The Limitations of a Beginner Sports Photographer

In the next couple of weeks I plan on writing a lengthy post about the economics of sports photography. As exciting and rewarding as it can be, it comes at a high price because there is just so much gear involved. 

Anyway, one of the reasons money and camera gear are always on my mind is because I see the limitations of the gear I own every time I look at the final product of my photos. It's frustrating. These photos here were shot at Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas where I cover the North Texas Mean Green. This game was against conference opponent Florida Atlantic, and unfortunately it was at night. 

I wish I could say I own a Canon 1DX and a 400m F/2.8L lens, but I have to do my best with a Canon 5D Mark III, which is an AMAZING camera (don't get me wrong) but it has its limitations with frames per second and noise reduction compared to the former. The lens I typically use for football games is a Canon 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6L IS USM. Again, it's a fantastic piece of equipment but for football games it'd be nice to work with a lens that has a wider aperture so I could condense the backgrounds more for that bokeh effect, especially at a stadium like Apogee that features off-putting brown concrete walls around the field that can be a little distracting. It's also not an ideal lens for night football games because I have to boost my ISO really high if I want to make sure I freeze the action and remove any chance of motion blur in my photos. 

In the grand scheme of things, these are really nitpicky criticisms of my work because I walked away with fine photographs, but it's just frustrating to know that the photographers also working the game that night walked away with better photographs because they do have the ideal equipment. And I don't just want to walk away with fine photographs--they should be outstanding. It's just something I have to deal with in the learning stages. What's more important is that I continue to work on my composition, variety and exposure. 

Our Only Pope

Whenever you spend time around a team you start to learn a lot about the players you see on the field. In the last two seasons I've been covering SMU football one of the guys who's stood out to me the most is Kevin Pope (3). He is currently SMU's starting inside linebacker and team captain--he is the leader of team. But what makes his story intriguing is that he is in his fifth season with the Mustangs after being granted an extra year of eligibility due to an injury he suffered earlier in his collegiate career and it just so happens that this is one of SMU's worst seasons on record, who are currently winless. It's such a shame for a player of Pope's caliber, who will do anything for his team and he proved that when he played running back in the beginning of the season because his team needed help at that position. After moving back to linebacker and having a great game, I spoke to his coach about the kind of athlete and man Pope is. 

This is a story I originally wrote for Central Track

The SMU Mustangs lost their seventh game of the season on Saturday to the Memphis Tigers, a conference foe, 10-48. 

Yup, it was bad.

Worse, the loss officially eliminated the team from being bowl-eligible, and insured the Mustangs of finishing with a losing record.

There's no denying this has been a terrible season for the Mustangs all around, and the near-empty Ford Stadium in the second half on Saturday proved that this team has lost what little remained of its support. The product on the field isn't pretty, and, statistically, SMU is the worst team in the FBS. SMU is the only winless team in the country, ranks last in scoring offense and scoring defense, last in total defense and second to last in total offense. 

Yikes.

A season like this was definitely not what senior Kevin Pope envisioned for his team heading into the season. After missing the 2010 and 2011 seasons due to injury and earning a medical waiver, Pope is in his fifth and final year with the Mustangs -- and he undoubtedly didn't want to end his collegiate career this way. 

Last season, Pope led the team with 91 tackles from the linebacker position. After several injuries at running back, Pope then started getting carries at that position as well, while still keeping up his defensive duties on the other side of the ball. Coming into this season, he earned the No. 1 running back position, but with the paralyzing struggles the offense has had thus far -- including a four-way round-robin quarterback shuffle -- interim head coach Tom Mason thought Pope would be more valuable to his team if he returned to his linebacker role for the rest of the season. 

Last week against Cincinnati, in his first action at linebacker this season, Pope stepped in and recorded seven tackles. This weekend against Memphis, he led the team with 12 tackles and also recorded a sack. 

"You gotta love that kid," Interim head coach Tom Mason said. "I wish I had 20 of him. We wouldn't be sitting here talking about problems if I had 20 kids like Kevin Pope."

In the second half of this week's game, after things were already way out of hand, starting running back Prescott Line was on the sideline having an ankle injury attended to. And after backup running back Luke Seeker sustained a huge hit, it appeared as if Pope was lobbying for some carries. Still, Mason stuck to his plan of keeping Pope on defense only. 

"Kevin is one of those kids," Mason said. "He'd go both ways. He'd take 90 snaps on defense and 70 snaps on offense and he'd go down in heat exhaustion. That's the kind of kid he is."

For a senior who was fortunate enough to play college football for one more year, his effort has shown gratitude this season. He's certainly leaving it all on the field. 

"I just want to bring a different mentality toward the defense and go out there and just be a vocal leader and help them play better," Pope said when asked about his efforts this season. "I just want to go out there and play as hard as I can and spark the defense."

