Imagine telling someone that you’re going to be pitchside with a professional camera… for a class!
Well, that’s exactly what happened on November 29th as part of a sports photography class, I headed over to the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium to take photos at a Real Madrid Castilla (Real Madrid B Team) game.
I’m not going to lie – I was a bit nervous because I had never really worked a professional camera. Although I’ve always loved videography and content creation, nowadays iPhones do more than enough of a good job. However, in class, I learned that there is soooo much more to cameras and photography than what clicking that white button on an iPhone can do. We learned about lighting, depth, saturation – all the complex things related to a camera and I found it absolutely fascinating. That’s why after practicing on campus multiple times and practicing at a Castilla training as well, I was excited to use my skills that I learned to take photos of moving footballers in action at this game.
I managed to get quite a few good photos – especially that of the goalscorer who came to celebrate right in front of me. But a lot of the photos I took ended up being blurry and unfocused, which made me realize first hand how difficult and high-pressure the job of sports photographers are. Not only did I gain so much more respect for Paul Hanna (our professor for this class and professional photographer), I also left the Castilla game with the goal of doing a much better job next time.
I am hearing I will be pitchside for the Real Madrid vs Real Betis game with another camera in hand in early January so I hope to be able to improve my game then – and of course, I will be writing about that in a separate blog entry!