Sports photography is something that can be positively incredible when you get the right moments and framing. But in truth, it seems like it’s just replaced by video these days. Camera companies are releasing tons of cameras designed to be able to shoot tons of sports and wildlife. However, sports departments are shutting down, and photographers have to find new work as a result. All of the cameras push the idea of faster frame rates, better high ISOs, and insane autofocus that can track subjects to get some of the best moments. These days, we don’t see enough creative photo techniques because modern sports photographers are too busy looking instead of seeing.
The image is a screenshot. But the image is from the Library of Congress on Flickr and has no known copyrights associated with it. It was shot by Tony Frisselli.
Sports Photography in the 1950s
The image above was shot back in 1959 when photographers had slower ISO film in their cameras. That means that their only variable settings were aperture and shutter speed. Specifically, that image was shot in color transparency film — otherwise known as slide film. It’s crazy today to think that the game was shot on something below ISO 400. But indeed, that’s what they had to do back then.
Because it was shot at such a low ISO, the shutter speeds would need to be longer. Sports photographers try to shoot at nothing under 1/1000th of a second these days. And even then, that’s considered to be slow.
The Art of It
Let’s get away from technicalities and talk more about the art of the image now.
Artistically speaking, we cannot see the faces of any of these athletes. But we can see that one of them was #3. By association, we can figure out who that athlete was at the time. We can also tell that none of the hockey players were wearing helmets. What’s also evident is that there is a lot of movement and action on the ice, but #3 is moving at a much slower pace for one reason or another. There’s clearly also a bit of a tussle going on between the two players. One has a red, white and blue uniform while the other dons blue and white. It’s a fantastic and dramatic moment.
And unfortunately, we don’t see sports images like this anymore. Why? I think personally, at least that I’d be far more compelled to stare into images like this in addition to some of the crazy split-second photographs that are seen. Today, on January 8th, 2024, I’m looking at a recent post by the Athletic. The lead image is a rather boring filler selected by an Editorial desk that probably didn’t have anything more compelling to share.
Because of this, is that a problem for the photographer or the photo editor?
Make it Better
The bigger problem with sports photography, though, is that we’ve become too enamored with getting the split-second moments and shooting at 120 frames a second — like the Sony a9 III offers. Sure, there’s merit in getting those images, but everyone has them. There aren’t many photographs shot at ISO 400 with a slower shutter speed panning with an athlete anymore. Those images are something that video cannot do. And for photography to continue to be relevant, this is a method that should be adopted.
Most importantly, maybe we should just slow down to make images that people will want to stare at.