American Football – a game of high stakes and emotions even higher, whether it’s the joy of watching wrestling years immaculate, the anguish of losing a game by a wide-right field-goal, or the worry of seeing your quarterback blindsided by angry lineman years with something to prove.
What makes football a high-paced, anything can happen-event also makes it very difficult for Digital Photographers. You must deal with 22 players on the field (not to mention players and coaches trying to get across their points), plus the midday sun outside or inconsistent lighting inside home. Unless you have a press pass, you must also deal with nose-bleed seats in large stadiums and shouting and screaming fans ready to jump up at a moment’s notice to block your shot. Whew!
Help you to score a touch down with your digital photos I have listed 9 digital photography tips. The first five are mentioned in this article with tips 6-9 listed in Part II
1) Do not Get Your Hopes Up
This sounds like a lousy tip to start things off, but hear me out. If you are sitting in nose-bleed seats and do not own a digital camera with a large telephoto zoom optical zoom (digital zoom not matter), football players will likely appear just as large dots in your photos. If you and sitting behind a tall person that loves to stand up and cheer after every play, good luck taking great photos from your seat without getting a shot of the person’s head in the way.
In one of these two scenarios, look around for the stadium aisles or walkways where you can hang around without impeding others’ views (security and getting nervous). You need a clear line of sight; years errant head or foam “We number one” by hand appears too many photos.
2) Buy a Camera with Plenty of Adjustment features
I am saying you must run out and purchase a $ 1,000 digital SLR (though it may help!) But make sure the digital camera you buy has plenty of adjustment options. At a minimum you should be able to adjust the shutter speed, ISO settings (more later on both) and metering or exposure levels to adjust to difficult lighting scenarios.
One other point – look for digital cameras with image stabilization features or lenses. Though this does not offset any blurriness caused by football players moving at high speed, it may reduce blurriness caused by shaking when holding a camera.
3) Make sure your camera can be taken to the Game
Do not use back even before you get a chance to sit down. Stage have different rules about what you can bring to The Game. At high-school or Intramural games you may be able to bring any camera you desire. For college and professional games you may be limited to cheap compact, non-professional digital cameras, or cameras with a telephoto zoom zoom.
4) Bring the Right Accessories
Bringing a digital camera is just the tip of the iceberg, like the extra point that comes after a touchdown. At a minimum you need:
* A Lens Hood – Focus your camera to light, essential on sunny days (even if it’s cold).
* Tools Memory – Great shots not end at Halftime; NOT let your memory fill up by then.
* The extra batteries – What if a game goes to overtime?
* Waterproof camera bag – where alcoholic beverages are soda Spilled.
* Cleaning supplies such as napkins and a dry-lens kit – See above.
If you are attending a football game that lets you take photos on the sidelines, bring along a tripod and if you own one spare a digital camera. The digital camera mounted on the tripod can be focused near the center of the field to take photos without camera shake, and you can use your spare camera photos for quick action if the other is outside the camera’s range of vision. Just be prepared to move quickly if the action gets too close!
5) Do Tailgate parties
Tailgate parties are as much of a part of the football experience as The Game itself. Bring extra batteries and memory to take photos of your friends and other fans around the stadium. Snap a photo of the person wearing a rainbow wig, Fans painted in their teams’ colors and impressive of Grilling setups.
Part II of this article will discuss more camera settings necessary to take quick photos for plays, as well as more advice on what you can do to prepare before The Game.
