GAA Photography

paulocon

Hi all,

Just wondering if there is anyone on here who does sports photography, specifically GAA?

Any recommendations on what gear to use? At the moment, I have a plain old Nikon D50 with kit lens. Any suggestions re a lens to get me started?

Always wondered how photographers get access to pitchside, I'm assuming you have to be an affiliated press photographer?

Thinking of getting hold of a decent lens and doing some practice over at the local club. Nice way to see some football and practice a hobby at the same time..

mayo.mick

Hi paul, i photograph some gaa match's, not from pitchside but from the stand. I use a nikon D3100, which shoots @ 3fps, and use a nikor 55/300 afs vrii f4.5/5.6. I usually sit around the halfway line and i have good zoom coverage of the whole pitch. Still only learning, but i have got some good action shots allready:) If only i could get more action from the mayo team:D

Logie-1

Hi Paul,
I have been taking photos at our local club for the last 3 years. I have a Nikon D70 with a Tamaron 70-300. The best place to stand is at the side of the goals, this is where you get the action coming towards you, also when the keeper makes his kick outs the players will be facing you.
If you share your results with the club they will have no objections. If you are shooting under age games make sure you you ask permission from the opposing team. They never object but it keeps you right.

kensutz

For intercounty games you can almost forget about getting pitchside. This year the GAA has really tightened their grip on people accessing games due to an incident last year. Most places demand the GAA press card to enter the pitch. Like most of us sports photographers, it's a case of starting at the bottom and working your way up from there.

If you can get a half decent zoom, find its limitations and then exploit it. Suss out where you will get the most action shots from (goal line, side lines, half way) and shoot from there. If it's a case during the game that you're not getting anything, move to where the action is concentrating on. Some people sit wallowing in a corner and then say they get nothing from the game.

User Friendly

kensutz wrote: »

For intercounty games you can almost forget about getting pitchside. This year the GAA has really tightened their grip on people accessing games due to an incident last year. Most places demand the GAA press card to enter the pitch. Like most of us sports photographers, it's a case of starting at the bottom and working your way up from there.

what incident Ken?

kensutz

A game in Croke Park where a manager was injured by a photographer who decided to point his camera into his face and gave him a nasty cut.

User Friendly

kensutz wrote: »

A game in Croke Park where a manager was injured by a photographer who decided to point his camera into his face and gave him a nasty cut.

cheers.

never heard anything about it tbh:cool:

paulocon

Thanks for the advice folks.

Looks like my first step is to get myself a telephoto lens - any suggestions on a lens that won't break the bank?

Involved in the local GAA club so I'm sure there'd be no issues shooting the adult games - can run the photos on the website alongside the match reports.

Took the camera to my County's game yesterday just to take a few wide-angle shots of the pitch for the craic. Have to say, I felt very conspicious stood on the terrace with it - not sure how I'd cope with a big zoom lens!

OldGoat

As a matter of curiosity which do the sports photographers find more convenient/useful at pitch-side, monopods or tripods?

kensutz

Monopods. Tripods are too cumbersome and get in the way of people. YOu need to be able to move from side to side without too much interference.

LeoB

Plenty of practice. Get to as many local club games as you can. Find a spot on the end line and start from there. At county games get down to the fence and shoot away.

I started using a Canon 55-250 and got some good results and now I also have a 70-200 f2.8. I give any half decent shots to my club for our website as do other members and send some to local papers also. Have a browse on flickr for G.A.A. shots.

paulocon

Cheers again for the advice.

At a game last night and spent a fair bit of it watching the photographer situated in front of us. Interesting that he seemed to wait for the action to come to him (or at least, the section of the field that he was covering) before firing off a burst of shots. He seemed to delete quite a large number of shots immediately - goes to show the 'hit rate' of this kind of work.

Will do some reading up over the weekend on lens. Probably stuck with the Nikon D50 body (or at least hard to justify trading up at the moment). Anyone any good sites for Lens reviews etc?

kensutz

He could be deleting or simply "chimping" as it's known as where a photographer rattles off a burst and then reviews their shots that they've just taken. He was doing the right thing in waiting until the action came to him. There's loads who will shoot action going away from them (which baffles me) and also some who will shoot the other end of the pitch and crop in to the size of a postage stamp.

DP Review is a site which reviews lenses (I think)

the_doctor199

paulocon wrote: »

He seemed to delete quite a large number of shots immediately - goes to show the 'hit rate' of this kind of work.

He probably shot a burst of say 5 and was choosing the best one of each burst and getting rid of the rest.

paulocon

kensutz wrote: »

He could be deleting or simply "chimping" as it's known as where a photographer rattles off a burst and then reviews their shots that they've just taken. He was doing the right thing in waiting until the action came to him. There's loads who will shoot action going away from them (which baffles me) and also some who will shoot the other end of the pitch and crop in to the size of a postage stamp.

DP Review is a site which reviews lenses (I think)

Thanks for that, I'll check out DP Review...

mayo.mick

paulocon wrote: »

Thanks for that, I'll check out DP Review...

Have a look here also, a lot of different len's reviewed,

http://www.cameralabs.com/lenses/Latest_DSLR_Lens_reviews.shtml

Baltrux

I use a D3100, 70-300 lens at my rugby club (when I'm not playing). There are 2 or 3 other people who take pictures, one of them is the pr officer who puts them up on the website. The first match I took photos at they both came over to me for a chat and since then having been giving me some great advice which is great as I'm only a newbie.

Logie-1

My son took these, it was his first time, he was using my Nikon D300s with a Tameron 70-300 lens.

mayo.mick

Logie-1 wrote: »

My son took these, it was his first time, he was using my Nikon D300s with a Tameron 70-300 lens.

Some nice shots there.