Get out that video camera, there’s a game this weekend!
1. You bought a video camera
2. You want to photograph your child’s sports
3. Here’s how to get it right!
What a wonderful age of technology we live in. You can buy the best devices today to record videos and music and play them in all kinds of ways on other high-tech devices, from computers, DVDs, MP3 players, VCRs, and many more. Everything is great. But they all come with extensive owner’s manuals that don’t always point you in the right direction. You might learn to use your new camera over time, for example, but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily take pictures worth looking at in the future. Winding tape on your camera is one thing, creating high-quality and engaging videos is another. The goal of this product is to get you up to speed with the use of your video camera (whatever format and brand) to get the best results for recording those precious moments of your child’s athletic achievements.
We as parents spend many hours on the field, court, pool, or track watching our children participate and compete in youth sports. If you have a video camera, you’ll want to record some of these events for posterity and perhaps education. Following the simple steps in this guide will help you capture them in the best possible way so that you can view them but also use them in the future.
My video experience comes from two decades as a television cameraman and as the father of several children who are active in youth sports. In my years of shooting video professionally, I have traveled the world and seen just about every type of news event. I also spent 15 years covering professional sporting events for my employer. These were the best type of assignments as far as I was concerned. In my entire career, what I’ve enjoyed the most is being able to go places the average person can’t. In sports, that usually means being on the field, courtside, in the press box, or in the pit. I have photographed football games of all levels, including the NFC and AFC championships. Living in the Bay Area has allowed me to cover many baseball pennant races and several World Series. He was just behind home plate the night the ground shook in the 1989 World Series. Talk about a shock. I had to stop covering a World Series between the two Bay Area teams to go cover a big news event. Baseball seemed small for a while after the magnitude of the earthquake. The point here is that I love sports, I’ve been around sports all my life and I know how to record sports videos. With that in mind, I’ll do my best to give you advice on how to do the same.
Gear
Now, whether you’ve got your hands on the latest DV camera or an old VHS format camera, there are basic things you’ll need to keep in mind if you’re going to be shooting sports. As we say in the video business, your camera is only as good as the glass that hangs in front of it. The better the lens, the better the results, regardless of the type of recording format you use. Now that you’ve got a camera in hand and you may have never heard this particular tip before, it’s too late to include it in the equation. However, if you have a camera in hand and are limited in what you can do because the lens isn’t that great, there are things you can do to mitigate the situation. We will discuss those things in more detail later.
The key factors before tackling the game day video task are to make sure you are familiar with the equipment’s operational functions, have a supply of tape on hand (soon to be DVDs featuring the revolution in equipment design taking place in this time), and fully charged batteries. I know these may seem like just obvious things, but even professionals have to constantly remind themselves to check and double check these items.
A little aside here about the preparation. Over the many years of covering the news, I’ve learned a lot of little tips from other photographers in the field and applied them to my work regimen. In the early days of video, we always had to carry a portable hair dryer because record players would go up to sixteen if humidity levels got too high. Therefore, in winter, if you enter a nice warm building from the cold outside, the air would condense inside the machine and cause moisture to accumulate. The warning light would come on and go off, we were dead in the water. One of us would have to run to the car and grab the hair dryer, turn it on, and blow the water off the recording heads on the rig. It caused some very funny moments in public places, I assure you. (By the way, this can still be a problem even today with electronics/camcorders/lenses. Too much moisture can wreak havoc. So remember, a portable hair dryer can save the day.)
Another thing I learned from others is the value of backup. A few years ago, I was on a mission and we had an enthusiastic young college intern along with us in the field. This young man wanted to learn everything about what we did at work. He was very interested in how to take pictures, unlike most of our interns who just wanted to become reporters or presenters. He asked a lot of questions and after seeing that he was really paying attention, I decided to take him under my wing and really fill him in on information. One tip I shared with him was that I always keep a supply of emergency tape in his car when he’s on a mission. At first, he didn’t quite understand the importance of this, since he had already taught her that he would always carry duct tape when he went out to work. I filled it with stories of times when one thing or another would happen and I’m damned if you didn’t need another tape and under the car seat was that emergency spare. Anyway, he went on to graduate college and got a job at a small-market TV station. He would send us progress reports from time to time, which I really enjoyed. So lo and behold, one day he sends me a letter telling me how he got into a mess one day in a story and needed that emergency tape. She had obediently stuffed one under the back seat and was there to save the day. I hope that what you learn in this book somehow prevents you from having a video glitch in the future. What I’ve learned in my career is that video production is 80% dealing with curveballs and the problems they throw at you and 20% talent. If you can learn to solve problems, you will always succeed.
