Scott Kelby - ‘talking about two of my favorite things, photography & sports’
For a photographer and sports fan growing up in a football town, there’s one question you always dream of hearing, “would you like to shoot from the sidelines of an NFL game?”
And for Scott Kelby, the dream came true. He shot for three years as a backup wire service photographer and another six years as the primary wire service photographer covering his hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As you might expect, that experience comes with lots of great stories, not to mention helpful photography lessons.
I’m talking photography and sports with THE Scott Kelby.
Listen to the episode
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you know who Scott Kelby is….
The President and CEO of KelbyOne (the online educational community for creative people);
The editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine;
Conference Technical Chair for the Photoshop World Conference & Expo;
The host of the influential weekly photography talk show “The Grid;”
Founder of the annual “Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk” (the world’s largest social photography event);
Training Director and lead instructor for KelbyOne Live Seminars, and
Author of a string of bestselling books.
My takeaways
Find something you love and pair it with photography. That makes it more likely you will practice.
Football is a sport you have to be on your knees to shoot successfully. Scott says he never created any dynamic images while standing.
You spend a long day shooting football for a wire service.
You have to get to the stadium hours early (10:30 am for a 1 pm game)
Start by shooting warm-ups, which gives you a chance to warm up yourself.
Before the game, upload photos of key players.
You are responsible for full Metadata. Tag the images with name, team, action.
Use Photo Mechanic app to help you cull images faster.
Shoot in JPG because you don’t want to clog the buffer during continuous shooting.
You need a tight shot of both QBs facing the right way.
You upload about 15 photos at halftime.
At the end of the game, you are uploading another 35 photos.
During the game, you are looking for the peak moment of action —just before the ball reaches the tips of the receiver’s fingers or just as the all just leaving the quarterback’s hand. Tell the story.
Position yourself in the end zone or at the 10-yard lines. That gives you abetter chances of getting the shot.
Go up to the top of the stadium and wait for a big play. This is an excellent place to get a stadium reaction shot.
More to the game than what’s happening on the field. Look for all the stories surrounding it.
During downtimes, walk around and looking for detail shots.
Set up remote cameras.
Resources/Links
Aaron Rodgers owes me a new monopod
Scott Kelby Sports Photography Portfolio
