On shooting sports: Covering action, reaction, coaches and fans

ACTION: Western Michigan's Darius Phillips breaks up a pass to Toledo's Cody Thompson at the University of Toledo's Glass Bowl in Toledo, Ohio on Friday. (Blade photos by Lori King)

REACTION: Alonzo Russell cries as he's ejected for targeting.

There is a saying in the photojournalism field that if you can shoot sports, you can shoot anything.

   This can be true for several reasons:

• • Action shots require precise timing and an innate understanding of fast shutter speeds.
• • Reaction shots can be just as important as action shots, so you need a keen awareness of what's happening before and after key plays. This includes capturing the antics of coaches on the sidelines.
• • Fans like to see themselves, too, so searching for strong fan shots is essential for making a slideshow interesting and compelling.

  • Critical thinking is definitely employed here by figuring out issues like where to shoot from and how to get the best angles; how to best ID the players and coaches; and how to deal with other factors, like weather, substandard camera equipment and limited access.

    The current assignment for the Wayne State photojournalism class is shooting a sports event. As part of that assignment, they are required to post their strongest action, coach and fan photos. They'll also edit their best dozen or so for a slideshow, produced in Adobe Premiere CC.

REACTION: Asantay Brown is taken off the field with an injury.

    A sports slideshow is a mini-portfolio for the vision and technical control of the shooters, so I encouraged the students to 'circle the wagon' to capture the flavor of the event.

   To demonstrate the assignment requirement, I posted these photos I took last night at the University of Toledo vs. Western Michigan football game.

    A big lesson I want to discuss here is that journalists are not cheerleaders for the team we cover, nor are we prevented from shooting moments that are hard to witness. Case in point - when Toledo's Alonzo Russell cried as he was ejected from the game for targeting WMU's Asantay Brown. Or when Brown was taken off the field on a stretcher.

    After the game, as we photogs worked up our images in the press box, another photographer asked me if a close-up shot of Brown's face on the stretcher was appropriate to send to his client. Both myself and the USA Today photographer told him to definitely send it, and let the editors decide whether to run it or not. I also shot that photo and sent it, and it ran in the newspaper today.

    So, here are samples of what I'm looking for when the students post their best three photos to their blogs.     

   Of course, I'm very aware they probably don't have the access or the long lenses that I have. But they need to do what it takes with what they have to get the job done, as do every college photographer assigned to cover their teams.
Link to Photo Gallery
Link to Toledo Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg's column, "We're not here to cheer for your team." 

FANS: Young Toledo fans don't get their wish after the Rockets lost their last home game to WMU.

COACH: Toledo's Corey Jones walks hand-in-hand with head coach Matt Campbell after their loss to WMU. It is these kind of captured moments that add emotion and mood to the game.

Q&A #1: French photographer shoots U.S. sports on his own

 Part 1/2:
At Toledo area sporting events, particularly college games, we local photogs can spot an unfamiliar face in the press box pretty quickly. We assume the 'other' guy is from the opposing team. But remember what happens when you assume...

  I was shooting a BGSU football game last month and there was a young guy I didn't recognize, so I asked him where he was from. In a very distinguishable French accent, Thomas Savoja said he was from France. I then asked him why he was at BGSU. Turns out he's an engineer traveling in the United States for a few weeks to document American sports.    

  Interesting, right? So I got his business card and shot him an email with a few questions that my inquiring mind wanted to know. 

  Because his responses were a bit lengthy, I will break the interview up into two parts. He also agreed to send a few of his photos, and I will share them when I get them.

   I hope you find his verbatim answers as enlightening as I did.

Paris sports photographer and engineer Thomas Savoja. (Photo by Lori King)

Q: It says on your business card that you're a sports photographer from Paris, France. What is your photography background? 
A: Well, you always have to be careful with what the business cards says ;-) As far as I am concerned, my initial background is actually engineering and even if photography has always been part of my life, I never consider it as a real business. This means this is not my primary job but more an additional activity. You know, this is very challenging in France to start a serious business from photography itself so I have tried to develop a more global approach where photo is just a side.

