Can we talk sports?
If you’ve been here or known me a long time, you’ll know I have my creative roots deep in sports photography. When I was at uni, all I wanted to be as a photographer for AFL Photos!
But my career has taken a few different turns, and a few people who I’ve met.. let’s say post-2019, have been surprised to discover my photography history through Carlton in the VFL, the BHRDCA in cricket, and especially as a photojournalist at the Warrnambool Standard newspaper, happily covering countless hours of regular footy, netball, cricket, lawn bowls, basketball plus probably any other sport you can name too!
So I thought I’d share a dozen old faves, break down the gear and settings I used for these photos and chat about why I love these particular images.
I HAD to start with one of my all-time favourite images, of one of my AFL experiences, photographing Carlton’s pre-season intraclub matches in 2015.
(Side note, the media managers at both Carlton and Northern have always been, and still are, excellent at providing opportunities for their volunteers, and I’m deeply grateful to them still now, for boosting my career when I was young and green!)
Pretty sure I got the call for this opportunity same-day, when I was on my way to a haircut! But when Carlton calls, we don’t pass! Hustled home, grabbed my gear and shot off to Princes Park. I was volunteering with the Carlton-aligned Northern Blues VFL side at the time, and Carlton needed a few VFL-listed players to top up so they could field two ‘teams’ for their AFL intraclub game!
I mainly had to focus on getting our VFL players in frame with the big-dog AFL players, for cool VFL socials content, but I couldn’t resist a few good moments, like this one of Chris Judd and Marc Murphy, on opposing ‘teams’, still fighting hard for the ball even in the pre-season.
Settings-wise, standard setup for me at the time. I shot 99% of my footy work on a 70-200mm f2.8 lens (as opposed to a fixed 400mm or 600mm lens used at AFL/professional media level), and on a sunny day I would add a 1.4x converter to make the max zoom 280mm, to get closer in from the boundary. However, this converter removed 1x f-stop of light from my aperture, making it an f4 lens, so it was best utilised in the sun, and not in winter at 5pm when its getting dark, as I needed all the light I could get then!
Used a -1 exposure to balance the sunny day too, so the shadows were darker in RAW but I didn’t blow out the highlights. Easier to bring up shadows in post, than have blown out highlights.
Nikon D800, 70-200mm f2.8 lens @280mm (using 1.4x converter). Shot at f4, 1/8000, ISO400. Feb 2015. -1 exposure.
This one was working for either the VWFL, or the league below that in the western region, was a while ago so I cannot quite recall! Either way, I had hired a 200-400 f4 lens that weekend, either for this occasion or other footy I was shooting then for uni!
I love getting close-ups at quarter-time huddles, it’s very common in my sport work. It’s great for coach/staff shots, and close ups of key players I haven’t managed to catch during the match.
The zoom on this lens was so good (fairly sure it needed a monopod rather than my usual handheld) and allowed a nicer depth of field (the ‘blur’ in front/behind the subject in focus). I feel being able to shoot from a further back distance due to the zoom sometimes allows the subjects to not know I’m there and be less self-aware they’re on camera and really allows me to catch their true emotions.
Nikon D800, 200-400mm f4 lens @400mm. Shot at f4, 1/3000, ISO560. Aug 2014. -0.67
The next two photos were both shot at the same game, and were specific to a body of work I was producing at uni at the time for my final Photojournalism portfolio. My teacher had given me a challenge to capture moments outside my usual quality action shots, and provide some deeper variety to the 15-image series.
This one in particular is what photographers call a ‘panning’ shot. This is where you slow your shutter speed right down (I used 1/15th of a second, as opposed to my usual 1/2000th of a second for sharp sports shots), and balance your aperture (f22, as high as possible) and ISO (as low as possible) to suit, plus still get proper exposure.
The trick to panning is to focus on your subject and move your camera along with them as they move, therefore keeping the subject in focus but getting the background blurred! It’s MUCH harder than just having a blurred subject moving through a sharp background.
I took a lot of photos trying this technique on the day and was rapt at how this one turned out. Looking back, I’m still happy with it, but I wish he’d been going the other way so his face was in shot - sports photos are a lot stronger with faces, not backs! But still proud of this one.
Nikon D800, 70-200mm f2.8 lens @200mm. Shot at f22, 1/15, ISO100. Aug 2014.
