Sports must be professional photography. Shooting sporting events and extreme sports. Don't Forget the Environment

Sports have always been and will be one of the most interesting objects of photography. Live genuine emotions, team spirit and competitive fight, feelings on the brink of collapse, the bitterness of defeat and the dizzying joy of victory - all this makes sports photos clear examples of the most powerful human emotions. Today, especially for the XXII Olympic Winter Games, we present a review of the best sports photographers in Russia.

Alexander Zemlyanichenko

Alexander Zemlyanichenko is one of the most famous modern Russian photojournalists, head of the photography department of the Moscow bureau of the Associated Press agency. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice: the first time - as part of a team of five Associated Press photographers for reporting on the 1991 coup, the second - for photographs of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who danced at a rock concert in 1996.

Consciously, I started shooting in high school, but I think then it was all a game, nothing more,- Alexander recalls. - Then, already studying at the university, I began to cooperate first with the student newspaper, then with the regional one, and after graduating from the institute, the next day I went to work as a photojournalist.

Alexander himself counts himself among "a small number of professionals who claim to be called photojournalists": “I would single out the conscious adherence to the news and the desire to tell about what I saw in my own language, the language of the picture. A photographer, a photojournalist should always be in the subject”, he says.

As a real news photojournalist, Alexander has shot sports events during his career. In one of the interviews, he spoke about the features of this type of shooting:

A large number of shots are taken here, because sport is a movement, and it is better to have a choice than not to have. But the experience of editing is, firstly, just an experience, and then, during any shooting, you need to know what you want, whether it's a press conference or a football match; Again, you need to know the background. If this is a press conference, for example, of a Syrian oppositionist, you need to know for what purpose he came, what is the result of the negotiations that he has already held, and based on this, shoot and select pictures. It’s the same in sports: if Spartak plays with Dynamo, then maybe it’s not the action itself that is important, but the coach’s reaction is interesting, you also need to know this in advance. Why are you going to shoot this match and what is the sports journalist going to write? If you shoot a beautiful flight of a football player with a ball, but in fact, no one needs it: yes, it will be wonderful to hang on the wall, but no one will write about it, but they will write about such and such an attacker, because tomorrow he will be resold; that is our specificity.

According to Alexander, for him, first of all, a person is always interesting:

With it, I can show the event. If you are shooting an athlete who has just won a hundred meters race, then if possible, take into the frame the one who took second place, although he was counting on the first: they will have different facial expressions, this will create depth and volume of the event, so any topic I try to solve with the help of a hero, he emphasizes.

Alexander Nemenov

Alexander Nemenov, one of the most prominent contemporary photographers, describes himself as follows:

He served in the border troops of the KGB of the USSR in 1987-1989 as a senior MEP at the outpost, but the most interesting began later. How is it - to serve in the border troops and not be the coolest of all. Something hooked me when I saw the guys who came from Afghanistan to finish their service, in a tank regiment, in the rear, with us. They sat at the bus stop in Afghan cotton - a strange little thing in the Union at that time - and saw off our GAZ-66 with a smile with an alarming group, looking out of the back in the same cotton, only camouflaged. My war dragged on throughout the nineties and continues to this day, fortunately, less and less often. Since 1990, I have been a photojournalist for TASS, since 1997 - for the France Presse agency, I have traveled a lot. I wanted to tell something not only in pictures.

The most famous were his photographs taken during the Chechen war, but he also reached a very influential level in sports.

Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images. Tennis Tournament "Kremlin Cup - 2010", final, Viktor Troitsky vs. Markos Baghdatis

Yuri Kadobnov

Yuri Kadobnov is the head of the photo service of the Russian bureau Agence France Presse, a multiple winner of sports photojournalism competitions, he has won dozens of competitions in all sports.

Grigory Dukor

Grigory Dukor is the editor-in-chief of the photo service of the Reuters agency in Russia and the CIS countries. He does not like to talk about himself personally, for him it is inseparable from the story of the work:

For a long time I have been in charge of the Reuters agency, I love to shoot. The volume of work is increasing, the competition is becoming more intense. Now we are changing, like the whole world, we want to continue to be recognizable. If earlier the task was to tell the story with one picture, now we are doing more and more photo reports.

Gregory speaks unambiguously about the work of the photographer. Here is what he answered in an interview with the Chelyabinsk branch of the Union of Photographers of Russia to the question about the civic position of the photographer:

You should have such a position: come home - and say what you want. But on the set you must be absolutely impartial, otherwise you won’t be able to work, there are many confirmations of this. Sometimes sports photographers, using the fact that they have accreditation, come to sports events to cheer, and they do not shoot, but get sick. I'm not saying this to condemn them, but you can't do these two things at the same time, it won't work out that way. In the same way, if you come to some event, for example, a meeting of the communists or someone else whom you personally do not like, nice shot will not work. If you are a supporter of what is happening, you will again miss everything interesting, so your emotions should be left aside. If you can't be impartial, ask someone else to take the photo.

