Why hire a professional photographer to shoot your kids playing sports?

The other day a well-meaning friend asked me "so, why would someone other than a

newspaper or a magazine hire a professional sports photographer these days?  After all,

Canon and Nikon are putting out pretty good consumer cameras, right?"  Honestly, before I

started doing this work I wondered the same thing.  Then I started trying to do the work with

consumer (as opposed to pro) equipment, before finally making the investment in pro

equipment.  I can tell you now there are several reasons why you might want to consider

hiring an experienced sports photographer with professional equipment.

Reason 1: focusing speed!

Pro cameras focus so much faster than amateur cameras it's hard to describe without letting you experience it for yourself.  While

the picture quality of Canon's 20D, 30D and 40D cameras is exceptional (and in some cases better in low light than the

professional Mark IIN) the difference in focusing speed between these cameras and Canon's pro cameras is amazing.  The

biggest difference is in the time it takes a pro camera to lock on to its subject.  The split second it takes the consumer camera to

lock on to it's subject is often the difference between "just missed it" photo and a photo that makes folks say "wow, you nailed that

one!"  Another difference is in the camera's ability to continually focus on a moving subject.  Back when I was shooting with a 20D

it was frustrating to me how often a player would "run out of focus" - i.e., run faster toward me than my camera could focus.  With

pro equipment, the number of shots that are "tack sharp," even when a running back is sprinting at you, is impressive.

Reason 2: creamy soft backgrounds!

Do you ever wonder how it is that professional photographers are able to get shots of athletes with those nice blurry backgrounds

that makes the player stand out?  Again, it's all about the equipment.  Most consumer camera lenses do a great job of creating

nice creamy, blurry backgrounds when the subject is nice and close.  But sports photography requires a lens that gets you that

same background when the subject is far away!  And for that type of lens you have to make quite the investment - it's a lot

cheaper to hire a guy like me!  (hint, hint)

Reason 3: Frame rate!

A good consumer camera will take about 5 frames per second.  That's actually pretty good...but the difference between 5 and 8.5

frames per second is head shaking when you consider how quickly a ball leaves a hand or facial expression leaves a face!  When

I first started shooting sports I worked with a Canon 20D (which shoots 5 frames per second).  I was both envious of and amazed

by the speed of the pro cameras.  Then I bought one.  Basically, you increase the chances of catching that perfect moment by a

factor of three frames every second.  For the little guys, who aren't very quick yet, this often isn't a big deal...but when you move

up to even 7-8th grade sports it can really make a difference.

Granted, you still have to have a good eye, good timing, and a feel for the game, but great equipment makes it a lot easier to

shoot great sports photos.

The final reason...

Let's not forget one important factor - you're there to watch your kid's game with your eyes, not your camera.  If you've ever

focused exclusively on taking photos at a game, you probably already know two things: you don't really get to take in the whole

game (the camera limits your peripheral vision); and, it's exhausting!

So there you have it...four reasons why I think folks invite professional photographers to take photos of their kids playing sports.  If

you're interested, drop me an email and we'll figure something out!