Sports Photography How To

The winners of the prestigious 2019 Red Bull Illume Image Quest photography contest were just announced and the prize-wining shots are, as expected, truly spectacular. The Red Bull Illume Image Quest contest showcases the best of the best in action, adventure, and sports photography and Shutterbug's editor-in-chief Dan Havlik was one of the judges in this fifth annual competition.

With the U.S. Open tennis championship reaching its exciting conclusion this weekend, we caught up with a pro photographer who is currently covering the Open to get her tips on how to photograph tennis.

Travel photographer Pierre T. Lambert shares a lot of photography videos on his YouTube channel but it’s the tutorials he does on how to capture sharp images that get the most feedback. Since there seems to be an insatiable appetite from photographers on how to make their images sharper, Lambert has created another video with sharpness tips.

It’s an antique photo technique that reveals the secrets of motion in images: chronophotography. Never heard of it? Well, you can learn more about this amazing technique in the below video from Light Club that explores “sequence photography,” which was invented in 1882 by Étienne-Jules Marey using a gun-like chronophotographic camera.

Shutterbug photographer Jordan Matter is back with a new how-to video, this time giving you three reasons you should seriously consider adding a telephoto zoom lens to your gear bag now. 

One the most fun things I’ve ever done was to photograph the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in France. Of course, I was shooting it as an amateur with very limited access to the track, the cars, and the pits. And I did go back to the hotel to catch a little sleep at one point. (But it was still fun nonetheless and I got some great shots.)

Today’s camera gear is faster than ever and much of it is tailor-made for capturing any sort of motion or movement. So then why do so many photographers struggle to shoot compelling images of action, adventure, and energy? Part of it has to do with timing and part of it has to do with composition. Your camera and lens can only do so much and there’s more to a great action shot than simply capturing the moment and making sure it’s in focus.