Best of Colorado 2012Newspapers/Newsmaga

zinesTop SPORTS ACTION PHOTO,

and SPORTS REACTION PHOTO entries,

comments from judges and support materials

Sports Action Photo (5A)Mountain Vista HSThe Eagle EyeTrevor Zalkind

The judge wrote: The best entries in this category captured peak moments of action. There were some nice moments in this category. Several of the photographers documented key plays or action that caught the essence of the sport and event. Caption information was also taken into account and was important in final judging.

NOTE: Choosing the correct angle (here about 15 feet outside the lane along the baseline) and anticipating the action are essential for this kind of shot.

Sports Action Photo (5A)Standley Lake HS / INsight Jill Burgwald2nd Place

The judge wrote: #1,2 &3 in 5A were all very good moments and the cross-country shot is one of the nicest of that type of event I’ve seen in awhile.

NOTE: The bright sunlight washed out some detail in the water, but also allowed a very fast shutter speed, which provided the individual drops fo water. Great use of a quote from the runner in the caption.

Sports Action Photo (5A) Regis Jesuit HS The Raider ‘s Digest Allie Petko 3rd PlaceNOTE: Relatively shallow depth of field really makes the ball “pop.” Unanswered in the caption: did we lose the ball on the play? “Despite the turnover…” = missing transition.

Sports Action Photo (4A) Arvada HS The Crimson Report Joe TinerThe judge wrote: Sports photographers need to understand relationships between the speed of action they are documenting and the choice of shutter speed to enable capturing the fast action. A case in point was the winner in 4A category. It’s a good moment of impact between the two wrestlers, but the photographer could have improved this shot with a faster shutter-speed to avoid the slight motion. Regardless, I selected it for its obvious impact and the fact this was a state title match .

Sports Action Photo (4A)Coronado HSThe Cougar ChronicleJasen Parrish2nd Place

NOTE: Some slight blurring again in this shot – gyms are not normally very well lighted, so we normally rely on shooting at 1/500 to stop most action. Consider choosing “shutter priority” when shooting indoor sports. That will cut down on blur, and on light, so you will need to make some adjustments in Photoshop to balance the light.

Newspaper captions tend to be brief, but we still recommend trying to answer as many of the 5 Ws as possible. Also, consider including the name of the opponent, particularly when the opponent provides most of the emotion in the shot.

Sports Action Photo (3A)Alamosa HSThe AlamosanAlissa Sinclair

NOTE: Wrestling can provide some unusual “shapes,” and we find that here.

In a perfect world, shallow depth of field would drop out the distraction of the crowd (they don’t seem all that excited, despite the impending pin of the #1 wrestler in the state).

Sports Action Photo (3A) Kent Denver School The Devils’ Advocate Nick Barker 2nd Place. NOTE: Good job of getting the ball in the frame. Framing is important. Here it is difficult to determine how high the receiver has jumped.

Sports Reaction Photo (4A) Arvada HS The Crimson Report Joe TinerThe judge wrote: The best entries in this category captured an immediate reaction or response to an action that was clearly grasped in the photograph. The most successful photos were situations where the photographer anticipated a reaction or response by subjects at the event and made efforts to have their camera on the subject for a compelling photograph.

Sports Reaction Photo (4A) Palmer Ridge HS The Bear Truth Sonia LeChevallier 2nd PlaceNOTE: To shoot basketball players on defense, you must position yourself across halfcourt so you can see your team’s faces (or use a very long lens from the opposite baseline). That gets you a great shot of a reaction to a foul call (which needs to be better spelled out in the caption).

Sports Reaction Photo (3A) Kent Denver School The Sun Devils’ Advocate Nick BarkerNOTE: This photo captures the emotion after the championship game (though no one appears to be Tebowing – beware of captions that don’t really add much to the photo story. Who are the two players who are easy to identify? Where are we? What was the score? Could we have gotten a quote from a fan who rushed the field? Or from a player?

Sports Reaction Photo (5A) North HS The North Star Selena Gomez NOTE: Great anticipation and fast shutter speed to “freeze” the water splashing. It’s a little startling to see nobody in the stands, but the players’ faces capture the fun of athletics.

Sports Reaction Photo (5A) Regis Jesuit HS The Raider Review Jackson Burkholder 2nd PlaceNOTE: The photographer had to shoot from the stands, which makes this celebration shot look “typical,” – that is, we have seen this angle before (on TV, for instance). But the emotion still comes through.

The judge wrote: Some “reaction” shots in this category were actually posed photos or with too many subjects looking at camera. These very seldom make good action, reaction or sports feature photographs and would probably only win awards in “party pic” categories. Crowd shots of people reacting are also not that strong. If you want to capture that energy well in a visual find one person, or a smaller group of people, to frame tight on. This will lend much more impact to shots. Many of the crowd reaction shots end up looking alike and typically mean the photographers really weren’t looking closely at what they are capturing.