I’m often unfairly critical of photography, because so many of my friends like to think they can just take it up no problem (It’s so easy it’s soooo easy.)

Surely it’s one of those things. Everyone can be a photographer, but not everyone can take pictures well. I can attest to this, DeviantArt is an example of most of the worst. But when it’s part of the job description, you have to suck it up and try your best.

I was recently tasked with the assignment of taking photos of badminton players during practice. This isn’t any run of the mill taking photos of people having fun and looking candid. Sports photography is reluctantly a step up from normal photos because of all the action that happens.

I was so afraid of taking crappy blurry photos.

There’s a lot about the camera that I haven’t quite understood yet. We have photography classes but I haven’t been able to play with the camera. Model life and everything. (always the bridesmaid, never the bride… Does that apply?)

Aperture, ISO, f-stop, lockjaw. So many terms that make zero sense to me and I’ve had a limited time to figure it out. All I really know is that light is involved.

HOW CAN I TAKE THE PERFECT ACTION SHOT?Above is the perfect example. The agony of a small child as he goes for the ball, but suddenly decides to be afraid of it. The child of the opposing force, clearly knows what he’s doing.

After studying the picture long and hard (and playing with settings), am I truly trying my best to understand everything? Did I do a good job?

Pretty sure I NAILED IT

Maybe he was just too fast, maybe the camera didn’t want to focus (clearly) maybe there wasn’t enough light getting into the camera. There’s a lot of factors that goes into a really good photo.

[Don’t worry, I took a crap-load, though the good-bad ratio is gross the fact that there is a handful of good photos is alright by me!]

You have to capture a moment, you can’t just take a photo and expect a pat on the back. It needs to tell you a scene, it needs to give you an action. otherwise, you’re just taking pictures for the sake of taking them: