Apr 20, 2005, 10:53
I have a confession to make.
For the last couple of weeks, I have been showing up for athletics training with my
camera in an effort to learn some sports photography skills... and I've been doing it without telling anyone on shuttertalk or posting any photos!
I'm lucky enough to rub shoulders with elite athletes every day in my job, so it seems crazy that I shouldn't take advantage of the opportunity to take some photos of them. I'm concentrating on athletics at the moment, but will probably make my way around a number of other olympic sports during the year. I think athletics is one of the more interesting ones though from a photography point of view, as it can be so varied and it seems each discipline has specific techniques to master (not that I know what they all are yet!).
Before anyone starts with warnings about strangers taking photos of kids in tight clothes (which is a valid concern), I was invited to training by one of the coaches, and I know most of the other coaches and a number of the athletes, and have the permission of all of them. Apart from that, just being open and friendly and polite seems to go a long way in making any other people who may be there feel at ease. I also try to focus on the senior athletes (partly because you don't need to worry about concerned parents, partly because they are simply better athletes), and I've actually been working with one heptathlete in particular, Kylie Wheeler, because she's a friend of mine and being a heptathlete means she has quite a varied training regime.
In fact I worked *only* with Kylie today, as she was working alone on the other side of the track to the others.
For any athletics buffs out there, Kylie competed at the Athens Olympics last year (she came 18th in the heptathlon) and won gold and silver medals at the Manchester Commonwealth games in 2002. Not bad going considering her goal was to make Beijing in 2008, and nobody even expected her to qualify for Athens
If you are interested, her profile and stats can be found here:
http://www.athletics.org.au/athletes/pro...jectID=335
Anyway, enough guff... here are some photos from today's hurdles training at Perry Lakes.
This is the third time I've been to training with my camera, and although I still have an abysmal "hit-rate" (especially when I get close), I have noticed a definate improvement in my shots in just this short time which is really encouraging. And it is certainly more interesting that practicing panning by using traffic on the freeway
For the last couple of weeks, I have been showing up for athletics training with my
camera in an effort to learn some sports photography skills... and I've been doing it without telling anyone on shuttertalk or posting any photos!
I'm lucky enough to rub shoulders with elite athletes every day in my job, so it seems crazy that I shouldn't take advantage of the opportunity to take some photos of them. I'm concentrating on athletics at the moment, but will probably make my way around a number of other olympic sports during the year. I think athletics is one of the more interesting ones though from a photography point of view, as it can be so varied and it seems each discipline has specific techniques to master (not that I know what they all are yet!).
Before anyone starts with warnings about strangers taking photos of kids in tight clothes (which is a valid concern), I was invited to training by one of the coaches, and I know most of the other coaches and a number of the athletes, and have the permission of all of them. Apart from that, just being open and friendly and polite seems to go a long way in making any other people who may be there feel at ease. I also try to focus on the senior athletes (partly because you don't need to worry about concerned parents, partly because they are simply better athletes), and I've actually been working with one heptathlete in particular, Kylie Wheeler, because she's a friend of mine and being a heptathlete means she has quite a varied training regime.
In fact I worked *only* with Kylie today, as she was working alone on the other side of the track to the others.
For any athletics buffs out there, Kylie competed at the Athens Olympics last year (she came 18th in the heptathlon) and won gold and silver medals at the Manchester Commonwealth games in 2002. Not bad going considering her goal was to make Beijing in 2008, and nobody even expected her to qualify for Athens
If you are interested, her profile and stats can be found here:
http://www.athletics.org.au/athletes/pro...jectID=335
Anyway, enough guff... here are some photos from today's hurdles training at Perry Lakes.
This is the third time I've been to training with my camera, and although I still have an abysmal "hit-rate" (especially when I get close), I have noticed a definate improvement in my shots in just this short time which is really encouraging. And it is certainly more interesting that practicing panning by using traffic on the freeway
Adrian Broughton
My Website: www.BroughtonPhoto.com.au
My Blog: blog.BroughtonPhoto.com.au
You can also visit me on Facebook!
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Einstein.