6

CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / Shooting Sports

I practice the martial arts and understand the

techniques and styles used in most martial arts,

but I had never seen the Brazilian martial art of

Capoeira. To successfully capture the action in

Figure 6-6, I first watched the performers warm up

and practice their moves. This allowed me to

have the camera ready and the setting high

enough to capture the amazing aerial maneuvers.

Another way to study up on sports that you might

not be familiar with is to use the Internet to view

other photographers’ images of those sports. This

can help you to understand the angles that work

and don’t work before you even have to raise the

camera to your eye.

players on the court at any one time. The goal is
to pass and move the ball down the court until it
is possible to throw it through the hoop on the
opposing team’s end of the court. You are also not
allowed to walk or run while holding the ball —
the players must bounce it when moving. This
doesn’t give you all the rules of the game or any
real detail, but it does allow you to make some
decisions about where to photograph from and
what to look for. For example, knowing that the
scoring takes place on the ends of the court, you
could try to get in the middle so that you can see
both ends equally or you could decide to pick one
of the ends for a close view of at least some of the
shots, and a wide view of the other end.

6-6

ABOUT THIS PHOTO Capoeira is a martial art created in Brazil with some very complex moves including kicks, aerial acrobatics, and knee and
elbow strikes. Martial arts are tough to photograph (not as tough as it would be to actually be fighting, though). Taken at 1/250 second, f/2.8, and ISO 1600.