To his credit, the losing season hasn't affected Pope or his play on the field. For now, the team's lone bright spot is only concerned with going out every play and giving it his all.

Listening to the Radio While Shooting Games

In the past year that I've been shooting games I really try my best to keep up with the action as it's happening. Of course I keep track of the situational stuff such as downs and yardage as well as the clock, but sometimes aspects of the game aren't so obvious from the sidelines such as stat lines and approaching milestones. Sure, I may be aware TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin has thrown the ball to wide receiver Josh Doctson several times, but as a photographer without a stat sheet in front of him I may not be aware he's set a school record for receiving yards in a game and if I haven't snapped a photo of Doctson reflecting that story line I'm not doing the best job possible. 

To make sure this doesn't happen I've started listening to the radio broadcast of the game. Luckily I have a phone (HTC One M8) that has an FM player built in and I've yet to encounter any frequency issues. 

During this particular game at Amon G. Carter stadium in October this really came in handy. The TCU broadcasters pointed out that linebacker Paul Dawson had recorded about 10 or 11 tackles by the second quarter and was on pace to break a school record. Knowing that would be an interesting story angle, I started focusing in on Dawson (47) and more often than not he led me right to the ball and I ended up getting some great photos because of it.

I've listened to the game on the radio several times and it has been a big help. TCU has several track sprinters at the wide receiver position and rotates them in quite frequently. At the time of this game, Kolby Listenbee (7) was one of those receivers making lots of plays when he entered the game and I was able to keep track of him when he was on the field because the broadcasters always made sure to note when he entered the game. Again, a great aid.

When people ask me if I have any tips on shooting sports, I'll definitely be sure to tell them to bring a pair of headphones and listen to the radio broadcast--it's a huge help. 

Shooting The Epic TCU vs. Baylor Shootout

I've only been shooting football for a little less than a year now, and in that short time I haven't really shot in typical college football environments. The first two schools I had photo credentials for last year were the SMU Mustangs and North Texas Mean Green--not exactly the premier teams of the FBS. This season, though, I've been fortunate enough to be credentialed for SMU and North Texas again as well as TCU and Baylor. 

When TCU and Baylor played each other down in Waco, TX I finally had an opportunity to experience a legitimate college football atmosphere, and it was a lot to take in. Not only was I one of about 150 photographers on the sidelines but ESPN was in town broadcasting the game to the country and ESPN will do whatever it takes to get their shots even if that means squatting right in front of your camera. 

Aside from sideline distractions, this game was a fast-paced shootout. And considering some advice I've received when shooting football about staying in front of a good team and behind a bad one, I had to hustle end zone to end zone considering these were both great offensive teams. It was tiring, but I was able to capture a wide variety of shots for both teams--one of my goals for each game.

At one point in the game, though, it seemed as if TCU was going to leave victorious considering they were up by 21 points with six minutes left in the game, but I should've known better since Baylor has such an explosive offensive and a Heisman-caliber quarterback in Bryce Petty. 

This is where my inexperience in shooting big-time college football hurt me. As Baylor began its 21-point rally to tie the game it felt impossible to keep up with the team. Even though I was staying in front of the them, they scored so quickly and usually on the opposite side of the field so it caused me to miss out on good storytelling photos. 

On the final drive the Baylor Bears worked themselves into field goal range for a game-winning kick. Finding a place to shoot a good field goal/kicker shot is something I'm still figuring out. My thought process was to get in the corner of the end zone and capture a photo of the kick then the celebration or disappointment afterward, but with the noise from the crowd and the intensity of the moment I got too caught up in the situation. I captured a shot of the kick, but I couldn't help but look to see if he made it. In that time I looked up and watched the ball sail through the up-rights and finally looked back at the kicker it was pure chaos on the field. The Baylor players flooded the field and then moments later the students were rushing the field. 

I'm learning that sports photography is not only about predicting what's going to happen next, but you also have to be able to make quick decisions about where to be and what to shoot because if you don't you'll end missing a great shot.

The Warm-Up Shots

When it comes to editing down photos for my photo essays I rarely include shots from warm-ups. For some reason they feel inauthentic -- almost cheap in a way. Warm-ups are a great opportunity to get candid photos of a star athlete, but it's such a casual shot that it hardly fits into the flow of the usually intense action photos. 

There was one photo essay in which I used two warm-up shots in a photo essay when SMU played Texas A&M because they were high-profile, impact players (Ricky Seals-Jones & Kenny Hill, who are in the gallery above) I felt deserved a little extra attention but if I would've been able to get a better game shot of the two I would've easily chosen the latter. I guess, in a way, I use warm-up shots as a crutch in case I feel like my game shots are lacking a bit.