A Photographer's POV at the CrossFit Games (PhotoFit #16)

We all have those projects that are sitting on a hard drive that we keep "meaning to get to."  During the 2014 CrossFit Games, my first season shooting at the Games, I hooked up a gopro to the top of my camera and just let it roll as I tried to get the shot.  Fast forward to now, I finally got around to going through the content and splicing together some kind of coherent edit.  Other than the silliness of seeing sort of what I see at the Games, I quickly realized there were two main takeaways watching these videos First, just how complicated it is to shoot at big events.  Trying to get the shot is a lot more than just pushing a button.  Nailing that perfect composition means lining up the athlete during their decisive moment, with the right light, without a judge or other athlete getting in the way, and putting yourself in the perfect position to do all of that.  Secondly, how I shoot in terms of shutter mode, which I'll go into more detail below the fold.

Lauren Fisher, Nikon D4, Tamron 24-70 - Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

To briefly summarize the arc of the video above.  This all takes place at the 2014 CrossFit Games.  I kicked off the week off Hermosa Beach at 5am to capture the start of the Games as the competitors swam out and around the pier.  I started on the dingy, but quickly got switched over to a jetski (which I couldn't gopro from).  From there, the footage picks up on Friday morning with the team kickoff and the individuals taking on the triple 3.  Next up, big man, Sam Dancer crushing the 1RM deadlift workout (a workout he would again win when he competed as an individual athlete in 2016).  From there, I've got some clips of me shooting from on top of and at the base of the soccer stadium during the Muscle Up Biatholon.  What the gopro doesn't capture is the insane heat and lack of shade.  I was extra soggy during that bit.  From there, one of my favorite all time events, the 21-15-9 complex.  I'm shooting from the media pit, my favorite spot to shoot from in the Tennis Stadium, during golden hour.  The sun is setting behind the athletes and this is when the money shots happen.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet - Nikon D4 Sigma 120-300, Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

It is at this point that I think it really starts coming across just how tough it is to get a clean image during a crowded event.  In the Tennis Stadium, it is simply chaos.  From the huge rig, to the equipment, judges, staff, athletes, and volunteers, there are just countless ways for your perfectly framed shot to get ruined.  I'm constantly on the move trying to get everything to line up right, and find lanes between obstructions to zero in on athletes during that critical second.  Again, to connect with last week's post, this is why I love shooting tight.  The more I zoom in the more I'm able to isolate my subject from the chaos around them.

Rich Froning, Nikon D4 Nikon 70-200, Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

From there, the speed clean ladder was the most insane event I've ever shot.  Having eight lanes of athletes charging through five barbells in a race against the clock and each other was nuts.  I was positioned dead center, with other photographers from the team to my left and right to cover those lanes.  You can see just how quick the athletes are moving and how fast you have to make decisions about which lane to shoot and which lifts to focus on.  I also think its important to realize that sometimes the best shot isn't the one straight in front of you.  The angles I had on Froning for example, to my left, I thought were actually more interesting in some cases than shooting athletes in the lane right in front of me.  You can also see me dump my camera towards the end of some of those takes, that's because I'm switching over to a 24-70 to grab those finishing shots.  With the speed of the event and the athletes basically jumping right on me, I stuck with the safety lens to make sure I didn't really miss anything.  To me, that wide angle zoom affords me the largest margin of error.

Lauren Fisher, Nikon D4 Nikon 70-200, Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

For the final event, I was assigned to float, so I basically had to run around the stands to try and help fill out the team's coverage in case I could find something neat the shooters in the prime positions couldn't get.  This really though felt like I was able to experience the final of the CrossFit Games among the fans - with myself being one of them - and able to do my dream job at the same time.

Mat Fraser, Nikon D4 Tamron 24-70, Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

For my second bit of nerd talk, and something I don't think I've really hit on before, what shutter setting do I use?  Single, continuous low, continuous high (or whatever the canon equivalents are).  I exclusively shoot in single shutter.  This might sound blasphemous to sport shooters, but you don't need 12fps to shoot sports, you just need to anticipate when things are going to happen.  On the Nikon D4, I have some absurd frames-per-second, but I never use it.  In single shutter, I just have a quick touch and when those key critical moments are happening, might rapidly click the shutter and get between 3-5 frames in a second.  But for the most part, I'm just getting a single frame here or there.  I've played around with shooting in continuous (motor driving) but I find it just ends up with a lot of crap and a lot of extra frames you'll never use.  I'm usually a one-man-band, so that's going to slow down my ingest, clog up my memory cards, fill my hardrives, and make the edit process take longer.  In a team setting, shooting on contious high is an editors nightmare.  It clogs up our network bandwith, crushes their ingest queue, and quickly puts you on their shit list as they have to cull through 1000s of frames of crap.  

