Mastering Action Photography for your Travels and Adventures

In this episode of the Travel and Adventure Photography SchoolPpodcast, host Robert Massey delves into the exciting world of action photography. 
Drawing from his experience as a former sports photographer, Robert shares valuable insights and techniques for capturing dynamic action shots, covering topics such as understanding shutter speed, selecting the right gear, utilizing burst mode and predictive autofocus, exploring creative techniques like panning and intentional motion blur, mastering composition, and capturing the decisive moment. 
These tips and advice will help elevate your adventure and travel photography to new heights.

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Find all the show notes and connect with Robert:
Website: robertmasseyphotography.ca
Instagram: @robertmasseyphotography

Transcript

0:01

How's it going everybody. Welcome back to the travel adventure photography school, the podcast where we explore the world of adventure and travel photography, to help you master this style of photography. As always I'm your host Robert Massey. And in today's episode, we're delving into the thrilling world of action photography from hiking to rock climbing, surfing to wildlife encounters, capturing dynamic action shots is an essential skill for any adventure or travel photographer. If you've listened to previous episodes, you may know that my start in photography came from my time as a photo journalist and a sports photographer in particular. So I've spent hundreds of hours capturing high action events, like hockey, rodeos, basketball track, and field, rugby, rock climbing, skijoring recently all sorts of amazing high octane events. This was my bread and butter for a years in photography. So I am stoked to share some of my knowledge with you and to get to talk about something that I don't do as often as I used to. And I really loved. So at the end of today, you should know everything. You need to start capturing those decisive moments in fast paced environments. And honestly, it is super exciting to get to be there. All right. Let's get going. Let's start by diving into the fundamentals of action photography. At its core action photography is about capturing moments of movement, energy, and critical points in a game or an adventure. Whether it's a surfer catching a wave, a rock climber scaling a cliff, a trail runner racing through rugged terrain, action photography allows us to freeze those adrenaline fueled experiences in detail you actually can't experience while doing those activities and people can't experience while watching them. So the first thing you need to know is understanding your shutter speed's roll in freezing motion. That is central to mastering action photography. Shutter speed refers to the amount of time your camera shutter remains open to allow light onto the camera's sensor. In action photography, a fast shutter speed is essential to freeze fast moving subjects and capture sharp, detailed, images. Now if you don't know what I mean by fast shutter speeds. Definitely go and review the episodes on the exposure triangle. We go over all of those details and how the exposure triangle kind of interacts. But we're going to dig into that just a little bit here for you. So for example, when photographing rock climbing, where climbers, ascend, vertical cliffs with speed and agility, a shutter speed of at least one, 500th of a second or faster is recommended to freeze the climbers in mid action. This is great for most forms of rock climbing. Like when people are moving a little bit slower, they're reaching for rocks, they're doing the typical, slower, more thoughtful movements in rock climbing. But if you're getting into speed climbing, when people are doing things like a dyno, you'll need an even faster shutter speed to avoid that motion blur and really show them frozen in the action. Similarly when capturing trail running, a shutter speed of around one, 1000th of a second or faster is going to be necessary to freeze those runners in motion. And this really depends on how fast they are running, but generally speaking, you'll need one, 1000th to start. And then to play with it from there. Now, these are really just a few examples there to get your mind going in to get you thinking about it. And it's really going to be variable and depend a lot on the situation that you're in, on the speed of your subject. What you're trying to freeze, what's critical for you. All sorts of other little details, but that should give you an idea of start thinking of just how fast your shutter needs to go to start freezing action. Now, honestly, there were moments during rodeos where I knew I wanted the dust itself frozen in the air. That means an even faster shutter speed than I needed just to freeze the athletes and the animals doing their thing. So I would look at a shutter speed of at least 3,200. Sometimes I could get it up to 8,000 and that was letting me get just little droplets of mud frozen in the air around the athlete that was allowing me to get every single minute, little detail. They almost felt over detailed at points when you were looking at them, which was exactly what I wanted. I wanted people to really be engrossed and see everything just frozen in time. But now it's crucial to recognize that give and take higher shutter speeds cause, and that adjusting the shutter speed is really just one part of that exposure triangle we were talking about that includes aperture and ISO. Now the exposure triangle represents that delicate balance between these three elements and adjusting one affects the others. And so you need to find that balance