Youth Sports: How to Get Great Action Photos

Do you want clean, crisp action shots with little or no blur in both indoor and outdoor settings like the images below?

First of all great shots start with the right equipment. Here is the camera that we use and I recommend.

Get a Nikon D7000 camera. It has a terrific processor, an expanded ISO range and shoots 6 images per second. You will pay a bit more for the 6 shots per second, but it is well worth it. The rapid shooting is important because it increases the chances of stopping the action at the right exact moment. My old camera, the Nikon D70s, only did 3 shots per second. I rarely got the exact moment that I wanted like the ball jumping off the bat or the soccer ball suspended right in front of the goalies awaiting hands. Bonus: The camera also takes great HD movies, so there is no need to carry a separate movie camera.

Here is the lens we use for indoor low light action shots to prevent motion blur. 

If your kid plays indoor sports like volleyball, basketball or hockey, and you want great picture you will need to invest in a good lens. I recommend the Tamron AF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for indoor lower light action shots. You need an low f/stop (2.8 or lower) to eliminate the blur. Be prepared, to get a low f/stop you need to pay some money. This lens is $670. Tamron is a lower cost option than the Nikon lens which costs almost 2X. It was a smart buy and a great value. This lens works great outdoors too.

Here is the lens we use for well lit outdoor action shots

The Nikon 70-300 f/4 - 5.6 is ideal for action shots in higher light situations. We use this lens for our outdoor shots during soccer and baseball games. We like the added zoom that a 300mm lens gives. Soccer, lacrosse and football fields are long, so you will want the extra zoom that a 300mm lens gives. On bright days we do not need the f/2.8 lens, so we opt for longer lens with the higher f/4. By the way, a 300mm lens with a f/2.8 would be $5,000 (see link below). It is much cheaper to get the two lenses I recommend here than to invest in one $5000 lens, but knock yourself out if you do not want to deal with two lenses.

Here is the lens I use for close up shots.

We also use the f/3.5 18-105mm lens that came with the camera. We use the shorter lens to get close up shots. NOTE: It is tough to get the end of tournament team trophy shot with a telephoto lens because all of the other parents with point and shoot cameras get up close. You will not be able to get close with the longer lens, so you will have to wait until everyone is done and hope that the team stays still while the parents clear the way for your shot. As soon as the game is over, we switch to the shorter lens.

The Main Point

The money I spent on a great camera was worth every dollar. You cannot put a price tag on memories we captured. Buy the camera and the best lens or lenses to fit your needs and you will not regret it. I promise.

Youth Sports: How to Take Action Photos without the Blur

The Camera and Lens are only as good as the Photographer

We recently took some action photos at an indoor basketball game. Many of the pictures had motion blur. 

In a previous post called Youth Sports: Frustrated with Blurry Action Photos? (Part 2),  I discussed how to avoid blurry action photos by buying the right lens for the job.

I bought a Tamron SP AF70-200mm lens with an F/2.8 (aperture) for $800. The F/2.8 aperature is the key to getting enough light at faster shutter speeds.

We started using the lens and was capturing great photos using the advise below.

1. Set your camera to the S setting using the dial indicated with the red arrow. The S mode is an auto-exposure method in which the lens aperture is automatically set by the camera and you manually select the shutter speed.
2. Set the shutter speed. Use the dial indicated by the blue arrow. Look at the shutter speed which can be set between 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second on my camera. The shutter speed is indicated by the yellow arrow. Rotate the dial until you get to 250. To the right of the number you may see a warning of Lo (low light) or Hi (too much light) for the corresponding shutter speed and the aperture of the lens.
3. Set your ISO to the maximum (1600 on the D70). Two ways to do this. A.) When the monitor is off, press the button on the back of the camera that looks like a checkers board - ISO is printed above it. (Green arrow) While holding this button rotate the dial indicated with the blue arrow. or B.) Using the monitor, press menu, highlight the camera icon on the monitor, scroll down to the ISO and select 1600.

Avoid Photographer Error / Diagnose Problems

It's easy to get lazy and not set up the camera to get the images you want. If you have the right camera and the right lens but you are still getting some blurry pictures you can diagnose the problem by looking at the EXIF data of the photos using your photo editing software.

To Reveal the EXIF data, highlight the photo on your photo editing software. Then Look for the Photo Info link on the main navigation of your photo editing software. I use iPhoto and it can be found on the Photos pull down - Show Extended Photo Info. (Here is a link to a iphoto help site called How to reveal EXIF data in iPhoto).

Last week my wife captured this shot. My daughter looks clear, but the ball is blurry. I looked at the EXIF data and discovered that the Shutter was set to 1/125 - not fast enough and the ISO was 800 - too low for action photos in poor light situations.

Youth Sports: Coach's Calls, Texts and Emails

Is your kid's youth sports coach good or bad at communicating with the team parents? 

