My single shot system relies on good timing.
I refuse to shoot a dozen frames to saturate the subject “just in case”. I want the shot I go for, hit or miss. Sometimes, I get good images, but they lack the important element of the ball.
Athletic ability, intent, everyone looking the same way and the tension of the act to come, but no ball. The next shot was binned at the time because the ball deflected away. This shot says “potential super mark”, the reality was far from that.
The fact is, if the ball was in frame, the image would be different.
As cool as these are, the have two problems. They are almost always the same two players (the Rucks) and they are pretty much a carbon copy of each other.
The ideal is the ball just hovering in front of the hands. The issue is, this is often at the expense of a clear face.
More like this.
This is ball perfect and the numbers are easy to see. perfect really, except no faces.
This one was probably shot for the off ball action, the ball was a bonus. He was not actually punching the player, but 600mm of compression can be deceiving.
I was tasked with getting this player on the weekend, which I did a few times. The shots with the ball in were not great.
There is a simple answer.
Get the face, with the ball, but that means so many shots get wasted.