Digital Sports Photography: Take Winning Shots Every Time

Introduction

Country-by-country, thousands of athletes paraded into the massive Greek stadium in Athens, Greece, for the 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremonies, to the cheering delight of the 70,000 fans from every corner of the earth in the stadium and millions more observing on television. One of the most photographed events ever, camera flashes popped constantly throughout the six-hour performance, a harbinger of the days to come where dozens of sports would be observed through camera lenses almost as much as through human eyes.

The athletes, garbed in their homeland uniforms, cheered back at the crowd, but also mimicked it in another way: Many of them carried their own camcorders and digital cameras, snapping shots of the venue, crowd, and each other and documenting the beginning of the world's largest sporting event from the inside out. Figure FM-1 shows the athletes looking back at the world.

Figure FM-1. Notice that several of the U.S. athletes in this photo taken at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremonies were carrying digital cameras and camcorders, recording the event from their perspective.

Kodak, a major sponsor of the Olympics, was pervasively visible throughout the many sports halls and facilities, provided roving personnel able to sell film and digital Flash cards on the spot, and featured a large facility at the main Olympic site where attendees and athletes could ...