LUCKILY THERE ARE also many commonalities among various different sports, and many skills which improve your chances of success in a number of different disciplines.

Be part of the action

When you watch sport on television, the camera mostly shows general views covering vast expanses of the field, thereby allowing the chance to follow the action and only occasionally going in close to show a slow motion replay. Many novices take this same approach to sports photography, setting up in the back of the stand and photographing the entire arena with crowd and car park included.

Forget it.

There is a reason why the pros apply for passes that take them right up to the touchline and even then opting for their super-long zooms.

As an old war photographer, Robert Capa, used to say: “If your pictures aren’t good enough you’re not close enough.” What you want to do is to get as close to the field of play as physically possible. Right on the line if they’ll let you.

Having some seriously long optics to stick on to the front of your digital camera will also help, anything from 300mm upwards will be a good tip for most sports, and will help you to get your eye right into the game and allow you to capture all of that frame filling passion and gut wrenching action.

For this very reason it is often good to start small, visiting local as opposed to national competitions. Just as young sportsmen have to work their way up the leagues, the budding photographer be well advised to sharpen his claws on minor events, where there is unrivalled access and freedom of movement allowing for a unique opportunity to experiment to your heart’s content. And if you thought you can’t get outstanding pictures of amateurs: think again. Some of the worlds top sport portfolios contain images taken at school events.

A touch of blur

Now with a long lens screwed firmly to the front of your body and action taking place at a million miles an hour in your viewfinder, the temptation is understandably to set your shutter speed as fast as the digital camera allows, but a lot remains to be said for slowing down. A very high shutter speed can often cause a static picture with very little life and drama, and in the worst cases it can leave a surreal image of a runner, forever frozen in time with both feet off the ground and no hint of movement in the frame.

Now you don’t want to drop the speed down too low either, or else you would be left with a messy blur with no discernable features. The trick is to find that magic in-between setting where the majority of the composition is blurred, but a small section remains sharp, thereby forcing the viewer’s eye to go straight where you want it to.

Sounds impossible?

Think about it: A running man’s legs move a lot faster than his torso and head. If the shutter speed is set to exactly the point where his legs start to blur, then his eyes will still be in focus, leaving an image that appears razor sharp in certain areas, yet with enough motion blur in others to convey movement.

So how slow is slow enough?

This varies tremendously. Some sports such as motor racing will give you blurred wheels and a sharp car at 1/500th of a second, while in others, such as long distance running, you’d have to go as low as 1/30th before you see any blur at all. The key is to be brave and adventurous, experimenting until you hit the sweet spot.

But while a bit of motion blur can be a good thing, camera blur, which transpires from an unsteady hand rather than movement in the subject, is almost always bad. The rule of thumb is that if you use a shutter speed slower than the length of your lens, you will need some sort of camera support.

In other words, if you are shooting with a 300mm lens and plan to go slower than 1/300th of a second, use a tripod, monopod or lean on a sturdy wall. With digital cameras that use a sensor smaller than the traditional 35mm film, this equation needs to be slightly adjusted, and would normally require at least one to two stops faster exposure (i.e. roughly 1/450th), but again, this is only a guide, and for truly accurate results you'd have to experiment with your own individual setup.