Speaker on 10th November 2020
Michael Berkely - Sport & Music Photography
I thought this weeks speaker was unusual - Michael Berkely concentrates on Sport and Music photography and showed us some of his fantastic images together with explanations of how he took them. His presentation was extremely informative and he was very generous with his explanations of technique and general approach to his photography. He emphasised the importance of capturing a moment as being more important than concentrating on the technical. Sometimes I think, amidst judges comments we lose this perspective. Anticipation is the key to his photography - he told us that if you see something happen then you’ve missed it. SO true. Wild life photographers also know this, hence the importance of understanding an animals behaviour.
I was very struck by Michael's ethics when deciding which photographs to use publicly : if he had an unflattering photograph of a sportsperson he would not use it in deference to their sensitivities. Some photographers might “go the other way” and I thought Michael's approach was refreshing.
The presentation was a Master Class in planning sport and music shoots - both of which, although they have similarities, for example capturing movement and getting the lighting correct, also have very different challenges: one of which is the positioning of ourselves as photographers to get the right shot. This is not always easy to prepare beforehand due to the nature of accessibility and constantly changing environments. It was fascinating to learn how footballers “clock" where the photographers are - of course they would but I had never thought of that.
The first half of the presentation then was sport photography. Michael uses fast continuous shooting and fast lenses with shallow depth field often with a monopod . He only uses 3 lenses mainly - 24-70: 70-200: 200-600 and shoots wide open with either spot or centre metering. He puts autofocus on tracking and for music continuous low but continuous high for sport. Obviously every photographer finds their own way round settings and the settings also vary with lenses and cameras - but it is enlightening to hear as many different approaches as we can.
The second half of Michael's presentation concentrated on his photographing a music festival and cycling sports events. Personally I have always found festivals/events really difficult and it was lovey to understand a little of how Michael manages to capture the emotions of the event. I think I will still find it hard though! A bit of a revelation was a comment Michael made about the “final shot” when the athlete opens their arms out - like me, Michael had always assumed this to be exuberance - it isn’t totally that apparently! It is also to ensure the advertising on their clothing is visible!
Polo, archery and ice hockey followed, giving us a flavour of Michael's diverse approach and opportunity to see images of sports which are not commonly shown.
One of his presentation techniques was to show us some of his failed photographs together with an explanation of why he thought they were below his standard - these insights were really helpful.
Thank you to Doug for setting this up for the club - it was a brilliant evening.
Michael Berkely - Sport & Music Photography
I thought this weeks speaker was unusual - Michael Berkely concentrates on Sport and Music photography and showed us some of his fantastic images together with explanations of how he took them. His presentation was extremely informative and he was very generous with his explanations of technique and general approach to his photography. He emphasised the importance of capturing a moment as being more important than concentrating on the technical. Sometimes I think, amidst judges comments we lose this perspective. Anticipation is the key to his photography - he told us that if you see something happen then you’ve missed it. SO true. Wild life photographers also know this, hence the importance of understanding an animals behaviour.
I was very struck by Michael's ethics when deciding which photographs to use publicly : if he had an unflattering photograph of a sportsperson he would not use it in deference to their sensitivities. Some photographers might “go the other way” and I thought Michael's approach was refreshing.
The presentation was a Master Class in planning sport and music shoots - both of which, although they have similarities, for example capturing movement and getting the lighting correct, also have very different challenges: one of which is the positioning of ourselves as photographers to get the right shot. This is not always easy to prepare beforehand due to the nature of accessibility and constantly changing environments. It was fascinating to learn how footballers “clock" where the photographers are - of course they would but I had never thought of that.
The first half of the presentation then was sport photography. Michael uses fast continuous shooting and fast lenses with shallow depth field often with a monopod . He only uses 3 lenses mainly - 24-70: 70-200: 200-600 and shoots wide open with either spot or centre metering. He puts autofocus on tracking and for music continuous low but continuous high for sport. Obviously every photographer finds their own way round settings and the settings also vary with lenses and cameras - but it is enlightening to hear as many different approaches as we can.
The second half of Michael's presentation concentrated on his photographing a music festival and cycling sports events. Personally I have always found festivals/events really difficult and it was lovey to understand a little of how Michael manages to capture the emotions of the event. I think I will still find it hard though! A bit of a revelation was a comment Michael made about the “final shot” when the athlete opens their arms out - like me, Michael had always assumed this to be exuberance - it isn’t totally that apparently! It is also to ensure the advertising on their clothing is visible!
Polo, archery and ice hockey followed, giving us a flavour of Michael's diverse approach and opportunity to see images of sports which are not commonly shown.
One of his presentation techniques was to show us some of his failed photographs together with an explanation of why he thought they were below his standard - these insights were really helpful.
Thank you to Doug for setting this up for the club - it was a brilliant evening.