Collage

The Collage

I sometimes like to do collage's. This is a pure artistic effort to the photographer, or it can be a teaching tool for the coaching staff of what ever sport is being shot.

A Series Collage is my specialty. A series collage basically is 8.5 fps my camera can shoot, capturing the mechanics and a point in time of an athletes abilities.

The beauty of a series collage is that within the frame rate you choose on your camera, you can either accept the first burst of shots taken like the above collage...

...or you can take several bursts, like the below series,  and edit together more frames into the series to tell more of a story, and show more of the mechanics of the athlete in motion.

Collages can be fun and artistic at the same time. They can be revealing and catch what the eye misses.

Here are more of the series collages I have made.

Also check out my web sit at http://mostlybaseball.sports.officelive.com ALSO http://thommarshallphotography.art.officelive.com/default.aspx

Stop motion vs. motion

In most sports types such as baseball, football, hockey, soccer and the like, stopping the motion of the athlete on the field of play is almost a must. Stopping the motion while a team player steps into the action against an opposing player during the process of making points for their team can tell a story.

I say almost a must because sometimes when the timing is just right, and the photographer knows the gear they are using, an artistic moment can be shot while following a player as they run past the lens.

In this first image taken at Willow Springs Speedway, the black race car was shot using stop motion. Look also in the back ground, a gray race car is zooming its way around the track.

Stop motion is not always needed in all sports. While the gray car in the back ground definitely looks like it is in motion, the black car looks like it is parked on the track.

Now the next image, this blue race car, is convincing that it is in motion. Slowing the shutter down, center weighting the focal point, and panning with the car, trying to get in focus as it races by the lens is hard to do, but offers another level of story telling if done right.

As a sports photographer, as stated in the guidelines in the beginning of this blog, you must know your sport. In knowing your sport, you also need to have an idea of what images you are after. When envisioning those images, then, and only then, will you know how to execute.

Here are more images taken during the Redline Time Attack in 2009.

Also check out my web sit at http://mostlybaseball.sports.officelive.com ALSO http://thommarshallphotography.art.officelive.com/default.aspx