Gregory loves to shoot sports, “because something happens all the time, there is action all the time. There are nice photos, are simply successful, because they were lucky, ”he said in an interview with the Rostov.ru portal. Gregory is sure that sports photography luck matters:

There will be no double, no one will repeat for an encore, so the photographer is ready for everything to happen very quickly. And luck, of course, is needed: something can happen that will make the shot good. Let's say people just ran - there will be a photo of people running; if one ran, and the second jumped, it would be already funny; one ran, and the second fell - a completely different story, not everyone will take it off, someone is lucky, someone is not. But if this did not happen, then no one will take it off, no one will be lucky, and ordinary photographs will turn out.

Alexander Fedorov

Alexander Fedorov is a special photojournalist for the Sport-Express newspaper, who has devoted more than 20 years of his life to sports photojournalism. Dedicated to his profession, he spends all holidays and weekends at work.

So, in 2012, on his 50th birthday, Alexander went to his fifth European championship. Football is his favorite sport, but during his career he has filmed a wide variety of competitions. The gallery of Fedorov's works contains emotional, vivid, memorable shots of football, hockey and other sports competitions.

Evgeny Tumashov

Evgeny Tumashov is a recognized professional in biathlon photography. He started photography at school. His career began with the newspaper "Vechernyaya Moskva", where he was first taken as a laboratory assistant, and a year later he was transferred to photographers. Since 2001, he has worked at biathlon competitions as a photojournalist for the Sovetsky Sport newspaper, and since 2011 as a photographer for the Russian Biathlon Union. For 10 years, he followed the races and their heroes through the camera lens and collected a unique collection of pictures. In autumn 2012, on the eve of the start of the pre-Olympic season, a personal exhibition Evgenia Tumashova "Biathlon. 10 years in the lens.

I've always wanted to take beautiful pictures,- Evgeny told the Moscow Sports portal, - and biathlon gives such an opportunity, because competitions usually take place in the mountains. No sport, in my opinion, is surrounded by such beauty. I don't know where else you can find such a variety of colors and shades... Lanterns are installed along the route, so you can shoot in the evening and in the fog.

Sergey Ilnitsky is one of the best contemporary reporters. His photographs are published by leading publications not only in Russia, and in 2013 he entered the golden fund of world photojournalism, becoming one of the winners of the competition.

More and more people have good photographic equipment,- he shared his thoughts with the correspondent of the portal Colta.ru. - Everyone can now make a technically competent shot, that is, technical skill is no longer a criterion for success. You need to be very fast, be able to put into a picture, preferably in one, the whole essence of what is happening, and here you need both an address plan, and that very decisive moment, and a thought, then you get that same photo icon - icon picture. And now this is not so easy to do, very few people now own it, and for a photo agency, such a skill is the most important thing.

The World Press Photo award was awarded to Sergey for a series of photographs of fencers.

I was very surprised by the emotionality of this sport when I filmed,- recalls Sergei. - I had foreign colleagues with me, more experienced in shooting fencing, and I asked: “And these guys, are they always so emotional? Shouting, crying, jumping, throwing masks? And the photographers made some kind of joke, like: “So this is in your favor, bro,” and neighing. An athlete sitting next to us and not participating in the competition that day reacted to our conversation. He explained that he had been preparing for these Games all his life: from childhood he dreamed of winning an Olympic award, even if not gold - it doesn’t matter, the main thing for him was to climb the podium. And he trained continuously for 15 years. He won, of course, European and world cups, but he was preparing specifically for the Olympic Games. And now he has the only chance, one for his whole life: he may not participate in the next Games, since the peak of his physical and mental form will pass, hence the emotions. I understood him so much at that moment that it became much easier for me to shoot. I just felt everything that happens in this sport. Once distracted - and a blade was thrust into you. Your whole life is focused on the tip of this sword. One touch, one prick - and you are either a winner or a loser. Therefore, the series is called The Golden Touch.

Dmitry Azarov

Dmitry Azarov is a photojournalist for the Kommersant newspaper, part of the so-called Kremlin pool, and a student of Vladimir Gurgenovich Musaelyan, Brezhnev's personal photographer, who later wrote the book The Secretary General and the Photographer. Most notable projects Dmitry are devoted to a critical understanding of the political situation in Russia. Some of his most famous works are the series "Doubling the Personality" and "The Four Seasons of Vladimir Putin." The photo book about the Olympians "Near Ring, or Canadian Lessons", published by Dmitry together with journalist Andrei Kolesnikov, gained great popularity.

Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko (left) and Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi (right) / Photo by Dmitry Azarov

Ivan Secretary

Ivan Secretaryov is an Associated Press photographer. During his creative career, he made great amount reportage shots - sports competitions, hot spots, political and cultural events.

Ivan Sekretarev began his career as a photojournalist in 1991 in the children's newspaper Glagol, later he worked in Moskovskaya Pravda, Russian newspaper and Izvestiya. How to use the camera, his father explained to him. “This is a lens, and this is a button,” he said, “and you need to press it like this,” Ivan recalled.

In my development as a photographer,- he said in an interview with the Moscow Sports portal, - Two friends of my father played a big role: Alexander Grigoryevich Kurbatov, who was a model for me when I worked in newspapers, and Alexander Vladimirovich Zemlyanichenko, chief photographer of the Associated Press agency. It was he who later picked me up, taught me and nurtured me under his wing. And in May 1998, I became a photographer for the Moscow office of this news agency.

When shooting sports, Ivan feels himself “involved in the game process”, and therefore cannot “objectively evaluate these pictures”:

I only wish that, peering into them, one could remember and feel the surge of emotions that hit me once a year later. There is drama, beauty, and a variety of feelings in sports. I like it both as a viewer and as a photographer. I try not just to capture some phase of a sporting event, but to capture such a moment in the history unfolding in front of me that can become decisive or reveal to us something that we are not even able to guess, he says.

Oleg Naumov

Oleg Naumov is called one of the most sought-after sports photographers. He collaborates with the Russian Olympic Committee, Bosco Sport, Forward and Ice Symphony, LED and Olympic Panorama magazines, Russian sports federations - rhythmic and artistic gymnastics, figure skating, hockey and synchronized swimming.

Oleg is a graduate of the Russian State Academy physical culture, he was engaged in wrestling and sambo. He became interested in photography as a child.

When the children appeared and I wanted to capture their every step, I picked up the camera again,- he said in an interview with Nikon. - He showed the resulting pictures to his friends, and when he began to hear more and more enthusiastic reviews about his work, he became interested in how they become professional photographers. Combining my sports background with my newfound hobby, I have dedicated myself to sports photography.

According to Oleg, this is not without luck, a sense of a good frame and skill.

A sports photographer must work according to the rules of the sport he shoots,- says Oleg. - The most interesting thing on the hockey rink takes place in the goal area, where the players fight, push, the puck flies or, conversely, the goalkeeper makes a beautiful save. good shots are also obtained near the bench - only there you can convey through photography the real emotions of the players and coaches, everything that is so interesting to the fan. These moments need to be felt, the sports photographer needs to be half a step ahead of the action.

Robert Maximov

Robert Maksimov is a member of the International Association of Sports Journalists, a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, one of the authors and developers of a training program for qualified specialists to provide high-quality photography of sports events, a laureate of international, all-Union and all-Russian exhibitions and sports photography competitions. He has devoted more than 40 years to sports photojournalism.

Over the years I have participated in 14 Olympic Games and most of the world and European championships in athletics and other sports, he says. - My archive contains hundreds of thousands of photographs of these events.

Robert Maksimov took part in the preparation of the final album "Moscow-80", the official three-volume report of the organizing committee of the XXII Summer Olympic Games in 1980 in Moscow, albums and books on the Olympic theme, in particular, the illustrated two-volume "Olympic Age", published in 2002.

Andrey Golovanov and Sergey Kivrin

Photojournalists Andrey Golovanov and Sergey Kivrin have been working together for more than 25 years. During this time they have managed to win awards at the most prestigious photo contests in Russia and abroad: World Press Photo, Adidas AIPS Canon, Inter Photo, Nikon and others. They collaborated with Newsweek, Ogonyok, Cosmopolitan, Burda, PROSPORT, TV Park, Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Now their photographs continue to be happily printed by the Russian Reporter, Sport-Express, Soviet Sport, and Itogi publications. They cooperate with news agencies Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, IMAGO, AFLO.

