Action Sport Photography Reflection - Edward Ruthven Photography

Reflections on Sport Photography

While preparing for the ‘Paintball Super Cup 2017 tournament’ being held at Emerald Casino I decided to write an article of my love of Action Sport Photography.

Mountain Biking

I have for a long time been an avid action sport photographer, especially in the non-main stream forms of action sport. From obscure sports like Gravity Trike Sliders to Motocross, I have touched my hand at it. I think primarily due to the fact that I am a partial adrenaline junkie. I even partook in sport climbing and am currently an avid social paintball player.

Motocross

Action Sport Photography Excitement

For me there is a form of excitement and some danger in a lot of obscure action sports, plus there is a comradery among the partakers that you don’t get with mainstream sports. Also, the feeling of being outside the norm is amazing. I also just love the adrenaline. Some of these sports also have had a huge amount of having to be quite about the venues and dates as they are not exactly legal, due to the sportsmen not having the funds or support to comply to the legal requirements, they also don’t have sponsorships coming their way.

Early on in my quest for amazing photos from sport, I settled on being a deliberate shooter, that means choosing my shots carefully and not just machine gunning with the hope of getting an amazing photo. This has meant getting to know the sport I am dealing with, and getting my timing just right. I also chose a hard process of getting an action looking photo within a freeze motion perspective.

Speedball Paintball

Lighting

Some of these sports I have used strobes / flashes to add accent and better freeze motion perspective to the photos, this has forced me to be even more careful in getting the shot as the strobes can take up to five seconds to recharge between shots. Thank goodness for a natural ability to see the shot going to happen. Also, that I gained the knowledge and ability to see light, no matter what form it takes.

Action Sport Photography Dangers

Another aspect has been the possible life threatening or bodily harm issues that have to be faced with some of these sports. To get the best photos you end up in positions that put you at risk. I have had situations where IO have taken a photo of a rally car and had to run to get out of the way due to the driver losing his line a bit, or had skateboards go into my shins / elbows / knees etc., also the number of paintball bruises that I regularly have. Been in positions of possibly having a skateboard with rider come down on my body, a motor cross bike side swiping me, photographic equipment at risk of getting damaged. (I have already lost a lens from leaning out the back end of a backie at speed in the process)

Photographer and Videographer in action - Action Sport Photography

Losing a lens on an action sport shoot

Photographic Abilities

The abilities that I have gained from Action Sport Photography has made me very capable in a number of other forms of photography, which has just been amazing. My only regret in doing this form of photography is that due to the fact that these sports are not mainstream, there is virtually no money in it, which means that my photography often is running at a serious financial loss to myself and my son.

Obstacle Course - Action Sport Photography

Obstacle Courses

Event Ambience

One of the major things I have learnt while doing these sports is also to take photos of the people getting ready, spectators, people having a rest etc., as these photos are just as important to your target audiences. We as photographers normally only concentrate on the sport and neglect what is going on outside of the action areas. Often my ‘Behind the Scenes’ photos get more exposure that the action photos.

Gravity Trikes

Major Wish

My major wish is for a lot of these Action Sport Photography to go mainstream and be seen as a sport and not a rebel’s way of rebelling against society. These sportsmen put a serious amount of blood, sweat and tears into their sports, let alone the finances. I have heard of teachers saying that paintball is not a sport etc. Question has anyone ever bothered to go to a competition / tournament and seen for themselves, maybe the mindset will change. I have also found that people in general do not even know of the different forms of any type action sport, sometimes there are many forms, but they just get lumped into usually the worst form of it, or made out that it is a kid’s pastime.