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Lights, Camera - Action
Max Earey

Sports photography - A visual delight. A host of colour. A record of the moment. Just a few of the many descriptions that can be applied to an area of photography that is in great demand the world over.

So where do you start? Can you compete against the pros? Can I start with what I have or do I need the monster lenses that cost as much as cars and build muscles twice as quickly as any gym work-out? The answers to all of these questions are simply 'yes!' You can compete, but to achieve success we need to look in greater detail at the starting point.

What and where are you going to shoot? The many main stream sports including soccer, tennis, rugby and cricket offer one avenue to pursue. Motor sports with its infinite variations offers further opportunities and finally the realms of adventure sports also provide a host of possibilities for your lens.

However, unless your uncle or your best friend is Sir Alex Ferguson your not going to be sitting behind the goal at Old Trafford as Beckham curls one into the roof of the net from 30 yards. So what do you do?

Having a game plan will save time and valuable film expenses. Initially stick to the sports you have an interest in because your understanding of these sports and your ability to anticipate will be evident in your photographs. Edit your results tightly, look at the pictures that you discard, make notes on why they are heading for the waste bin and decide how you can improve on them - learn from your mistakes and start to look for opportunities to help with your costs.

As Old Trafford may initially be out of the question, set your sights a little lower. Go to the local park on any Sunday through-out the soccer season and you will be able to point your lens at players doing just the same as Beckham, though obviously not to the same standard. Go to a local moto-cross, capture the riders deep in the dirt or flying over your head. Visit a sailing club, hitch a ride on the committee boat and get amongst the yachts as they go round a mark. Whatever event you choose get your face known, talk to the organisers, the competitors, and the spectators. Find out about the next race, game or meeting, take an interest and you are sure to get a response. Build on these initial contacts to see whether any of your images can be used, for example in the local paper or in promotional material. Remember, maximise any opportunities to help cover your costs.

With each event and with patience and practice your pictures will improve and the possibility of covering your costs will soon not seem as daunting as you may think at first. All you need is a little confidence. One of my early moves was in moto-cross, I shot some pictures using 100ISO print film, I then edited aggressively, keeping only the really sharp images. A quick trip to the local lab and I soon had several 6x8 enlargements which I then mounted on A4 black card. I then returned to the next event, went to the paddock early and identified the riders from the numbers in my pictures and started selling - it may surprise you how many shots you can sell. Keep your prices within reason, your not aiming to retire on the proceeds just yet! At the end of the day look at any pictures that did not sell, analyse why this may be the case. Are they sharp? Are they colourful? Do they capture the action? Remember that many moto-cross riders will have snaps taken of them and their bikes - but few of them will have any pictures which show them in action. Action shots sell.

If you enjoy the thrill of seeing your pictures sell you will undoubtedly look to bigger markets, contributing to your local paper and to magazines is the logical next step. Photographic magazines offer a good avenue to pursue during your early days as they require a great deal of material on many different subjects. Expect rejections but never be discouraged by them. Each time you make a submission and it is returned unused, try to understand why the editor has returned your work, use any lessons learned for subsequent submissions. Success in the photographic press will come with persistence, when you are successful in getting images published, accept the normal publication rates as they are fair and a cheque will arrive within a month of publication.

Enter competitions, especially those offering equipment as prizes. The photographic magazines usually have monthly themed competitions offering good prizes and the specialist sports press generally have an annual competition offering either equipment or a day out with a top pro in the field. If you have success enjoy it and move onto the next competition. If your not in the winner's circle compare your interpretation of the magazine's requirements to those entries that won and always try again.

This early period is a period to hone your skills, analyse your successes and your failures and always strive to improve. It is also a time to start to specialise - your images will improve more rapidly and your name and reputation will be established more quickly if you develop a specialisation. It is always possible to start to diversify again once you have achieved success, but at some point it will pay to specialise - use these early months to consider your options.

Having decided on which sports to specialise, the time will also come to equip your bag with the necessities to make the job easier. All the major manufacturers offer reliable bodies with a reasonable choice of lenses. Canon and Nikon are most often the professionals choice of 35mm equipment and while Nikon tends to dominate the photo-journalist profession, Canon is most often seen as the choice for sports photographers.

Equipping your bag can be an expensive experience, try to keep to the essentials initially. Ideally your bag should include at least one top flight pro body that offers a degree of weatherproofing, motor drive, fast focusing, manual exposure and rugged reliability. A second lower spec body that can be used in the event of the first meeting some untimely demise, is a good safety margin that is worth serious consideration. A hand held exposure meter is also worth considering as no built in meter is 100% reliable - especially in outdoor sports with high contrast situations. Lenses will offer further headaches given the wide choice of specification and budget. Remember that the lens is really the most critical part of the package --it will determine the sharpness of your images. Buy the fastest lens you are able to afford and try to have a range of lenses including a wide angle, 100mm, 200mm and 400mm add to these a 1.4x teleconverter and you will have most sports in range. Zoom lenses are an option, offering greater flexibility over composition, but speed and performance are points for serious consideration. Final ingredients to your bag should include a powerful dedicated flashgun, mono pod and a sturdy tripod.

All the main camera manufacturing companies offer por-specification lenses. These are what you should aim for, purchasing these should be an early target for your business. While they may not be regarded as absolutely essential, they tend to be much more robustly built and they usually offer superior performance enabling you to use faster shutter speeds with slower films in lower light - this can be quite important shooting afternoon sports events in Britain in the winter!

There can be no perfect equipment set-up, it is very much a personal choice and one that you may continually change during your photographic career. Having an in-depth knowledge of your camera and lenses is the best advice anyone can give you - better this than having the latest body that you are not yet familiar with. Remember the old adage - 'if it aint broke don't fix it'. If you are getting good results with your existing equipment then there is no reason to upgrade. A camera is a tool and it is the operator that controls it and the quality of the output from it. Once you fully appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of your kit you will improve your success rate per shot and thus the viability of your business.

Sports photography as with any other form of photography is an art to develop, a skill to improve and a hobby that can become a business. To succeed you will need knowledge, understanding, determination, persistence and luck. Luck plays a part in the success of every sports photographer - remember Schumacher's crash at Silverstone? Luck enabled a few photographers to make a substantial amount of money by being in the right place at the right time.

Remember also that this type of luck is always at least partially made. By building a specialisation and anticipating where the action could be you can significantly improve your chances for that great shot, that everyone else will probably refer to as a 'lucky' shot - but you will know it was a shot that was made not taken.