Sports Photography

I am currently taking a class called Press Photography, taught by photojournalist Kevin Moloney. Each week we have a different photo assignment. The assignments are intended to give us a look at the variety of work that photojournalists produce. This week our assignment was to shoot interesting sports photography. I particularly loved this assignment because it made photojournalism its own sport! It's very difficult to follow the ball with your face plastered into a viewfinder.

We learned that every sport has what Moloney calls an "armpit" shot. Yes it basically means how it sounds. Many sports shots that make the newspaper are the armpit shots because they 1)have the ball in it and 2)are taken at the height of the action in the game.

Even if you get an artistic shot out of your sports work, it's likely that no paper would pick up your photo. A sports photo is not about being artistic. It is about explaining the passion and drama of the game in a more obvious manner.

However, the one photo that I chose to turn in as my final project photo for this sports assignment was a photo that truly portrays the passion that these women put into the game. This photo was shot at the last women's basketball game of the regular season when CU beat University of Missouri.