Josh Bridges, Nikon D4 Nikon 70-200, Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

You can hear all through the video that while I'm shooting I'm usually grabbing photos in bursts of two or three in a second.  When I see that critical moment lining up, I do want to give myself some leeway for focus and timing, so I'll pop off a few frames with just a rapid click on the shutter button.  I've messed around with the same style of shooting with continuous shutter on, but very very quickly find myself not taking two or three photos per moment, but more like five to eight.  Over the course of an event that will add to 1000s of more photos, while my hit count might not actually go up at all.

Julie Foucher, Nikon D4 Sigma 120-300, Copyright CrossFit, Inc 2016

Shutter goes hand in hand with buffer, and I think that's worth mentioning here.  Frames-per-second is one thing, but I think on a sports camera what's more important is buffer.  If I can just keep shooting as fast as I need for as long as I want and the camera keeps just chugging away, I'm happy.  If I start snapping and the action gets busier and all of a sudden the buffer is clogged and slowing down my shooting, I get very grumpy.  With the D4 and most sports bodies, this is very rarely possible.  Especially during the speed clean ladder, you can hear me starting off, getting some coverage of each of the athletes, but as the race picks up, and the athletes get closer, I'm firing more and more frames trying to hit as many athletes as possible while they are running towards me.  By shooting my single shutter method, that buffer never gets clogged and from start to finish I'm able to just keep shooting.  If though, I shot on continuous and was just spraying at 12fps the entire heat, by the time the athletes got close and we were really into that critical lift, my buffer would be getting very close to full and I'd have this awkward moment where the money shot is happening, but I have to wait for the camera to process.  The only times I've ever filled up a buffer is in the few instances of when I've shot continuous.

I hope this video and post, while long and meandering, helps illustrate what it is actually like to be shooting from the sidelines of the CrossFit Games.  The days are long and hot, and the job is physically grueling, but I wouldn't really trade it for anything else.

If you like what you've read, please share.  Feel free to post some content suggestions below so I know what you're looking for in my next post.  For bookings email shaun@superclearyphoto.com.  And as always, follow @supercleary on instagram and SuperClearyPhoto on Facebook.

Getting Unique Shots in a Crowd - Shooting the CrossFit Games Part 2 (PhotoFit #15)

In my first post about shooting the CrossFit Games I focused on the challenges of shooting with long lenses in the gigantic Soccer Stadium.  In part two, I'll cover the complexities of shooting from fixed shooting positions and trying to create unique images that help you stand out from a crowd of other photographers.

For the third year in a row I've had the pleasure of working for CrossFit Inc. as part of their photography team.  In working within that team, positions and roles are assigned.  Once the action moves to the Tennis Stadium, assignments fall into two categories: assigned seats, and floater positions.  With assigned seats, you're literally handed a seat ticket and have to stay locked in that position.  These seats usually make for an incredible view of the action.  First and foremost, I've always been a fan of the sport itself, so getting a front row seat is never something to complain about.  As a floater - you're either shooting in the media lane or wandering around the stadium looking for good sight lines - I'll cover this more in the next post.

Katrin Davidsdottir at the 2016 CrossFit Games - Sigma 120-300 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

The downsides of these seats from a photography perspective is that if I found myself in a seat where the action wasn't particularly close to you, or doesn't advance towards you, I sometimes found myself at a loss for how to capture great images.  The Games aren't unique in this, all major sports have assigned positions for photographers, and it's on the photographer to make the best out of those positions.

If I was in a less than optimal position for a specific WOD, I fell back on the importance of trusting in the team I was working with.  Because other shooters from the team are assigned across the rest of the stadium, I count on the fact that they are in position to get the perfect shot, and it then becomes my job to see how creative you can get in unique positions.

Katrin Davidsdottir - 2015 CrossFit Games - Sigma 120-300 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

Lens selection varies wildly once you're in the Tennis Stadium, and I think that's a great way to become creative and stand out.  For the most part, I actually went back to my Regionals go-to, the Sigma 120-300 2.8.  I really love working with that lens, and only at the extremes was that 300 not enough reach in the Tennis Stadium.  For a few events this year, and when the action was panning across my seat in the south side, I busted out the 200-400 and tried to really get in super tight to athletes.  I always love working with the extra reach these monster lenses afford, but as the action gets closer, they get more and more restrictive.  

As a fun combo during the Ring Handstand Push-up event, I was stationed in the south seats (the finish line) and shot down the lane with the 200-400.  On my second body, I had a 70-200, and as the athletes closed for their last reps and sprint to the finish, I switched to that, to still get nice and tight, but offer a great degree more flexibility, and ease of use.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet at the 2016 CrossFit Games - 200-400 f/4 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

The Tennis Stadium is an incredibly unique shooting environment with the action so close, and the conditions so easy to shoot in.   When you look to your left and right there are dozens of cameras - some professional, some just part of the spectators', but you'll also notice most people are using very similar lenses.  Something I always try and think about when shooting in this sort of environment is trying to get shots other people aren't. With some base level knowledge, and because high-end equipment's price has come down so dramatically, it really doesn't take all that much to get a good result when the lighting is awesome like it is in the Tennis Stadium.  Even with a semi-entry level camera like a Nikon d5500 or a Canon 70d and a 24-120 f/4,($1000) you're going to be able to get sharp action photos with low ISO settings, and you're not even going to know it wasn't shot on a Nikon D5 with a 70-200 ($8000)

