This is an illustration to disprove the sentiments I (and my fellow photographers) have heard many times about how having a long lens must make for great pictures. It does — as long as you’re in place before the action, have a nice, clean background, and (at least in my case) a fairly quick and accurate autofocus.

Where a long lens sings is stopping action with a minimal depth of field, making a subject “pop” in focus against a background that’s intentionally left out of focus. We want to see the jubilation of victory or the sweat of exertion on the athlete’s face, not the spectator eating a hot dog behind her. What goes into making that great picture is knowing what’s going to happen before it does — where the play is headed, which player is likely to react when she scores a point, who’s in position to dive for the ball. A moment too late means the ball is out of the frame and the picture is unusable. A moment too late and that foot of focus is misplaced, caught on the net or a player’s arm that’s swung into the frame, or the crowd behind the player.

In this case, the camera first focused on the high contrast of the advertising behind the player and was slowly moving to the players when the peak action, the moment I was hoping for, happened. Two frames later, I have a nice sharp frame of these two young women, watching as the ball sails toward the net.

A long lens is definitely a great tool for shooting sports, but equally important, I’ve found, is practice. It’s knowing the game well enough to know where to point and focus that lens before the action happens. It’s knowing the limits and strengths of the tools you work with and how to use them to capture the moments that are meaningful, no matter the setting. It’s not making great pictures because of the tool, it’s making great pictures with the tool.
–Sara Gettys