Category: Sports Photographer: Fitz Crittle Photography "Gasparilla Run" Running is a sport that can bring out the best and worst in athletes, especially when it comes to showing their emotions. This runner, though, is photographed with a smile on her face, which captures the attitude of her perfectly. What's more, the photographer manages to feature a golden light with some hard shadows on her, making for what I can presume is a photograph taken around sunset. Originally shared with the Photofocus Flickr community right here. You … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Fitz Crittle Photography
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Photographer of the Day: Cecil Ramsey
Category: Sports Photograph: Cecil Ramsey "Ben - Lake Minneola HS" Cecil's ability to capture the swimmer mid-stroke is impressive. The emotion on the swimmer's face as he pushes his arms back, coupled with the action of the waves and water splashes, helps to put the photograph in perspective. This is no doubt a race, and one where the swimmer is giving his all. Cecil also does a great job of breaking the "rule of thirds," allowing the swimmer to truly shine. Originally shared with the Photofocus Flickr community right here. You can … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Cecil Ramsey
Photographer of the Day: Plane Motorsport 2014
Category: Sports Photograph: Plane Motorsport 2014 CAL CRUTCHLOW #35 This photograph of a motorcycle race is a perfect example of panning, where the background blurs as you follow the subject. I love the green of the racer's uniform and how it's reflected in the paint on the track as well. Great planning on the photographer's part! Originally shared with the Photofocus Flickr community right here. You can be the Photofocus Photographer of the Day. Here's how. … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Plane Motorsport 2014
Photographer of the Day: Brady
Category: Sports Photograph: Brady "Indianapolis 500" Brady gets a different view of the excitement at the Indianapolis 500, focusing on capturing a wide shot of the ground with cars driving past in the background. It's a great alternative if you don't have your telephoto on you or that special access to get you down to the track! Brady managed to capture the event in a nutshell, showcasing the waving and clapping crowd along with the cars whizzing by. Originally shared with the Photofocus Flickr community right here. You can be the … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Brady
Photographer of the Day: Camilo Getzamá
Category: Sports Photograph: Camilo Getzamá "Night race" Camilo gives us a shot of a go-cart race, which is noticeably sharp. By selecting to edit this in black and white, some deep contrasts are made between the road and the go-cart driver. I love the angle here — it just adds to the smooth movement that's already present. Originally shared with the Photofocus Facebook community right here. You can be the Photofocus Photographer of the Day. Here's how. … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Camilo Getzamá
Photographer of the Day: Peter Hickson
Category: Sports Photograph: Peter Hickson "Racing in Hayling Bay" Peter does a great job of working around the conditions in capturing this photo of a racing sailboat in Hayling Bay. He explains in the caption of the photograph that there wasn't much wind. By getting down low he was able to shoot the sailboat from a different perspective, allowing him to capture the natural waves of the green-toned water beneath. Originally shared with the Photofocus Flickr community right here. To learn how your work can be featured on the … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Peter Hickson
Photographer of the Day: Dan Schneider
Category: Sports Photography Photograph:"Rush Hour" by Dan Schneider Dan gives a different take on what we think of as "rush hour," showcasing runners in the early morning as they race by. Dan captures the runners in an artistic way not usually seen in running races, more focusing on the moment than the individuals. Originally shared with the Photofocus Flickr community right here. To learn how your work can be featured on the Photofocus, please read this article. … [Read more...] about Photographer of the Day: Dan Schneider
Three Ways That Auto Racers & Master Photographers Are Alike
When I started my career as a photographer it was at the Indianapolis 500. I was a teenager. I knew nothing about nothing. But I knew what I loved. I loved cars - fast cars - race cars. And I loved racing. From the time I was old enough to ride a bike I dreamed of racing a car at Indianapolis. Unfortunately, God saw fit to give me the body of a football player so I ran for the Arlington Golden Knights instead of Team Foyt or Andretti or Unser. But my inability to become a professional racing driver never once hindered my passion for racing or … [Read more...] about Three Ways That Auto Racers & Master Photographers Are Alike
Finding Courage To Be A Photographer