between them. When selecting a shutter speed to freeze action, you'll need to consider how fast your subject is going, what you can capture in there, what you need to capture in there. And a faster shutter speed allows for better motion freezing, but may require a wider aperture or higher ISO to maintain your proper exposure. For example, when capturing the high-octane events, Skijoring where horses pull skiers and snowboarders down a series of jumps while they pull tricks. Yes, this is a real thing. It is spectacular to watch. And it goes by in the blink of an eye, you just have no idea how fast these horses are moving with these skiers and snowboarders until you watch them just rip past you on the track. So while I was shooting this, I knew I wanted a wider depth of field so I could capture the athletes and all of them because they were moving so quickly. Sometimes they would just blow through the camera, being able to focus on those. So I wanted a better chance to make sure more of them was in focused. I knew I didn't want to razor thin aperture because those athletes were moving so quickly, that that gave me less of a chance of being able to capture more of them in focus, to be able to deliver a high impact image. I knew I also wanted that wider depth of field so I could capture the athlete as well as the reaction of the crowd to their stunts. And there are some spectacular facial reactions as somebody goes off a jump and pulls off a full backflip 30 feet in the air it's mind blowing to watch, and then they land and you can see these people's faces of just awe and amazement. And had I been shooting with a razor thin aperture. I might not have been able to see those people's faces. So I knew that I had to do this, but the offset to being able to have a high shutter speed and a fairly high aperture. Was that I needed to crank my ISO. And in my eyes, that is a well worthwhile trade off. To be able to see that whole story of the event, to be able to see that story of how people were reacting to it. Plus I knew the limits of the camera was shooting on. It was a Sony, a seven four that has a really great sensor in it where you can actually get that ISO pretty high before you get out of the usable range of an image. So I knew that I'd be able to recover a lot of that detail and I knew things would be pretty good. So by understanding that interplay between shutter speed aperture and ISO you can really effectively balance these elements to tell the story you want. Alright, next up is the gear you're going to need. This is one of those places where the camera really does make a difference. A lot of times you can shoot pretty much anything on any type of camera, but in this case, high action really does need certain specialized pieces of equipment. It's cause some cameras actually top out at a shutter speed of like 3,200. And that is not even close to what you'll need to freeze. Action. So first and foremost, your camera should be capable of shooting at high shutter speeds to freeze motion. Most cameras today can achieve a minimum of one, 8000th of a second with their physical shutter or even more with the electronic shutters. And Sony's new A nine three with that fantastic global shutter can even get to 120 frames per second while tracking a subject. That is truly mind blowing to me. And I would have loved to have had that as a sports photographer. It would have been a total game changer. So look for your camera that has that really quick shutter speed to it. Now, in addition to pure speed, you'll need a camera with fast auto focus capabilities to ensure that your subject remains sharply in focus. Even amidst that fast paced action. So look for a camera that offers snappy autofocus performance and allows you to track moving subjects. This is critical as you'll be following subjects through frames and through scenes and your camera needs to keep up. And with the other critical things that you'll need is an autofocus system that doesn't jump between subjects. You'll need to find one. That allows you to focus on one specific subject. It identifies it, and you'll be able to track it as they pass between other players as they pass behind objects, as they move through things that could cause that autofocus to jump onto another subject. You want one that will know this is what I'm looking at. This is what I need to stay on. Even when it moves behind something. Alright, now let's talk lenses. A fast lens with wide aperture is essential for capturing sharp images in environments where you can't add additional light. So look for a lens with a wide, maximum aperture, such as 2.8 or wider. To allow plenty of light to reach your camera's sensor. This is especially important when shooting inside places like a hockey rink or a climbing gym where you can't set up external flashes to help compensate for how dark it is. And you need to capture that movement really quickly. One of the other benefits to wide apertures, is that you can also create better separation between your subject and their background, isolating your subject and drawing attention to the action because that background becomes a little bit blurrier. And finally, one of the other things you should consider with lenses is how fast that lens itself focuses. Some lenses are really sluggish and that focus motor just can't keep up or focus hunts. And it kind of guesses around at what it's trying to do. That is not a problem with your camera. That actually is a problem with the focus motor on the lens itself. And this is particularly a problem with cheaper lenses and older lenses where they just can't keep up with the focus capabilities of cameras today. So they will skip, they will