Time for another update! I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t gone around taking photos anymore. However, last month I went to the 2011 Melbourne Motor Show. It was a great experience, lots of newly released, upcoming and concept car. Obviously the coolest of them all were the concept cars… although I’m pretty sure most of those cars that would probably never see the light at the consumer’s end.

In any case, I present to you some photos of the cars that impressed me most in the show. I have to hand it to them, that Mazda did made a good looking beast called the Mazda Shinari, I think that is the best car all around the show.  Gallery below:

Impressive cars aren’t they? The show was quite entertaining in many degrees, however the only gripe that I have is the lack of sales consultant in the show. I think this is the only car show where I can’t really get a price of a car or place an order, really… the supercars are entertaining, but consumers tend to buy normal car and logic dictates that this kind of show is the best place to sell. BUT… I’m not in the business of selling cars so it didn’t bother me much, I’m just amazed.

The photos from the Australian Kendo Championship 2010 are finally here. This gallery contains 400+ images, handpicked and edited for your viewing pleasure. Browse through and see almost all of the 2010 Australian Kendo Championship including the matches, award ceremony, trophies and off-the-floor activities.

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This time I’m going to cover some of the tips and tricks to photograph sport events. Recently I went to a local Kendo championship – the Mumeishi 3 and I am really glad that I have brought my photography gear with me. Many of my mates are competing and they would love to get good shots of them in action!

I have seen a lot of sport snapshots that are quite disappointing, like blurry, too dark or too still. Yes, just because a photograph is dead sharp, it doesn’t mean that it’s good if the colours are washed out by flash and everything is so still. Of course by no means I am a professional in sports photography, however I would like to share a tip or two that can help common folks like us take good photographs.

First things first, be prepared the day before, the usual routine: charge up your batteries (bring spares if possible), clear out your memory cards, make sure your camera is in working order. Sports photogrphy is very demanding, a silly tehnical faults such as memory card errors and low battery can bring a lot of grief.

Tools of trade:

• A zoom lens, preferrably one that goes up to 300mm
• Flash, in case we need one
• Monopod (if you have one) – I didn’t us one on the day

The important technique to understand with sports photogrphy is to allow movements to be recorded into you photographs. Your shutter should be fast enough yet slow enough to alow some movement blur (not camera shake). On the day I didn’t use any flash at all, it was bright enough and I use quite a high iso. The reason I didn’t use the flash were first I’m not a fan of flash harsh lights and second I didn’t want to distract the players with the flashes.

Play It manually.

If you are shooting indoor like I do, then chances are that the lights are pretty consistent. Set your camera to manual exposure. You can either use a light meter to do this or simply by trial and error. This way your shots will be consistent in their exposures, less chance of stuff ups due to the camera miscalculating the exposures in fast conditions.

Have depth of field.

With sports photography you want your photos to be focused to the players. Using high aperture settings such as f3.5 or f4.5 will help achieve the depth of field required. The background surrounding will be blurred enough to accentuate your subject but still clear enough to give a sense of location.

Think about who is your subject.

Maybe this does not apply to all sports, but for Kendo, in case you haven’t notice the players wear full faced mask. There is very little chance we can recognize their face easily, that is why they have the name tags. Be sure include the name in some of your shots, but don’t overdo it.

It might also pay off to include some of the surroundings as well. In case of the photo on the left, it was the judges. By including the judges in the background we have set up the serious and tense atmosphere.

Focus, focus and focus

In these situations as I have mentioned above, we will be shooting with zoom lens and high aperture. Therefore your focussing is of utmost importance. Make sure your subject is well focused, missing the focusing even one but will ruin the image. Set your camera to continuous focus or if you are on single auto focusing mode, always try to obtain focus before shooting.

Move it!

Technical details aside, we have to keep in mind that sports is about movements. Your subject will be moving around a lot…and you should be too. I don’t stay in one spot all the time (unless I have to due to limited space, regulations,etc ). There are many things that will obstruct you, never with for them to move away, you have to move away. So stand up and walk to the most suitable spots.

Other important thing to remember would be to shoot in RAW and don’t be stingy, shoot as much as possible and you will have more chance to select your best photographs. So to conclude, sport photography is about capturing the atmosphere, movements and most importantly the players. It can be frustrating, but will be an utmost joy for you and the participants when you have a great results in the end.