Let's face it. Some coaches are great at the X's and O's, but not so good with communicating last minute changes to schedules or uniform selections.

I am a contributing writer for the site Coachhub.com, so for this fall season, I got both my daughter's soccer coach and basketball coach to start using Coachhub.com for all their team's communications. I also convinced my son's fall ball baseball coach to use Coachhub instead of EZTeams.

Coachhub.com is a custom team website and communication command center.

Coaches can update information on the website and broadcast those changes to the parents via email or text or both with a click of a mouse.

For example. Today practice was changed from 6:00 to 6:30. The coach simply went into the site and updated the calendar entry, checked off email and text to parents and clicked Update Event. Email and Texts were sent instantaneously.

Each update is a triple dose of information (Website, Text and Email), so no parent can say "I didn't get the message."

Other features

Announcements - Any parent or coach can make and announcement on the site and send that announcement out via email. This is a great feature if you need want to set up a car pool for a practice.

Calendar - The site features a web-based calendar to view scheduled games and practices. The calendar can be printed or synched to the personal electronic calendars like Outlook or iCal. Any additions or changes to the calendar are automatically sent out to parents via Text and / or Email.

Stats - The coach can keep the team and individual stats on the site.

Game Results - The site keeps track of the team's wins and loses.

Photos - Any registered parent or coach can upload team pictures into the site for other team boosters to enjoy.

Team Documents - The coach can post any documents on the site like medical forms.

Baseball, softball, soccer, football and basketball are currently up and running. Other sports will be added soon.

The Main Point

Coaches always say that communication on the field is key.

Hey coach, off the field communications is important too. Coachhub.com is so easy to set up. You simply need to type in the players name, the parents name and email. The system sends an email to the parents and they provide all the other information you need - like phone numbers, cell phone numbers, alternate email addresses, etc.

Coaches try out Coachhub.com as your communication command center. Then yell out, I GOT IT, I GOT IT.


It's Free.

Youth Soccer: Cloning Athletes

I think that cloning talented athletes is an objectionable idea. 

But I wouldn't object if my 10 year old daughter wanted to follow the footsteps of her cousin, Dineen Sampson. Dineen won Academic All-Conference honors playing Women's Soccer in college.

My Daughter - Yellow Adidas Jersey - Stops Striker in All White

My Niece - Yellow Adidas Jersey - Stops Striker in All White

The Main Point

Freaky. 

Youth Basketball: College Bound?

Have you ever pictured your kid playing on a big stage?
Have you ever pictured your kid making a jump shot on a Division I college basketball court in front of a big crowd?

I did today. And I had my camera.

My daughter's 4th grade AAU basketball team played an exposition game tonight. The game was played at the Cintas Center during half time of the women's basketball game between the 6th ranked Xavier and George Washington. My daughter scored 4 points during the 6 minute game in front of a crowd of 4,516 people (the official attendance). The actual crowd was probably closer to 2,500, still a big stage for a 10 year old girl.

Listen, I am realistic. I know that the chances are slim that my daughter will ever play division I basketball. My daughter and my wife and I can dream about it and enjoy all the moments that may or may not lead up to her debut on a division I basketball court in front of a big crowd.

If she does make it, it will be because of her confidence. I asked her if she was nervous during the game. She said she was nervous on the bench waiting to get in, but once on the court, she didn't even think about it. I asked her if she thinks she will play for Xavier when she gets older. She said, "Nope, I am going to play for UCONN." Like I said, confidence is key and she seems to have it.


The Main Point

Youth sports provide so many lasting memories, make sure you bring your camera. Oh yeah, let your kids dream big and support them.

Youth Sports: Frustrated with Blurry Action Photos? (Part 2)

Do you have a high end digital SLR but still get blurry action shots when shooting pictures inside a gym? I feel your pain. I was so frustrated when I would get a good action shot beautifully timed and framed only to get home and see that feet, hands and the ball were blurry. 

Despite buying a high end digital SLR D70 Nikon with a Nikon Nikkor 70-300 zoom lens, we struggle to get good action shots inside. The shot to the right shows my daughter walking (not running) up the court. The gym in which this shot was taken is one of the better lit gyms, yet most of the pictures are blurry.

Prior to Christmas, I received lots promotional mailers for cameras that piqued my interest because of my frustration concerning blurry basketball pictures. Basketball seems to be my daughter's favorite sport, so I thought that I would invest money in a newer camera to capture the action.

I decided to go to a photography store instead of a Big Box store like Best Buy. I wanted to make sure that I got advice from an expert before I purchased another expensive camera. 

I was considering a Nikon D7000 for $1,500. I figured that the D7000 camera would be able to capture indoor images better than my 5 year old D70. The D7000 has a 16.2 MP (million pixels) sensor compared to the 6.1 MP sensor of the D70. It also has a higher ISO range. The ISO deals with light sensitivity.