My father brought me my first camera when I was eight and since that time, I never really stopped shooting. Urban landscapes were my primary focus. Then I fell in love with Asia, which offers so many picturesque places! This has given me many opportunities to spend time wandering out there with a backpack and a camera. My best souvenirs are probably the Bagan plain in Myanmar, the Thar Desert in Rajasthan and the Silk Road in Uzbekistan.

I came to action shooting relatively late and even if the material has a predominant role there, this is really an area where I enjoy permanently improving my skills. Why this sudden interest for shooting sport? This is mainly because I am myself a sport fanatic. I was a tennis player for 30 years and I am still playing soccer in a French Federation League each Saturday. I started shooting my team and step by step I come to shoot more important events.

My focus when I shoot sports is obviously to be able to catch the ultimate moment of action. This is a nice quest but to be honest, I am always frustrated to miss nice shoot opportunities because of a bad choice of positioning or a lack of concentration. Luck is also a key factor in this area.

In Europe, I shoot every kind of sports even if I tend to specialize myself in American sports (Yes US Football is also played in Europe). Otherwise, it goes from soccer to rugby, handball, volley ball, ice and field hockey but also tennis, boxing, fencing, track and field, and so many others.

Each year in France I am organizing a contest for the Best Football picture of the year. The winner is announced at the halftime of the French championship final and I have the chance to get some nice jurors coming from Sport Photojournalism in the US. Maybe you can be a member of the Jury for this year's contest!

Q: How do you compare European sports to American sports? What are a few major differences and similarities?    
A: That’s a good question. I think that the main difference is the position sport occupies in the society. If I look at the way French society approaches sport, it is actually very far from a center of interest. I would even say that a certain elite has traditionally contempt for Sport in my country. Here in the US, this is really something central in people’s life. For instance, I am absolutely fascinated by the way sport is treated in High School. This is so impressive compared to what we are doing in France. I would have loved to be part of this!

I am also very enthusiastic about college sports despite recent scandals that may have tarnished a little bit the model. I had the opportunity to discover many campuses through the country and I have been very excited about the spirit there and values behind sport.

On the other end, sport seems also one of the main entertainment drivers for people here. In the US, when you are an adult, it seems almost exclusively considered as an entertainment or a business. In Europe this is more an activity than many people want to practice by themselves on top of looking at it on the TV. My impression is that in the US, when you are an adult it is very difficult to play sport as an amateur but maybe I am wrong.

The most popular sport in France is obviously soccer, even if the current image of the national team is extremely bad because of the behavior of some players which have been very selfish and unprofessional these recent years. This is there a difference with the American sports where college is often a mandatory step before turning pro. In Europe, uneducated young kids coming from poor family background are making it to the pros without education and it may become a problem for them to manage the transition.

The behavior of the fans is also totally different in Europe. Here they are much more “hardcore” in the sense that they are coming to the stadium not for the fun of it but really to cheer and support their team. The good think is that atmosphere may be crazy, the bad is that there is too often problems inside stadiums which lead to unsecured atmosphere.

If I take, for the example of Paris Saint Germain my favorite soccer team I am rooting for since I am a kid, 2 guys died in our stadium the last 10 years because of violence. This is not acceptable. The new owners have taken measure to change behavior even if the direct consequence is that the noise and ambiance in the stadium is much more quiet that in the past. A lot of core fans complain about that but security has no price.

Follow Thomas on Twitter: @tomasino22
View Thomas' American sports photo gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsavoja/sets/72157638037341303/

Features, portraits and sports, oh my!

This is a blog post by Miranda, who used a photo slideshow gadget.

   The PJ course is more than half way over, and there is still so much more to do!

  First, I want thank one of the students for creating business cards for all six students in the class. Each biz card has the student’s name and blog URL. Passing them out to their sources and subjects will help to spread the word and keep in touch. I also want to give Miranda kudos for being the first to try out the photo slideshow gadget on Blogger. Miranda is not afraid to try new things, and that will aid her well. Good job, Miranda!

   So the feature assignment is behind us; the portrait assignment is in progress; and next up is learning how to shoot sports. They will use their sports photos to learn Soundslides, which kicks off the photo storytelling lecture. That lecture includes learning how to edit audio using Audacity, editing photos down from many to a chosen few, and marrying audio with multiple photos to tell a story. 

Yep, we're pretty busy!