Action photography: zooming in

One of the most interesting aspects of sports photography is the ability to show the action up close. I think this is the reason the photos taken with long telephoto lenses generally produce most appealing shots. I wrote earlier about my favourite lenses for shooting indoor basketball. Recently, I have been preferring longer lenses, because they provide a point of view that a spectator cannot replicate from the bleachers. This gives the photos instant “interestingness.”

For tomorrow’s kendo tournament, I am going to shoot mostly with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens lens and will try to zoom in as close as possible on the players, even if that would mean cropping out parts of their body. Because of my interest in kendo techniques, I of then try to capture the elements of footwork, body position, etc., which add nothing to the artistic aspects of the photos. Tomorrow, my plan is to shoot less images than I usually do, but when shooting, focussing on the art (photography) rather than the martial art.