BACK PAGES How to capture Ultimate
How I shoot Ultimate > Jeff Bell
Having shot for UltiPhotos for a couple of years, occasionally people will ask what it takes to shoot Ultimate. Outside of the time it takes, equipment expenses, technical skills and techniques you need to learn and occasional travel; I can try to boil it down to a few considerations:
Gear
Now you can try to get away with lenses that came with your Rebel or a decent point and shoot camera, but eventually you’ll be so frustrated by the shots you’ve missed and the quality of the ones you got, that you’ll want to upgrade.
For Ultimate, I’d put lens selection as my first gear consideration. I like to shoot professional lenses on two camera bodies, one with a 70-200mm zoom and one with either a 400mm fixed focal length or a 200- 400mm zoom. This range of focal lengths lets me get close to players far away and still manage to capture action that is unfolding quickly in front of me.
I shoot Nikon cameras (a D3s and D700 with a battery grip for those who care about such things) and both cameras have a decent frame rate of 8-9 frames per second. At those speeds, I can get the shot of the catch plus the next frame, the one where the receiver’s eyes are actually open.
Having high-end cameras and lenses also mean great weather proofing, increased reliability, better low light capability (for night games), better image quality and higher insurance premiums.
Access
One of the best things about shooting Ultimate is access to the games. It would be nigh impossible to get ice level access to shoot an NHL game, but at the
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highest levels of Ultimate competition, I can actually get closer to the action than the athletes and coaches on the sidelines. In any league or tournament settings, anyone can get pretty close, just make sure you’re paying attention and stay out of the way.
I’m extremely fortunate to be able to shoot Furious, Traffic, the Vancouver Nighthawks, and the UBC and UVIC teams in my own backyard. But often I won’t wait for the big games at Nationals for something to shoot. I’ve gone to team practices and scrimmages to get my technique down.
Light
The more you can control lighting when making pictures, the better your pictures will be. I can’t control much about the lighting when shooting Ultimate, except where I stand. Generally, I like to get the light (usually the sun) behind me. It makes players look better having light shining on their faces rather than having them in shadow. I consider it an advanced move to shoot into the sun, but the images you make can be very rewarding.
If I get the opportunity to shoot under stadium lights, I can stand wherever I want, but I need those high- end cameras that can handle the weaker light sources. Those stadium lights are fine for playing or watching night games but are barely adequate for shooting action.
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