This one was the same day, VFL out at Box Hill. I was really focusing (pardon the pun) on moments before and after the match, to round out my folio. I looooooove this photo, the moment the team ran onto the field - the focus and slight trepidation of running onto an oppositions ground.
I edited this one pretty hard, making sure the crop was as symmetrical as possible, brightening the shadows of the players faces (this portfolio was also printed and displayed, which makes the edit very important!)
Nikon D800, 70-200mm f2.8 lens @200mm. Shot at f2.8, 1/6000, ISO560. Aug 2014.
This one is a bit different - covering the VFLW for Carlton, 99% sure it’s down at Frankston based off the Southern Saints and the angle of this shot - from the Frankston grandstand!
There’s a fair chance it was raining this day at Frankston, based off me shooting from the front of the stands, but also from the photo and the settings. Flat lighting, and a slower shutter speed for my liking, plus shooting 1/3-stop underexposed to try get a faster shutter speed for sharp photos.
I’d also give this one a re-edit if I were submitting this to a client now, as it feels very low-contrast and flat for my liking! I’d add probably 2/3 of a stop exposure and roughly 50% contrast for it to suit the rest of these images. But I looove the angle and height I got from the grandstand - meaning there’s no background, just the field, and the staggered placement of the players gives some context to what’s happening.
Nikon D800, 70-200 f2.8 lens @280mm (using 1.4x converter). Shot at f5.6, 1/2000, ISO800. May 2018. -0.33
Time for the first of my newspaper shots! If you see a Canon 1DX noted in the gear specs, it’s a Warrnambool Standard photo. I’m versatile in both Canon and Nikon - I’ve used Nikon for my own work my whole life, and used Canon at the newspaper and a couple other jobs. Canon was confusing to start because all their controls were backwards to my Nikon!
I shot a lottttt of netball in my 2 years in Warrnambool and I actually love it. It’s so fast paced, relatively easy to get a clear shot of all players if you do at least half a match, and outdoors courts mean it’s easy to move around for best angles/light too.
My 70-200mm lens is perfect for shooting netball, I miss it a lot! (Netball contacts, get in touch if you ever want coverage, I’m so down!)
Canon 1DX, 70-200mm f2.8 lens @200mm. Shot at f5.6, 1/2500, ISO320. Aug 2015.
If you’re going to shoot sport, you have to be well-versed in the team photo shot!
My biggest tip is, get the sun BEHIND the team. Or at worst, not coming right in from the side, or even worse, right in front. You’ll get uneven light on the players and they’ll be squinting and grumpy! I like to put the sun behind them, shoot manual and under expose a little, and then bring the exposure up in editing and drop the highlights back for an evenly exposed photo.
Otherwise, shoot manual, underexpose and bring a flash to keep the background properly exposed and use the flash to light the team! (It’ll need to be strong!)
Don’t shoot wide open at f2.8 for team shots too - they won’t all be in focus! I shot this at f6.7, which is a mid-range aperture, and adjusted the rest of my settings to suit this requirement.
I used a 24-70mm lens for this - you’ll need a wide lens to fit the team in, but do stand back and zoom a little if you have 10 seconds to frame it up. A little zoom will help minimise distractions in the background or anyone wandering past.
Ideally take a few test shots with staff beforehand if you’re on a short timeframe for team shots so you know you’ve got it right at the settings and focal length you want to use.
Nikon D800, 24.70mm f2.8 lens @44mm. Shot at f6.7, 1/180, ISO200. June 2018.
Something a little different again - marketing/editorial portraits! This is a session I shot for the South Metro Juniors football league. They needed clear shots they could use in online and print marketing and social media, with their sponsors logos featured (but not too obviously, yknow).
The blue sky in this is good as brands can add copy on that for marketing without having to layer it over multiple distracting elements underneath - important to think about while shooting marketing work, even when sports related!
Again, shot on my 24-70mm f2.8 lens. Shot zoomed in at 70mm with me stepped further back from her - the 70mm gives a nice depth of field from the background and keeps her in focus. If this was shot at 24mm, I’d have been up in her face, the background would be less blurred and a lot wider with more distractions.
I also made sure to keep a low ISO in these - a higher ISO adds grain (also called ‘noise’) to photos, which is especially visible when a photo is large on a screen, or printed at a larger size, which I knew was possible for these! Luckily it was sunny so I could still have a fast shutter speed for sharp photos, and prioritise my aperture while still keeping a low ISO.
Nikon D800, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @70mm. Shot at f3.3, 1/6000, ISO400. April 2018.
