SCC Sevens (Sunday)

[reflecx]

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

[reflecx]

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

More photos can be viewed at http://photobucket.com/albums/0603/r.../SCC%20Sevens/

[Jed]

3, 7 and 8 have potential. 7 isn't sharp, 8 is really good. The rest are not typical rugby action images.

[sehsuan]

pretty good stuff there!

#1 would look better to have the legs of the "flying" player in there to show the flight, 8 can be cropped yet tighter (remove the umpire as much as you can), #10 could be cropped to show only the two contesting players in flight to emphasise the airborne duel.

[reflecx]

Originally Posted by Jed The rest are not typical rugby action images.

Actually, I don't know what are "typical rugby action images". Any good sites to recommend? Rugby isn't popular here, so we don't get to see many rugby images in the papers or here in Clubsnap. And I think only 20% of the audience at the SCC Sevens were locals.

Originally Posted by Sehsuan #1 would look better to have the legs of the "flying" player in there to show the flight, 8 can be cropped yet tighter (remove the umpire as much as you can), #10 could be cropped to show only the two contesting players in flight to emphasise the airborne duel.

#1 no legs was due to my poor framing, was trying out my left AF sensor. My first time shooting rugby, will try and improve next time. I did consider what you suggested for #10, but I left the other two players in to show the height the players actually jumped. Thanks for your comments.

[Jed]

Hmm, that's difficult because aside from magazines and newspapers I don't generally look at websites for rugby images. In general, and this is very loose categorisation, try pictures are always good, although half the time are not photogenic. Physical contact is good, where first and foremost the player in possession's face has to be visible and secondarily preferably also the tackling player's. Strong facial expression helps. Generally speaking not many shots without contact work, aside from when you can clearly see semblance of evasion from the attacker - for instance with the defenders still grasping. Two players going up for a ball *sometimes* works, although for instance in yours, it doesn't because it's more a football (as in soccer) type image - rugby is not essentially about claiming the high balls, that's not where the imagery works best, although if you get strong contact there is potential. That's just a very rough guide, as you well imagine it's impossible to set down in a short paragraph what good _____ photography is about, regardless of whether it's rugby or sport or landscapes for instance.

If you look at your examples and the ones I've picked out you'll see they correspond more or less to what I've described. In retrospect possibly [1] might work as well, although it's certainly not conventional but then I've had one shot along similar lines (which I didn't really fancy myself) that did do well. The one thing that led me to dismiss is in the first instance is the intolerably messy background, but if you cut that away, it isn't too bad.

[reflecx]

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply Jed. Good to learn from a pro ...

[Jed]

Actually I've just had a thought. Certainly by no means are they necessarily an example of good rugby work, but you can try some of mine at the Falcons and also on my website.

The Falcons site for instance has some images that refer to what I mean, for instance a non-contact shot that works. Not resplendent with images, but they are there every now and then. Addendum: Ignore the "falcons photos" link since that's a merchandising thing. Look at the news items, each news item usually has a pic with it.

Remember the lot I've given above are just guidelines, as with most guidelines, sometimes you can ignore them to very good effect.