Andrey and Sergey cannot imagine working alone. Here is how they commented on their decision to work as a pair to Itogi magazine:

This is due to the specifics of working at sports competitions,- said Sergei. - It is very difficult for one person to run around the entire stadium and catch the right frame. In general, we began to use the tactics of joint work long before we created a common brand: it’s just that when we were still working in the Soviet Union magazine, I, Andrey and our good friend Evgeny Miransky, began to be accredited to all sporting events as a threesome, and then When submitting a topic to a magazine, sign photos with three names. Such a collective report always turned out to be more interesting than if everyone worked alone. We occupied different positions, shot from different points and could cover the competition as fully as possible. But soon the Soviet Union collapsed and the magazine too, for some time we worked separately: Andrey - in Kommersant, in Faces, I - in the American editions of the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, and Zhenya stopped professional photography altogether .

In 1996, we met at the Atlanta Olympics and decided not only to work together, but also to create a common brand, Andrey added. - We have developed a certain shooting style that we like, and besides, the two of us get more done.

Alexander Wilf

RIA Novosti correspondent.

He began his career in the Sport-Express newspaper, became actively involved in photography in Soviet time- filmed banned opposition rallies for Western publications, after which he became interested in sports photography.

Follow our news! You are waiting for exclusive interviews with the best sports photographers in Russia, materials about their work and the best photos from the Olympics in Sochi!

And we want to finish the material with the words of Sergey Kivrin: “For me in sports, the main thing is to give 100% and perform honestly and with dignity. Whether there will be medals or not is another matter.

We wish our athletes worthy performances!Cheer for ours!

For help in preparing the material, the editors express special gratitude to the curator-coordinator of the All-Russian annual open project Best of Russia,postgraduate student of the Department of Photojournalism, Moscow State UniversityMary Vaschuk.

28.10.2016

Sports photography is a special and very interesting genre of photography. However, the photographer must have a certain skill in order to be able to capture the necessary moment, most fully showing the intensity of the struggle or the delight of victory in the photo.

Sports photography is especially dynamic. Even we are talking about shooting a chess game - the photo will carry powerful emotions, moods, tension. The pictures are not only aesthetic, they convey a real sports spirit, lively and rich: the joy of victory, the bitterness of losses, dramatic moments, struggle. Most photographers dream of being on the biggest sporting events, where big sport stars are born.

Sports photography process

The main difference between such a photo is dynamism. It is obtained due to the instantaneous "registration" of what is happening. For each frame, the photographer has only a fraction of a second.

For getting great shots you need not only to love and understand the sport, but also to know it. A good knowledge of the rules and techniques of all kinds of sports helps to create spectacular and amazing shots. If you are going to shoot any sporting event, you need to get acquainted with the basic provisions of this sport in advance, take care of the equipment and pick up the necessary photo accessories.

A large amount of equipment can only interfere with the work, and the speed of what is happening does not leave time for changing the lens and changing the shooting location.

Technology plays a very important role here. Fast autofocus is very important (a suitable scene for photography very often occurs spontaneously), tracking focus (the objects of our shooting are almost always in motion), good and fast optics (it is necessary to blur the background or reduce shutter speed), high-speed shooting mode (helps to catch the most successful phase of movement), the speed of the shutter (thanks to him, we do not miss the moment we need).

Features of sports photography

Sport is not only what happens on the court. Sport is also team and individual training of both athletes and cycling clubs, for example. These are various games, and extreme sports, such as kiting, skiing, skydiving or rope jumping.

Of course, there are sports where skill is not required at all, but they still assume that the photographer understands what is happening in front of him. It is impossible to make a high-quality photo report without understanding the essence of what is happening, and most importantly, it will be difficult for the photographer to find out where it is better to be, and where, on the contrary, one should not stand.

Most of all, each photographer is interested in the athlete himself, and only then - everything else. By “everything else” here we mean judges and numerous spectators, emotions that are very often much more interesting than the sports action itself, and also the surrounding reality (landscapes and scoreboards with results, stadium stands and athletes waiting for their turn).

The most difficult subject of shooting is athletes. They require maximum effort from the photographer. Competitors can move very quickly around the stadium or sports ground, they almost do not stand still and do not allow the photographer to properly “aim”. Event photography is a constant search for the optimal balance between aperture and shutter speed, a constant battle for the best sharpness.

Each sport is rich in unique moments. There is general principle: the photographer must be in the right place at the right time, and in addition - to have time to press the button that releases the shutter. Everything is decided in thousandths of a second. It is important to take pictures of genuine, live, bright emotions. Nowhere else, except perhaps reportage photography, not to meet so many emotional, interesting and rich shots.

Interesting publications on the site

28.10.2016

Sports photography is especially dynamic. Even if we are talking about shooting a chess game, the photo will carry powerful emotions, moods, and tension. The pictures are not only aesthetic, they convey a real sports spirit, lively and rich: the joy of victory, the bitterness of losses, dramatic moments, struggle. Most photographers dream of being on the biggest sporting events, where big sport stars are born.