stutter and you will end up missing more shots because of that. So if you're really into action photography, you need to look for a lens that can keep up with your camera. Now. Sticking with lenses. We're going to talk about focal length and you need to consider the specific type of action photography you'll be focusing on. So, for example, if you're capturing fast moving subjects, like wildlife, and they're going to be at a distance from you. A telephoto lens with a long focal length will allow you to zoom in and capture that stuff from a distance. It's especially important in wildlife photography, where you really won't be able to get up to that wildlife. And you really shouldn't be getting up to that wildlife. So telephoto lenses are super important. On the other hand, if you're shooting action in tight spaces or need to capture a wide field of view, wide angle lenses may be more suitable. It really is dependent on the situation and where you will be able to shoot from. It'll also depend on your own personal stylistic choices. For the most part when I was a photo journalist, I used medium telephoto lenses. But when capturing things like biking, I love an excellent wide angle lens to get that viewer into the action of really let that bike come really uptight to the camera. And this was especially important in situations where it wasn't a competition. So I was able to get right onto the track with the athletes and they were able to work with me to get really close to the lens. Now, one last thing you should consider investing in is a good camera strap or a harness that allows for quick and easy access to your camera. While, keeping it secure to your body. I have a harness set up that allows me to carry two cameras at once. And keeps them in easy reach. So they're just hanging down by my hips and I can just grab one and pull it up, put it down, grabbing the other and pull it up. So I always had typically a, something like a 24 to 70 and then a 70 to 200 or. Similar kind of ranges. So I'd be able to capture something at a distance and then something close up. If you look at sports photographers on the sidelines of like an NFL game, you'll see that they typically have four or five cameras attached to them. One's on a monopod. That's normally like a 400 or 500 millimeter lens. You'll see another one that's something like a 70 to 200. You'll see another one. That's. You know, a 24 to 70, you'll see another one. That's a 16 mil. They are ready for anything to happen in front of them. And yeah, that does get heavy when you start attaching that many cameras to you and it gets awkward to start shooting. So one of the things I love about my harness set up, especially when I'm trying to move fast and light is that I can easily grab them while I'm running to different spots to shoot different photos and I can hold onto them, which helps me prevent them from banging it objects while I go running by. All right. Some techniques for freezing action. As we've previously discussed one key component of action photography is using a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. We're not covering that again. Instead, let's explore another valuable technique burst mode. Burst mode also known as continuous shooting allows you to quickly capture a rapid series of images with just a single press of the shutter. This can be incredibly useful in fast paced action scenarios. As it increases your chances of capturing that perfect moment. Now, one caveat to this, you can also miss the perfect moment if you are just as old school reporters, put it spraying and praying. This is where you continuously shoot everything with burst mode. And you're just praying that what you want is going to be there in front of you. And that's instead of just waiting for those pivotal moments. So you are better off getting to understand the sport you are shooting and waiting for those pivotal moments and then letting the shutter fly. Cause if you're here just shooting. Absolutely everything. A, you have a lot more photos to go through, which means you can actually miss that critical photo in there. There's more of a chance that your buffer on your camera's going to be buffering and you're going to miss the critical photo. Or you're just going to be in between moments and you just won't have that exact right. Second to capture what you need. And I learned this from one of the Getty images, sports photographers. He used to shoot in Calgary all the time. And that was his big thing. He would wait and wait and wait until right as a critical moment was occurring and then shoot. And that was because he learned when he was just spraying and praying that a lot of the times that critical moment was happening, between the images that we're firing off. So he would wait and he would learn how the action was coming in front of him and then fire something off. Plus it saved him time behind the computer because he wasn't hunting as much for the right photo. In addition to burst mode, consider using predictive auto focus to track moving subjects and maintain focus as they move across the frame. This allows you to keep your subject in focus even as they change speed or direction, ensuring that your action shots are still sharp and well focused. We were talking about this before, where you need a camera that will track your subject as you were going. Now, one of the other ways to ensure that your subject is in focus is to practice zone focusing. This comes from the world of manual focus. And from a time before autofocus was as reliable as it is today. It's where you focus on a zone of action, you know, your subject will pass through. Then when they come into it, you are