Cole Sager during the 2015 CrossFit Games - Nikon 70-200 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

Because of that, I'm always thinking of how to mix up shots a bit so they don't just look identical to what everyone else shooting from similar positions are probably taking.  The "easy shot" is a classic head to toe of an athlete exercising with the whole athlete in frame.  Wide shots are much easier to take, and much easier to get tact-sharp focus on.  What I try to do once I get some safeties - the boring classic shots that help fill out coverage - is try to shoot very tight.  If I shoot super tight, my editors won't have to crop in post, and the image itself will have that amazing background compression and bokeh.  This is how you can get some really unique images while shooting from the exact same position as every other shooter. 

If I'm using a 70-200, I'm going to try to shoot closer to 200 and really get tight on the athletes.  If I'm on the 120-300 I try to go tighter than 200 (otherwise what's the point).  Yes, I miss a lot because of this.  Yes, I get a lot of weird crops and amputations that aren't useable.  But, when everything lines up right, the focus hits, and the crop is good, I'm able to get a really unique image that I don't think a lot of other people are going for.  

For some technical details, when I'm trying to shoot really tight during fast action, I'm going to use continuous autofocus (sorry this will all be Nikon language), and actually limit it to only 9 points.  On the D5 there are something like 51 focus points you can use, but I actually like to limit it.  As the action moves and the camera hunts for focus, if you limit the active points, you can actually track faster.  Of course, I'm using back button focusing the whole time -- read about that here if you're unfamiliar.  Something else to help get focus, I might actual close down my aperture just a bit.  With a 2.8 lens, I might actually shoot at 3.2 or 3.5.  There will be a very minor difference in the out of focus areas (especially because I'm shooting with a lot of zoom to help get compression), but I'm able to get a little more of the athlete in focus especially if they shift forward or back.  And because I'm getting a little less light, I'll just bump up the ISO more, which won't really be noticeable on pro bodies like the Nikon D4-5 / Canon 1dx mk1/2.  

Jacob Heppner - 2016 CrossFit Games - Sigma 120-300 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

For example, in 2016, I was shooting from the West finish line where athletes advanced during double DT.  I'll zoom all the way into the athlete's head and put my focus point on the eye.  From there, I'll hold down the back button, and grab frames during those decisive moments of peak exertion.  I will also try to frame up the shot in camera, but to get this in focus, I may select a focus point off to the left, right, top, or bottom so that focus point lines up best with the athlete's head and I'm able to fill the frame as much as possible. Another option is to use that middle focus point to get the subject in focus and then recompose the shoot.  You have to be careful doing this though, because if the athlete moves forward or back during the time you're recomposing, the shot will be out of focus.  The shot above of Jacob Heppner was snapped with the Sigma 120-300, at more than 200mm.  He was relatively close to me and it was an adventure to get everything framed up right and in focus.  Below is another shot, still useable, but includes a bit of a crop on Mat Fraser's hand which I'm not happy about.

Mat Fraser - 2016 CrossFit Games - Sigma 120-300 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

The best part of the last two images - in my opinion is the out of focus areas.  They are just buttery mush.  It helps separate out the athlete and create what I think are really great images.  By zooming in so hard and leaving so little to need to be cropped, the background fades out into just colors.

Another type of shot I've grabbed the last three years from the same finish line is the "finish" shot.  After an athlete's done, I'll keep the lens zoomed in on them and keep clicking hoping for a great reaction.  Yes, shooting with a 24-70 is going to be much easier to make sure I don't miss anything or crop the shot in a weird way, but shooting with a 70-200 when you nail it is so worth it.  Here are a couple examples.  The first is shot very close with a 70-200 and the other is with the 120-300 handheld.  Yes, I try that shot a lot, and I have a ton of misses, but that zoomed in image, to me, is so much stronger than a boring wide shot.

Scott Panchik's finish double DT at the 2016 CrossFit Games - Nikon 70-200 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

CLB at the 2015 CrossFit Games - Sigma 120-300 - Copyright CrossFit Inc, 2016, all rights reserved

For some takeaways - I'd always recommend trying to shoot much tighter than you normally would.  Wide shots, while useful, are really easy to get and easy to duplicate.  To get your images to stand out in a stack of other images from the same event, try taking the harder shots - zoomed tight and into the action.  You're going to miss a whole bunch, but the hits are much better.  In my next piece of the Games, I'll talk about shooting from float positions in the Tennis Stadium and working to get the best shots in those scenarios.

If you like what you've read, please share.  Feel free to post some content suggestions below so I know what you're looking for in my next post.  For bookings email shaun@superclearyphoto.com.  And as always, follow @supercleary on instagram and SuperClearyPhoto on Facebook.