Sports Photography How To

There are few things that can get a man’s heart pumping like a new camera and a legendary car race to test it out at. Or at least that’s how I felt when I got a chance to take the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7 for a spin at the Indianapolis 500 in May.

“I got to Los Angeles four days before the ’84 Olympic games began, and at the gymnastics pavilion saw Glenn Sundby, the founder and publisher of International Gymnast magazine. I knew Glenn, and he’d been hired as venue chief for photographers. Not knowing he’d get that job, two years earlier he’d bought an arena ticket and had a front row center seat for the events. He gave me that ticket in return for use in his magazine of any photographs USA Gymnastics didn’t choose.

Bill Pekala, head of Nikon Professional Services, came to the US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York, last August to run the NPS operation at the matches. Sports events can be the ultimate proving ground for camera gear, and one of NPS’s primary roles is providing their member professional photographers with the assurance of dedicated on-site support.

Who: Robert Beck, staff photographer for Sports Illustrated.
What: Infrared (IR) photography.
When: “The editors give me some leeway,” Robert says, “but I’m not going to be using it for a decisive putt.”
Where: Golf courses all over the world.
Why: Although the job calls for capture of the peak moment, the turning point, the key play, the tense concentration, the moment when the athlete’s body language gives it all away, there’s always the professional and personal challenge to do something different.
How: With a Nikon D700 modified for infrared photography.

All photos © Sarah Silver

With a client list that includes Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly, Hasselblad, L'oreal, Marshall Fields & Co., Nokia, and Beauty.com, Sarah Silver has achieved great success for a young photographer. Her images have appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, InStyle, Elle, Surface and the Italian and French...

There are different ways to reveal motion in a photo--you can freeze the action, blur it, or pan along with it. (You can even fake it by holding a Cokin Super-Speed filter in front of your compact camera's lens.) The next time you're taking pictures of a child's soccer game or horses running across a field, you may...

All Photos © Bryan Lynden

Whether this diverse photographer is shooting sporting events, concerts, nature, fine art, or commercial images, Bryan Linden strives to share his passion for photography with others. And, as one who's worked in the digital medium since 1993, he enjoys helping other photographers make their transition from film to digital capture.