Another newspaper photo, of some footy action finally!
The newspaper BLESSED me with their photography gear we used - the 1DX is roughly the Canon equivalent of a Nikon D3, which is a level above my personal Nikon D800, and it was fun to use, especially for sport!
But the LENSES were the real game changer for me. This lens is a fixed 400mm f2.8 lens - we also had a fixed 600mm lens! ‘Fixed’ means the focal length cannot change, unlike my 70-200mm lens that can zoom.
This was awesome for high-quality sport photography, these lenses are the benchmark for professional sport photography, but they’re also $10-15,000 each! Little 22-year-old me was very spoiled, getting to used these every week for footy.
But, they’re a fixed focal length. So there’s definitely a sweet spot on the footy field for each of these lenses, otherwise you’re too far away (fine, just have to crop), or too close (the bigger issue) and knowing where there are comes with experience. I love this shot - the action, the moment before the bump, the eye contact - but for me, it’s like 5% out of that sweet spot, they were too close to me and there’s not enough room above their heads/below their feet. But I still love it!
I don’t share a lot of my newspaper footy action shots these days, partly because I don’t have access to 99% of them, just a few highlights I kept, but mainly because I don’t have access to the 400mm and 600mm lenses anymore, so in my mind this work is not 100% representative of what I can achieve anymore.
Of course, my 70-200mm lens is still awesome and does the job perfectly in my opinion, and my cropping/editing skills more than make up for my slightly limited gear! Just a smidgen more editing needed for me to achieve a similar result to this shot.
Canon 1DX, 400mm f2.8 lens @400mm. Shot at f2.8, 1/5000, ISO640. July 2015.
When you’re too short to shoot over the giant footy players (159cm photographer problems…), go below!
This is from me covering the Hampden league 2015 Grand Final (probably my biggest day of the year at the newspaper). You get to know the country players after a couple years at the paper, and this team featured heavily in finals and our coverage. Fairly sure that’s a young Willem Drew at the back there.. but my favourite part, and the reason I always remember this shot, is the captain Isaac Templeton at the front, listening to the coach with half a tampon in his nose at 3/4 time.
As I said earlier, I love the huddle shots, and I’m always trying to find a way to get variety and a different angle! When the zoomed in 70-200 shot feels overdone, a favourite idea of mine - grab the 24-70, get it as wide as possible, set the focal point in the middle, put the camera on the ground and aim up, fire off a few frames and hope!
Canon 1DX, 24-70 f2.8 lens @24mm. Shot at f4, 1/250, ISO125. Sept 2015.
For the last couple shots here, I wanted to cover off a couple sports outside my usual big 4 (footy, cricket, netball and basketball). I covered the mountain biking in Warrnambool a few times out at Thunder Point.
It involved a bit of bush-bashing on foot through the track to find the good spots (luckily the locals were happy to show newbie me the shortcuts and make sure I didn’t get run over!).
This one is a fave, mainly because shooting mountain biking is HARD! It’s very high speed, this track is patchy light and getting a subject in focus is a 0.5 second job before they’re gone again. This was a good patch for me to wait in, there’s a bit of a run up so I can see/hear someone coming and get prepared to shoot a burst, plus the light was reaaaasonably even, so I could have my exposure ready. Main thing is just hitting focus!
190mm zoom tells me I hit a burst of these and zoomed out as I shot to make up for him coming towards me.
Canon 1DX, 70-200 f2.8 lens @190mm. Shot at f4, 1/2000, ISO1000. Aug 2015. +0.33
Last one - the Crater to Coast run! The 24mm focal length meant I had to be riiight up in these poor ladies faces for these shots - they basically stepped on me as they ran past!
The landscape wasn’t super interesting, but the wide angle was good for a running shot, and the light was good here! Glad she gave me a smile and a little thumbs up, made the photo much better vibes! (let’s be real, I probably took 100 photos here and this was the best of the lot!)
I could have potentially tried some motion blur shots too for some variety, but the full sun would have made getting a slow shutter speed hard in these conditions!
Canon 1DX, 24-70 f2.8 lens @24mm. Shot at f2.8, 1/8000, ISO250. Sept 2015.
That’s that for now! I do love documenting sport and am super keen to get into some more cricket, footy, basketball, netball or whatever you’ve got.
Jump over to my Contact form and get in touch if you’re interested in some quality content to lift your socials or marketing!