Another Pride Bowl in the Books!
As discussed in prior blog posts, Pride Bowl has been a barometer of my progress over the last year as a sports photographer. Pride Bowl 2024 was the first year that I attempted shooting a tournament to some degree of success. 2025 represented growth in shooting technique and composition, but perhaps some room for improvement in editing (I overcooked a few of those for sure). 2026, however, feels like a marked step forward in being able to call myself a professional photographer with leaps in both technique and editing.
On technique, I started following an instagram account who presented ideas in short-form video that I hadn't even considered previously. Namely, raising shutter speed as much as possible as opposed to shooting at the standard 1/1000 that seems to be the default recommendation across the board for sports photographers. The creator of that video, Matt Cohen, pointed out that the default recommendation was created when that was realistically what film SLRs cameras were capable of as the most widely-used cameras to capture sports in the 1970s. On modern cameras and these film SLRs both at 1/1000 shutter speed, it's just not quick enough to fully freeze key elements of players, footballs, and sports action in general. On second look at my own work from prior years and shoots, it seems like I tended to hover at 1/2000 which certainly helped me out quite a bit as I discovered sports photography. But there was a ceiling there for me though as my Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 prevented me from shooting quicker shutter speeds- I would have to mess with exposure in post or crank up the ISO in-camera in order to get bright enough shots, neither of which is particularly helpful in creating high-quality and memorable sports photos.
I decided this Pride Bowl to primarily shoot with my new Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 which had previously only seen indoor sports. Obviously the faster lens (lower f-stop) lends itself well to the poor lighting inside Broadway Armory, but it also allows me to crank the shutter speed above my usual ceiling of 1/2000 to 1/5000 which produced some crisp photos that I'm very proud of. I've been trying on more recent shoots as well to see what room I have with that lens to go even higher, but those results will be published perhaps in a later blog post.