guaranteed to capture images in focus at that point. It's definitely a little more cumbersome, but if your camera doesn't have tracking capabilities or you can't track the subject before they come into the frame, like they are coming out from behind a building or they're in a lot of trees. This is a great option. Now to do this. Put your lens into manual focus and focus on an important area where your subject will pass through and then wait. Don't move your camera or your focus zone will change. And then when they start coming into that area, fire off your shutter use burst mode, let them pass through that zone. And something in there should be in focus for you. This does take a lot of practice. But it's a well worthwhile thing to learn how to do, because it just increases your chances again, of getting a great photo. Finally, one of the more advanced techniques to consider is panning. Panning involves moving your camera along with the subject, as it moves, keeping the subject relatively sharp while blurring the background, creating a sense of motion and energy in the image. This technique works particularly well for capturing subjects like cyclists, runners or cars in motion. The key is to keep the camera moving consistently and match your subject's movement and pace. And typically if you're capturing something like a car or runners, you will want to keep your camera moving just in a horizontal line. You don't want to be going up and down at all. So shooting this on a monopod really helps. Because then you are more likely to just keep it in one specific spot or you can also use the panning head on a tripod. Now, well, we've emphasized the importance of using a fast shutter speed to freeze motion and action photography. There are times when deliberately dropping your shutter speed can enhance the visual impact of your images. In certain situations, allowing parts of your image to blur intentionally can add a sense of energy and create more compelling visuals that evoke excitement and some emotion into that scene. So one scenario where dropping your shutter speed can be beneficial is when you want to convey a sense of speed and motion to your images. For example, when photographing a cyclist, racing down a winding trail or a skier carving through fresh powder, intentionally lowering your shutter speed can accentuate the sense of speed and motion creating dynamic, streaks and blurs that convey that thrill of movement and motion. Similarly dropping your shutter speed can be effective when photographing subjects with repetitive or rhythmic movements such as dancers or athletes in motion. By allowing some aspects of the image to blur while keeping the main subject sharp, you can create a sense of fluidity and rhythm capturing the dynamic energy of that scene. So we're thinking about keeping that dancers torso. Kind of frozen their head kind of frozen depending on how they're positioning and then watching their arms turn into a blurry windmill. That really shows how fast that dancer is moving and the control they have over their body, because it's just one part that's blurring. And the rest of them is nice and tight and sharp. So it's really important to note that when you're intentionally introducing motion blur into your images, you need to be very careful with your composition and with your framing. And you need to consider the direction of movement within the frame and position your main subject accordingly to create that sense of flow and directionality and make sure that everything kind of makes sense in the frame. Ultimately the decision dropped your shutter and introduced motion blur into your action photography should be driven by your creative vision and the story you really want to convey. Okay. onto the most critical aspect of a great action shot. Composition. This may not seem as important with action shots as it does with say weddings or landscapes, because the primary focus should be what's happening in the sport or in the action in front of you. And that's kind of true, but only to a point. There are some critical components to composing a strong action photo that will help your photo stand out. So the first thing you need to decide is if you are shooting tight or wide, Tight, let you get right into the action. Showing small details and moments. This great for showing facial expressions, small details and things spectators may miss. Wide get you a more comprehensive look at the scene, showing the surroundings or providing a larger than life feeling if your subject comes right up to your lens. Now you need to look for ways to get your subject to stand out in the shop. Can you isolate them against the solid background? So your subject isn't lost in a messy background where your viewer struggles to see them. Can you have them go through a bright spot in that image where they will be spotlighted against everything else around them? Can you capture them framed by something interesting, like a mountain peak or a building? Can you find a leading line that draws your viewer into the action? These are all kinds of the questions that you can ask yourself when composing your action scene. Now, one of the best piece of advice I've ever read, came from a mountain bike photographer, who said she sets up a beautiful landscape shot. And then has the cyclist right through it. Her idea, being that if that landscape shot is beautiful. You're going to see that cyclist come into it and it's still going to be a beautiful photo and it's going to become a beautiful action photo. This always plays in my mind when I'm out capturing biking or trail running, I'm always looking for ways to show that athlete in the landscape, they participate