One of the aspects of sports photography I’ve always found challenging is catching images that people don’t often see. Much of this involves timing shots so as to catch expressions (as with the first picture above), but sometimes it involves catching peak action to freeze a unique view (like the face looking through the tennis racket in mid-swing).

A common misconception among novices is that shooting sports involves nothing more than using a camera with a fast motor drive, and letting the camera record sequences of events. The problem is this method involves more luck than skill, and more often than not, the timing will never be quite right. In many cases, the focus won’t be right either, because if the shutter is opening and closing, the photographer or the autofocus system won’t have the ability to adjust the focus (resulting in a sequence where the first image might be in focus but the rest are out of focus if the subject is moving).