not feel like this because the time duration is simply too short. So how?
To get more variety, we started exploring different angles. Going up into the balcony area, trying to shoot from the side. We tried waiting for more varied action but they dun always come. More importantly, we started looking for pictures that speak more than action...
[Continue on Part II...]
7 Aug 2009
Soccer (II)
2009 Holiday Special Part 9
Today, we will continue to look at soccer again~! However, we will be looking at the action behind the action. What do I mean by that? Sports photography is not just about capturing the adrenaline rush in action-packed shots. There is more to it...
If you frequent wired agency websites (eg. Getty Image, Reuters), you will definitely see a pletora of action-packed images. But more amazingly, the "not so action-packed" shots actually speak more about the sports and the people. You see people celebrating after a goal, the genuine smiles on their faces when their hard work payed off.
Sometimes, body language speaks a lot as well. Actions that speak of dissapointment can be more suggestive than the sad faces on the atheletes.
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!".
Here, we also do have cases when players really want to get the ball that they do weird things such as whacking their opponents. It may be coincidental, it may not be. Only the players know..
6 Aug 2009
Soccer (I)
2009 Holiday Special Part 8
Today, we look at one of Singaporean's favourite sports: Soccer! All the photos here are taken during the recent Asian Youth Games (AYG). Prior to the AYG, I have already shot some soccer matches before and Soccer was the first sports event i shot. From these many soccer shoots, it was where I first have learned a few important things that a sports photographer should know.
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.
Knowing where to position yourself is also an important part. You learn this thru advice, your own experience and also thru the eyes of others by looking at their photos. Every possible shooting position will definitely have its pros and cons. For soccer, corner position are usually favoured, you can shoot winger action, you can shoot keeper action (above). The compromise? your opposite flank.
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.
One last advice to give to any budding sports photographer is that please dun save on your shutter. Bursting away is a necessity in sports most of the time (but don't overdo it als0) A frame before and a frame after can make a big difference. Just burst away when you see the action! Anw, no "fun photos" for today as I will be talking about soccer again tmr! But not about the action~ Dun get it? Just wait for the next post!
5 Aug 2009
Skate Park
2009 Holiday Special Part 7
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~!
All these photos are taken at the new skate park at East Coast Park. On a saturday evening, you can see quite a bit of youths hanging around just like you see in the skate park at Youth Park. It seems that quite a lot of youths are in love with this form of sports and you can even see a few serious players who challenge the most dangerous pits around in the park.
One unique thing about these extreme sports is that there is no rules governing it at all! However, the lack of rules does not make the sports unpredictable. Player action is in fact highly predictable perhaps due to the dangerous nature which require constant practice of the same action. The guy above loves to pause on the slope after he does a more dangerous flip (1st photo)
Lastly, if you have not realised, for the last photo of every post, I try to get a "fun/interesting pic". Conclusion: Even seasoned players can get mistakes. Always be careful!
4 Aug 2009
Hockey
2009 Holiday Special Part 6
Here, we look at a field sports, hockey! To me, hockey bears quite some resemblance to soccer. First, the size of the field and number of players. Another thing common in photos of both sports is that you see "things" coming out from the shoes of the players..
In hockey, the "thing" is actually water. I doubt that most people including me knows that water is bring sprayed onto the pitch prior to the game starting, creating this effect. It's somehow similar to soccer when you see those black stuff which is "sand" afrom artificial pitch. You can see quite a bit of water here as the player firms his feet to block a ball.
Another thing worthy to mention is that it really hurts when the ball hits you. Throughout the game, you can hear lound and sharp sounds whenever the ball hits the edges of the field which is being fenced up. And the players really smack the dense ball hard so dodge if the ball comes in your way!
Again, we can see how hard the ball can get when it hits you from the way the goalkeeper is "dressed". The thick knee guard says it all~
We end off with a rather interesting scene here. Conclusion from the photo: It hurts when the ball hits, especially at the wrong spot!
3 Aug 2009
Volleyball
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 5
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. Stay tuned to this 2009 Holiday Special series that will be updated daily!
2 Aug 2009
Netball
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 4
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.;)
Lastly, one unique feature about netball is that players have designated positions and they have restrictions due to these position. You don't see cases in soccer where a defender can run all the way to the front to score a goal here. Having some knowledge about the designated positions can help better in shooting the game. This is the same with every sports out there: Learn the game before you shoot it;)
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