in. Now, whether you're capturing a sporting event or working with athletes to capture photos directly. Your positioning is critical. Get to know the best spots on a course or in an arena if you're capturing a live sporting event. This gives you the best chance of capturing the critical moments during a game. And you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each one of those locations. One of the things I learned while shooting hockey, was that it was great to start the first period where you could see an overarching look at the entire game. So you kind of wanted to get up high. You want to be able to look over the whole ice surface and be able to capture a little bit of the benches, the players in action, a few face offs, but then as the game went on, you wanted to get right up tight to the action, to be able to show some of those critical moments of goals being scored, saves being made. You want it to be able to show the power and the energy of the sport. So I actually moved around arenas quite a bit to be able to capture exactly what I needed. And then typically, especially because I got to know the teams really well. I was able to go onto their bench to shoot for the third period. And that really helped because. No matter what the outcome to the game was, if they win or if they lose, I was so close to the emotional reactions of those players that I was able to capture it. So that was a huge benefit. But I also knew that's where I wanted to be to capture that end game emotion. Now, if you were working directly with athletes, work with them to find trails, that will show off the story you were looking to tell. Work with them to find the right locations and anything else that's going to help show off what action they are doing and then get yourself into the right spots to capture the images you need. Get low, get high, climb, a tree, move all over the place just to find that right angle. And don't be afraid to get dirty. Some of my best photos have come from laying in the mud and letting people spray me. Or getting paddlers to launch water at me while I'm shoulder deep in a lake. Or sitting on a fence and having rodeo guys kick mud and dirt up into my face. Those are some of the best photos I've taken because I am in the action. And the action is right there in front of the lens. And one last thought. If you're working with athletes directly, pick their wardrobe carefully. Consider where you will capture their photos and choose clothing that will help them pop out from the background. We've talked about this a lot. But just to remind you in forests, yellows, and reds, really pop, out against, those typical blues greens and grays of the forest landscapes. In the desert blues and whites look crisp against those deep reds. And you've really just got to consider that color space and that color balance to help your athlete and your subject pop. Now, the last opportunities episode is about capturing the decisive moment. This is really what you are here to do. Get that second, when the important thing happens, that goal gets scored. The person hits the post while they are hurdling. They come across the finish line. The mountain biker pulls off their trick. The mountain biker crashes into a tree. Whatever that critical thing is that happens. That's what you, we're here to capture. So it's essential to familiarize yourself with the activity you're photographing and anticipate key moments of action. Whether you're studying the movements of a surfer or observing the behavior of wildlife, understanding the subject's behavior will enable you to anticipate and capture those decisive moments. When I shot the same hockey teams over and over again. I got to know the players really well, and I got to know what their standard movement patterns were and what they were predisposed to do during certain game moments. This meant I could anticipate what they would do and ensure I followed them through a play and I captured more critical moments during games, because I could anticipate what these players were doing. So getting to this point in a sport will really help your action photos pop. That's why it is so cool to shoot something and shoot an activity that you love doing. If you love trail running. You have a pretty good idea of what somebody is going to be doing. When they are approaching certain obstacles. If you love mountain biking, it's the same thing. If you love hockey, same thing. Shooting those sports that you love will really help your action photos to pop. All right. And that's it for today. Those are my simple tips for starting to capture high octane events. And I really hope you found our exploration of action photography techniques, informative and inspiring. Mastering these techniques will elevate your adventure and travel photography to new heights. If you have any questions, feedback, ideas for future episodes. I'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me on instagram@robertmasseyphotography or visit my website at robertmasseyphotography.ca, where you can reach out as well. Your input helps shape the content of this podcast. And I'm always eager to connect with fellow adventure photographers like you. I love having conversations like this. So reach out to me. And, heartfelt, thank you for listening. Your support means the world to me. And I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be part of your photography journey. So if you enjoy today's episode and you want to stay tuned for more and you want to be updated, definitely subscribe. And follow along so that, you know, when more episodes are released. All right. That's it for today, everybody. Get out there. Let's adventure. Bye for now.