Today, I had a rather vague assignment to shoot the YVCC women’s volleyball team, which is working towards securing a spot in the playoffs. I was shooting a practice, and trying to figure out a way to say something about the team as a whole, since the focus of the story wasn’t on a game (sports action photo) or featuring a specific player. I watched a bit of practice and tried several ideas before shooting something I liked.
My first thought was that since I was shooting a practice, I should try something that I could never do during the game, a shot that wouldn’t be allowed. So I positioned myself right at the net, thinking I could use it as a compositional element in my frame, or maybe shoot through it and use the squares as a compositional element. I liked the mirror effect of the players in this frame, but it didn’t show enough of the team, and the net itself wasn’t a quick read.
I tried adding a little motion blur, to take the emphasis off of the individual players, and give a sense of movement, but it still has the same problems as before.
Next, I moved around, trying to get more of the team. While the balls in the foreground give a sense of place and definitely show a practice situation, I didn’t like that I’d always be seeing the backs of the players closest to me, and the other players were pretty small in the frame.
Back to my original position, different angle. While I liked the dramatic divide of the frame provided by the center-court line and the net, the net was still hard to read, and I didn’t like the angle on the players.
For the final shot, the one I ended up picking, I backed up a bit, including the pole of the net, which I think makes it a faster read as a net, and shot wide to get a sense of the whole team at practice. The number of players adds some layering to the image and I shot a bunch of frames, trying to get some action pretty close to the lens, with enough players in the background to show the scene.
Picture This | seattletimes.com blog
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