My first suggestion for photographing your children’s sports activities is to go watch TV. Yeah, sit down, put your feet up, and watch some sports on TV. Really watch how they make it interesting at the top level. Then watch the news and see how they cover gaming from a news perspective. Pay no attention to the content; just look at how it unfolds visually. Now, of course, you can never duplicate what the networks are doing with just your camera. However, if you can glean anything from observation, it should be how they try to build intimacy with the athletes on the broadcast. All the new improvements in sports coverage have to do with getting the viewer as close to the athlete as possible. Take you into his world. From cameras on overhead wires gliding across the field to cameras on the net of a hockey game to in-car cameras in Daytona, it brings you to the game. Now you can’t stand on the pitcher’s mound at your kids’ baseball game, but you can learn a few techniques that can make your baseball video more intimate, and therefore more engaging to watch.
A side note here, if your task is to capture the entire game or sports activity for review as a training tool, you should primarily focus on getting a good overhead view and setting the camera up on a tripod. Scroll slowly to follow the action and don’t zoom in or out. My main goal here is not to teach you this skill, as it’s pretty basic. However, if this is what you’re doing, you need to do it right. Find the right frame to keep most of the activity in the frame, and follow it carefully. Some sports move fast from one extreme to the other and you will have to be smooth. Resist the urge to follow the ball at full zoom. You will lose. Those guys who shoot sports on TV are full of professionals who use much better equipment than you will ever have at your disposal.
Now, to get a good video of your child’s game, you have to find that thrill and excitement that exists in any game. Think of it as capturing some of the things that happen and making them golden. Does the team cheer before the game? Get in close, position your camera high above their heads looking down or get below them looking up and shoot in a way that takes the viewer where they can’t go. Capture an at-bat in baseball by taking a full pitch cycle close up on the pitcher, then one on the catcher, then as close to the batter as possible. Show your face if you can. If they get the big hit, don’t go crazy rushing to walk away. Follow the runner down the line. It will be almost impossible to track the ball, so stick with the running back. Look for the angles that will give you these emotional shots.
Some sports are more challenging due to the size of the field and the amount of movement up and down the field. Take soccer for example, if you follow the ball the camera moves all over the place and the viewer gets dizzy. To capture a good video of your child playing, you need to focus on specific shots and not try to play along. Look for moments like throw-ins, free kicks, kickoffs when things are predictable and you can get closer to the action. Walk the sideline and wait for the action to come to you. If your child is playing forward, get ahead of the play and when you see the ball moving towards you then you can find your child and wind the tape in anticipation of him playing the ball. Be sure to get some shots of the cheering crowd, the coach looking on (not yelling I hope) the goalie waiting with anticipation.
Hold your shots steady for 6-10 seconds at a time. If you’re taking a photo of someone watching the game, count it in your head (one thousand two thousand…) This will ensure you get good solid shots and don’t just go on and on with the shot. Rest your arm against your chest for stability and use your other arm across your belly underneath to create a stabilizing platform. This is instead of a tripod of course. If you have a tripod it can always be good to use it if it doesn’t get in the way.
Use creative angles as much as possible. Crouch down and wait for the action to pass you by. Don’t pan with it, but let the action run through the frame. At a swim meet, lower the camera to the deck for a broader perspective of the swimmers’ action. Of course, you may not want to stay there when the swimmers come over for a turn. Digital electronics don’t like water inside them. One time I was taking the most amazing low angle shots of some open water swimmers and the boat came crashing down on me and salt water splashed into the camera. I had a cover on the camera, but salt water seeped through the cracks and caused us a lot of complaints about having to clean it to avoid damaging the electronics in the camera.