I’ll be the first to admit that I take horrible phone photos.
I know all the things about light, composition, the exposure triangle, and almost every technical term you could think of, but my cell phone photos often look blah because I do not take the time to really think about what I am doing. While I would love to be at every one of your child’s sporting events, that’s just not possible for either of us. Make sure that you reach out to book your action session as soon as you have your schedule to get on my calendar, but for those games that I can’t attend, here are some tips and tricks to get some photos of your kid doing what they love.
1. Get as close as possible to the action.
No matter how good your camera phone is, cropping in just doesn’t do justice to the kid playing their heart out or chasing butterflies in the outfield. Get as close to the court or field as safety allowed. For baseball, this means making sure you put your camera up to the chain link fence. When you see me taking photos at a game, I have my lens all the way up to the fence when I’m not on the field. Please be considerate to other fans while doing this, but try to get as close as possible, while being safe and not intrusive to the game.
2. Try to get your player’s eyes in the photo.
While it may be easier to get the back of their helmet while they are batting, or their ponytail flying down the field, try moving your body to get their concentration as they are doing what they love. Our eyes show connection and seeing their eyes and their expression will make for a more meaningful photo.
3. Get low to make them look larger.
There’s a reason most adults don’t like being photographed from below…it makes them look bigger. But for a youth athlete, this perspective can make them look larger than life. At the very least, try to get on eye level with your athlete. This may hurt your knees or you may need a hand to get up, but the photo will look better if your athlete looks larger than life. You are more likely to photograph just your player and eliminate any background distractions this way.
4. Utilize burst or live mode.
Sports happen fast, so without practicing the timing of when to press your shutter, it may be easier to get that golden image by setting your phone camera setting to burst mode. This will be different on every phone and may have a different name, so check your user manual online if you are unsure of how to do this.
5. Bonus tip if you want to be extra.
Try to incorporate some photography composition techniques to your photo. Some of the basic ones you can use in sports are:
Rule of Thirds
Pretend there is a tic tac toe board on your phone. Try to place your athlete at one of the intersections of the lines and bonus if you can get the ball at the opposite intersection. A lot of phones have these lines on the screen when you are taking photos anyways for your ease.
Leading Lines
Leading lines. There are lines all over fields and courts. Try to put your athlete on one end of the line and use the lines of the field to draw your eye towards the player.
Bug's Eye View
Bug’s eye view. We’ve already talked about this one, but by getting very low, you can make your athlete look larger than life in the photo.
I hope these tips and tricks help you remember your athlete doing what they love at this moment in time.
If you ever want to just sit back and relax and enjoy the game and let me do the work of documenting it, reach out as soon as you have your schedule to get on my calendar! I will be at the Colleyville Soccer Association and Oak Grove Baseball Complex a lot this Spring watching my own kids, so let's chat as soon as schedules are released.