P#12 Q5B: How an Action Photographer Makes Great Shots Happen

Anticipate The Action

Charlie Borland: As an action photographer, you will eventually learn to anticipate action. Let's use rafting as an example. You've already gone through the rapid and have taken your pictures, and your boat has moved over on the side of the river and you are waiting for the other boats to come through.

Don't wait for the right shot to come to lift your camera to your eye. Always have the camera ready to go, focused on the subject. Then as they're going through the rapid, just shoot them as fast as you can to get all the good action shots.

A lot of it does have to do with the type of activity you're shooting. If you're asking somebody to jump from one rock to another, you're ready to go. You know when they're going to be in the perfect spot and by the time they're that spot, you've already shot several times. It's not as hard to anticipate the action in these situations.

Conceptualize

One other thing I do is develop a strategy to conceptualize photographs. This will offer the biggest advantage if you're going to be marketing and selling your work. Get an idea for a photograph and write it down in a notebook so that when you are somewhere, you'll remember that you wanted to do a particular photograph.

If, for example, I see a location where there's a beautiful mountain reflecting in a lake and a little sandy beach and I think, "Oh, I could pitch a tent there and could have some people drinking coffee as the sun sets," I will go back and do that shot. I will get some people to pose for me and go there and set up a tent on the perfect day.

Some of the best photographs come from planning, getting an idea, [more] planning, and then making it happen.

In Summary

Charlie Borland knows that great shots don't just happen -- sometimes you have to help them along. As an action photographer, it's your job to anticipate the action, be ready when it's happening and knowing how to make it happen when it doesn't occur on its own.