Taking sports photos require special skills

Every parent who has a son or daughter that is an athlete wants a photo of his or her progeny in action on the playing field. Whereas home videos capture the fun, excitement and emotion of a game, a still photograph -- print or digital -- can be shown and shared more easily and more often.

Displayed on a refrigerator door, it serves as a daily reminder of the child's participation, and instills pride in the youngster.

Recently, while I was cheering on my son at a lacrosse game, I observed Team Hot Shots' photographer, John Costello, taking pictures of several of the players. He was using a professional digital camera, to see the results immediately.

I walked over, introduced myself, and asked to see his pictures on the camera's LCD screen. They were sharp and well composed.

Not being a professional sports photographer, I asked John for his best sports photography photo tips, which I'll share:

Pick a good shooting position. Usually, you don't want to be shooting into the sun. If you do, your subjects will be backlighted, and you might not be able to see the players' faces. Try to shoot with the sun at your back or off to your side. Shooting through a backstop or soccer goal can deliver an interesting picture.

Use a telephoto lens or the telephoto setting on your zoom lens to get close to the action. Try to fill the frame with the subject. In addition, to avoid a blurry picture caused by camera shake, be sure to hold your camera steady when shooting with a telephoto lens.

Try to follow the action in the viewfinder, and snap the shot at the peak of action. Doing so will add drama to your pictures.

Digital picture-takers should rely on the optical zoom in their camera, and not the digital zoom. The digital zoom enlarges the center portion of the frame. You can do that at home in the digital darkroom.