The June 'Spring Sports' contest winners
When the Globe’s prize-winning sports photographer Jim Davis evaluated the 25 finalists in June’s Spring Sports contest to choose the Top 10, he hoped to find – or, in some cases, not find – several elements.
First, he didn’t want to see distracting backgrounds that drew attention away from the main subject of the photo. Sometimes that meant the photographer moving to a position that eliminated those distractions; other times it meant a nice tight crop.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of luck where you’re sitting or standing,” Jim said. “But if you can, always try to position yourself to get a clean background.”
Good cropping, he said, can take a distracting background and eliminate or at least minimize it. “By using a tighter crop, you can focus the eye on the most interesting element of the photo,” he said.
Sometimes the crops are minor in execution, but yield a major result – something as simple as cropping down or in from the side slightly to eliminate a vertical or horizontal pole on a chain link fence, for example.
Another technique is to use a long lens with a shallow depth of field, say f/2.8 or f/4, to blur a busy backdrop.
He also wanted to see dead space eliminated, although he also pointed out that in some photos, such as the shot of Mike Lowell throwing a ball, showing a good chunk of the field to the right of Lowell was very effective.
Jim also looked for a strong composition, where heads or feet weren’t cut off unnecessarily or balls weren’t out of the frame. In action shots, he looked for that peak moment of action; in the quieter photos, he sought out those that captured a special sports moment, even if there wasn’t much movement in the picture.
Finally, he looked for creativity, particularly shots taken from a low angle. “In my opinion, most sports shots are better taken from a low angle,” he said. “It’s more dramatic. It makes you feel part of the action. Say a running back is hurtling over a defender. If you get that shot at eye level, it will be good, but if you are even lower, you will accentuate the leap and get a great shot.”
Jim, who loves shooting football, is so determined to get low for the best shot that he sometimes wears kneepads (“Depends on the field and the time of year,” he says. “Sometimes by the fourth quarter my knees are killing me”). The only exception to his low-is-better rule is hockey, since it is virtually impossible to get down low without actually being on the ice.
And now, the winners:
First Place – $100
at the Coast Track and Field Classic in Costa Mesa, CA
This First Place winner had it all, according to Jim: It captured a good peak action moment, there was a fairly clean background, and it was taken at a low angle that accentuated the action.
“I really like the swirl of the sand and the way the photographer captured the jumper’s tongue hanging out as he reached for every last inch in his jump,” he said. “It had a good combination of all the important elements.”
Second Place – $50
“Another peak moment with crisp action and a clean background,” Jim said. “Imagine if an outfielder could be seen, or there was a big white house just beyond the field – it would have really distracted from this photo. Plus it was taken at a little bit of a low angle. It’s a nice crop with no dead space, it’s clean, nice and sharp, the ball is right where you want it – it’s a professional-looking picture.”
Third Place - $25
“Same cleanness as the other winners,” Jim said. “There’s a nice graphic quality to this photo – you can instantly tell it’s basketball. Very eye-pleasing, with nothing distracting. Another low-angle shot. I like that this photographer and some others tried different points of view. Here, it worked well. The photographer was trying to do something different, and I like that.”
Here's a gallery of all of the Top 10 finishers -- congratulations to all.
all taken with Nikon D300....lol
I could not help but notice that all three winners (including me) used the same camera—the Nikon D300. It truly is a great camera and it has taken this opportunity to prove itself.
Yeah, that is funny! Congrats to irish89step, that's a great shot. And alphanikonrex, that's an SI-looking shot, very nice.
'Beltane'
Normally I'm not an advocate for pro gear. But for consistent professional level sports photos, pro gear is a must. Aside from the D300 bodies, the lenses used are probably pro gear also.
My comments:
Winner: If I don't know that this is supposed to be a sports photo, I would not conclude that this is a long jumper.
Second place: I wonder if having the catcher's face in sharp focus instead of the ball would make this a better photo.
Third place: I have never seen a basketball rim of this thickness. The rim is a perfect circle, and the holes for the net are all clearly visible. This suggests a perfectly positoned camera. But the backboard seems to be at an angle. Post processed?
My favorites are Reel Reflections, Nervous Catcher and Conference at the Mound. They do have technical problems, or with distracting backgrounds, or not taken at peak actions. But they are natural, suggest stories, and probably not taken with pro gear. Just what the RAW contest is supposedly intended for: the amateurs!
There's absolutely nothing about the contest rules that says amateur photographers can't use pro level gear. It's the amateur status of the person behind the lens that's the primary criteria. Are you saying we should only shoot pictures for a contest w/ a kit level lens, that can't open up past f3.5?
I don't read fair's comments that way at all, Chris. I don't think fair has any issues with the gear used, and was simply commenting that it certainly is a benefit while shooting the winning shots.
@Chris: Congrats to you too! You caught the perfect moment!
@fairnsquare: No, the image was not "created" in post processing. The only changes I made were to the exposure and the black point of the image. And the basketball hoop was one of those plastic kiddie ones — thus the wider rim. If you insist, I have an original RAW NEF file.
And one more thing — I'm not a pro. I'm a 13-year-old kid.
lol, not an advocate of pro gear? That is probably the most ridiculous statement I've read on this site.
who cares what sort of camera was used?
i am a 22 year old professional photographer, and admittedly i use a Canon 5DmarkII and all L level glass including the 50 and 85mm 1.2 lenses, so my setup aside from lights is over 8 grand, but that in no way makes me a better photographer inherently than someone using a camera of more consumer level like a canon digital rebel. the advantages are in flexibility, image capture quality and that's about it. there are thousands of amateurs acting as professionals in LA, where i live, who have cameras such as a nikon d300 (which by the way is a prosumer, not professional camera, the D3 is a professional level), or say a canon 5D who take completely horrid pictures. the perception that professional gear (and by that i mean any digital SLR) makes you a photographer is equal to a fat kid buying 200 dollar track spikes expecting to beat Usain Bolt, its absurd.
ill say i dont find these photos amazing, but they are well done from a technical standpoint, and professional gear requires that to reach its potential, for without it, its just really expensive paperweights.
stayin' alive....
Awesome pics by the winners. It continues to motivate me to try and hang with you amateur professionals (how's that for a term - can we all agree now? :-P) that I bought my first camera I could control features with 6 months ago. I prefer to hear the critiques not complaints, and having been on this site only about 3 or 4 months I am already seeing a trend from certain people after every single contest. I believe someone pointed them towards JPG Mag, after checking that site out I second that.
I also now aspire to shoot like a 13 year old. I've liked a bunch of his pictures, I happened upon his flickr account and it's very fun to scroll through. The 13 yr old in him might give him more of an advantage composition-wise than the equipment. A kiddie net - who'd have thunk it! Who is the dunker?? He's got to be at least 3'2''! Makes me like this picture even more.
August's theme should be great. It takes some creativity to make those stand out from a crowd.
To fairnsquare, the photograph was of a long jumper whom I shot at an NCAA event in Santa Ana, CA. I am a 20 yr old photo student at Montana State University and was renting a D300 since my student budget cannot support such an expensive piece of equipment at the moment. Canon's new 7D is on the wishlist for my future upgrade.........
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
JOIN THE RAW DAWGS
Monthly contest
Photo Events
Featured Photographer
Life and wildlife in Madagascar
Paul Marotta of Arlington
Kati Mai Seiffer
Ryan Prentiss
On Assignment
Tipsheets
Stay in Touch
Browse this blog
by categoryInside Boston.com