To my surprise, the expert at the store told me that my camera is not the problem, the lens I am using is. He said that he would gladly sell me the D7000 and it would produce slightly better pictures in lower light situations due to the higher dynamic range of the ISO which goes up to 6400 (the D70 max is 1600) but it would still produce blurry stop action shots in lower light situations with a standard lens. He recommended that I keep the D70 and buy a better lens with a larger aperture.

The Nikon Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens has a f/4 and f/5.6 aperature size. (F/4 when the lens is 70mm and F/5.6 when the zoom is set to 300mm).  The larger the number, the less light entering into the lens. I needed a faster lens. 

I ended up buying the Tamron SP AF70-200mm lens with an F/2.8 (aperture) for $800. Nikon has a similar and perhaps better lens for $1200, but I was told that an amateur photographer like me would not likely notice any difference. I saved the $400 and bought the Tamron.

I am not an expert on photography but I followed the advice below on how best to capture stop action photos in low light situations and it worked for me.

1. Buy a lens with an aperture of 2.8 or less. (Zoom lenses with this aperture are not cheap.)
2. Set your camera to the S setting using the dial indicated with the red arrow. The S mode is an auto-exposure method in which the lens aperture is automatically set by the camera and you manually select the shutter speed.
3. Set the shutter speed. Use the dial indicated by the blue arrow. Look at the shutter speed which can be set between 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second on my camera. The shutter speed is indicated by the yellow arrow. Rotate the dial until you get to 250. To the right of the number you may see a warning of Lo (low light) or Hi (too much light) for the corresponding shutter speed and the aperture of the lens.
4. Set your ISO to the maximum (1600 on the D70). Two ways to do this. A.) When the monitor is off, press the button on the back of the camera that looks like a checkers board - ISO is printed above it. (Green arrow) While holding this button rotate the dial indicated with the blue arrow. or B.) Using the monitor, press menu, highlight the camera icon on the monitor, scroll down to the ISO and select 1600.
5. Take a test shot. If the picture is bright enough but the image is still blurry, rotate the dial marked with the blue arrow to 320 or faster. When you get the right combination for the gym you are in use it. If the image is not blurry but still a bit dark do not worry about it because you can add light after you download the image. (See step 7)
6. Use a tripod or a mono-pod to deduce camera shake which will also cause blurriness
7. On your computer, you can add light to any image. This is very easy to do especially on iPhoto. 

• Click on the photo (it will be highlighted in yellow)
• Click on edit
• Click on adjust
• Slide the exposure to the right until you get the right amount of light. 
• Click on done.

My wife took the following pictures using the new lens and the advice above.

CC in mid air - no blurry feet

Fast break continues - ball suspended and clear

Low light yet great definition on moving hair

The Main Point

If you are a youth sports nut like me and your kids play inside sports like basketball, volleyball, wrestling or futsal then invest in a good zoom lens with an aperture of 2.8 or lower. You will not regret it.

Youth Sports: Frustrated With Blurry Action Photos? (Part 1)

Are you frustrated with blurry sports action photos?

Seven years ago, I investigated digital cameras to capture sports action photos. The cost of the digital SLRs ($750 - $1,250) made me pause. A clerk at a big box store like Circuit City (now closed and bankrupt) talked me into a high end point and shoot Cannon for about $500. (These are much cheaper now.) The clerk said that the recommended point and shoot camera would be great for sports. It had the highest number of pixels available at the time, a 10X zoom and could shoot 2 frames per second.

Click here for more differences between a SLR and Point and Shoot.

I bought the camera and was instantly disappointed. The zoom capabilities were minimal and great pictures were few and far between. Expensive lesson learned.

A year later, for my 41st birthday (9/15/2005), I decided to buy the high-end digital SLR (not professional quality). I bought the Nikon D70 and a Nikon Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens. My total investment was about $1,500.

In all honesty, I almost puked when I left the store thinking that I just spent way too much money on such a frivolous thing. Later I would discover that the investment was worth every penny. We have captured amazing photos many of which are featured throughout this blog. These pictures captured memories that would have been lost over time.

Nic at 8 yrs Old

And capturing these images is not hard to do. My very first action photo taken with my D70 Nikon camera was of my son pitching (above). I set the camera to sports mode and rapid fire picture taking. Taking 3 images per second, I was able to captured the ball suspended in the air just after the release and the strain and determination on my son's face. This one photo alone convinced me just how worthwhile the investment was. I have taken over 15,000 images since that time.

You will notice that the best pictures in this blog were taken outside in bright light. Do you have a high end digital SLR and still get blurry images of indoor sports? Read Frustrated with Blurry Action Photos? (Part 2)

The Main Point

If you are hesitating buying an expensive camera, don't. Find a way to save the money and make the purchase. If you are a sports nut, you will not regret it. You will only regret not capturing the special moments that your kids have on the field. And believe me kids grow up fast so do not delay.