Sports photography process

The main difference between such a photo is dynamism. It is obtained due to the instantaneous "registration" of what is happening. For each frame, the photographer has only a fraction of a second.

To get excellent shots, you need not only to love and understand sports, but also to know it. A good knowledge of the rules and techniques of all kinds of sports helps to create spectacular and amazing shots. If you are going to shoot any sporting event, you need to get acquainted with the basic provisions of this sport in advance, take care of the equipment and pick up the necessary photo accessories.

A large amount of equipment can only interfere with the work, and the speed of what is happening does not leave time for changing the lens and changing the shooting location.

Features of sports photography

Each sport is rich in unique moments. There is a general principle here: the photographer must be in the right place at the right time, and in addition - to have time to press the button that releases the shutter. Everything is decided in thousandths of a second. It is important to photograph genuine, lively, vivid emotions. Nowhere else, except, perhaps, reportage photography, you will not find so many emotional, interesting and rich shots.

Interesting publications on the site

Hello, on this page a sports photographer will tell and show how a sports photo session is done. Here you can see photos from sports events, extreme shooting and photo shoots in a sporty style.

sports photographer

Sports photography is always an interesting, but often extreme lifestyle with a high speed of events.

Shooting sports events

extreme photography

Shooting extreme sports requires as much courage on the part of the photographer as it does on extreme athletes, because everyone vantage points for shooting are located in the most inaccessible places.

The photographic equipment is subjected to the same serious test in extreme conditions Therefore, one must be mentally prepared for material and psychological sacrifices. Photo equipment for extreme photography must be reliable, compact and redundant. My hiking kit, for sports shooting events or for a small extreme expedition, includes:

Professional photo backpack with protective compartments for lenses and cameras;
Lenses 12, 24-70 and 70-200mm;
Two mirrored digital cameras Nikon;
External flash with synchronizer;
Folding tripod;
Double set of batteries, accumulators, chargers and flash drives;
A set for cleaning the matrix and lenses;
Sometimes a laptop for storing photos and operational processing.

Love sports. There is little point in wanting to enter this realm if your only reason is financial side. It is much easier for an enthusiastic sports photographer to capture the real essence of a sports action because your natural instincts will help you learn to recognize the vital moments that deserve to be captured.

Get ready to be ambitious. Sports photography is a competitive endeavor and you need to have excellent photography and communication skills in order to work with people who can help you find the perfect position to capture the best shots.

Improve your photography skills. If you are a beginner, take courses where you will be taught as many technical elements and special techniques as possible. If you can find classes in sports photography, it will be much better. Read the wikiHow articles on sports photography to help you learn how to focus.
Improve your ability to communicate with people. Oftentimes, the best places to watch the action in professional sports are those with perfect viewing seats or VIP boxes. If you want to go there, you should be very professional, unobtrusive and polite with the people around you.

Practice your sports photography skills by capturing footage of amateur games in any of the sports. From hockey to football, from swimming to horseback riding, try as many sports as possible to expand your skills and test everything thoroughly.

Start with simple form sports and move further along your path to more challenging sporting events. For example, it is easier to start with a sport with little movement than with a sport where high speeds and fast shifts. Let's say it's easier to frame a rower than a goalie.

Make sure you are using the correct equipment. Invest in quality cameras and lenses. Many sports require fast telephoto lenses (so you can zoom in) with fast autofocus (mechanism). A wide aperture is important for isolating the subject and defocusing the surrounding space, quickly responding to movement, and having a fast shutter speed allows you to “freeze” the action.

Build a portfolio of your most the best photos across a range of sports. Consider putting together a printed copy of your portfolio and one online version at the same time. Always choose the best and discard everything else, even the ones you personally like (you can look at the latest after work!) Show your talent in the best possible light. Try showing the following:

Your motion capture skill
Your ability to catch speed
It is worth pointing out your skill in recognizing the moment, for example, the agony on the face of the goalkeeper when he concedes a goal, or the pain on the face of a cyclist, distorted by a fallen bicycle, or the huge delight of a swimmer when he touches the wall with his hand and wins.
Your skill in using backgrounds or other elements to show the overall feel
Your art reflects the mood of the crowd.

Apply for a job as a photographer with the relevant newspaper, local magazine, website, etc. and specify your particular interest in sports photography.

It will take some time for your photography work to turn into your dream job. If you have to run into assistant positions, be grateful for the experience and advice. With patience and your skills, you can do it.
Read the WikiHow article on how to become a professional photographer.