As many of you know my hobby is driving and collecting race cars. I should preface this by saying, I am not built for driving race cars. I am built for playing football - which I did for 14 years. But in my heart, I have always been a race car driver. I have never won - really. If I finish in the middle of the pack I FEEL like I won. I race for pure joy. It's impacted my life in many ways. It's improved my photography. Read on to see how. There's a great book which I highly recommend to everyone, not just race car drivers. It's a love story … [Read more...] about Finding Courage To Be A Photographer
Jaguar Calendar Shoot – Post Mortem
This post should be read in context with the last post I did regarding getting ready for a big shoot. No matter how long I spend making photographs, I am never quite fully prepared for how things work out. I have always have high hopes and it doesn't hurt that I am too stupid to know I can fail, but in this case the weather helped and a little luck was also on hand. First - there was the rain - or thankfully - the lack of it. The clouds made for a great day of shooting and we were lucky that they didn't drop any water until after we left. … [Read more...] about Jaguar Calendar Shoot – Post Mortem
Photographing A Day At The Drag Races
NOTE: Cross-Posted at Carloves.com What's the fastest accelerating car on the planet? A top fuel dragster. Nothing comes close. 0-100 in 0.7 seconds. These 8,000 to 10,000 horsepower beasts are something to behold. The speeds and the stresses involved in drag racing at this level are so tremendous that the engines have to be rebuilt after each and every run. I recently photographed the NHRA event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Not only did the event feature top-fuel cars, there were funny cars, motorcycles and a candy truck that … [Read more...] about Photographing A Day At The Drag Races
Professional Car Racing Photography – A Personal Diary
Make sure you don't miss a single Photofocus post - point your feed reader to the free Photofocus RSS Feed here and subscribe. NOTE: This piece was cross-posted at my car-related site CarLoves.com. It appeared there as a three-part diary but I've condensed it into one long post here. This post is dedicated to Dan Wheldon who lost his life during the Indycar race at Las Vegas One of the reasons I moved to Las Vegas just more than a year ago was the access it affords to great race tracks. One of those tracks is the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If … [Read more...] about Professional Car Racing Photography – A Personal Diary
How To Photograph A Race Car
This is a short post designed to answer one of the biggest questions about race car photography - how to make the car look like it's not parked on the race track. If you use a super fast shutter speed, depending on your distance to the car, and the car's speed you may make a photograph that makes the race car look like it's standing still, parked on the track. You can always pan with the car. This will convey movement and involves experimenting with shutter speeds that find a nice compromise between a static car and a blurred car. But … [Read more...] about How To Photograph A Race Car
Photograph Like You Are A Racer At Heart
Photo courtesy Rhed Pixel When you're on a photo shoot and things are going bad; i.e., the camera isn't working, your CF card won't format, your flash trigger won't talk to the flash, the model is late, the location is wrong, the client is hard to work with - stop - reset - start over - clear your mind. People who race cars have a saying - "A racer will never let something that has already happened affect what is happening now." In racing, you just don't have time to worry about the fact that you missed the apex of that last turn or that you … [Read more...] about Photograph Like You Are A Racer At Heart
How I Photograph Cars… Dusk at Laguna Seca
Post & Photo by Joe Farace Follow Joe on Twitter A lot of photographers think sports photography is about using big ticket, fast lenses and expensive cameras but this shot was created at dusk with an ISO setting of 800 using a moderately priced digital SLR, the Canon EOS 20D. Sure, the EF 500 f/4.0 lens cost $5500, so (I hear you saying it now) It oughta take good pictures. Well, it doesn't always work that way. The secret of making great photographs is simply knowing where to point the camera and thats harder than it sounds, especially … [Read more...] about How I Photograph Cars… Dusk at Laguna Seca
Photographing Drag Races
Guest Post & Photo by There is an old racers expression that goes: Theres no substitute for cubic inches. Translating that into advice for drag racing photography turns it into Theres no substitute for millimeters of focal length. My guess is that some of your best action images will be captured with zoom lenses that have a 200-300mm maximum focal length but theres more to drag racing than that. Unlike other forms of motorsports, you can sometimes get close enough to the action to photograph it using a wide-angle lens. The essence of … [Read more...] about Photographing Drag Races
