The Addiction of Sport Photography

The Addiction of Sports Photography is a course developed by Andy Nietupski, in collaboration with veteran sport photographer Chris Covatta.  This weekend was the inaugural offering of the course at Precision Camera and Video, and Town & Country Optimists Sports Club. 

The course premise is that if photography is a drug, then sports photography is addictive like crack cocaine or heroine.  The mixture of color, speed, emotion, choreography and shear physical beauty of sports photography
makes it addicting. 

Sports photography is the most technically challenging of photographic disciplines, requiring the highest level of preparation and execution excellence.  The course was developed to provide an end-to-end education on best practices to feed that addiction, maximize the highs, and minimize the withdrawals. 

The class began with traditional topics like aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings for
entry-level to professional-level cameras.  It then moved to less familiar areas to optimize the camera and lenses for high-speed, low-light photography.  Unique to this class was discussions of the less know interaction between the cameras and lenses.  Also unique was a discussion of composition, protocols and shooting locations for nine popular sports. 

The class featured a location shoot at the Town and Country Optimists Club, a local multi-sports youth athletic facility.  The class participants produced the attached photographs. 

Reviews of the class were overwhelming positive.  A follow-on class is expected.