One Leap, One Hand, One TD

One of the best and most acrobatic football photos you can get is a receiver and defender jumping in the air with the ball visible.

Austin Prep (Andover, Ma.) football player outreaches an opponent to make a one-handed touchdown grab (© Michael Maher).

The Photo:

In this high school football game, it was easy to anticipate the upcoming plays because a passing team was trailing, so almost every play they ran was a deep pass downfield to try and score quickly.  Thus, I stood deep downfield to photograph various receivers trying to make a touchdown catch.  The only challenge was determining which receiver the quarterback would be throwing to.  On this play, I anticipated a long pass to the receiver on the far side of the field, so I followed the receiver and defender in my viewfinder despite other players and officials running in front of me.  The receiver jumped, grabbed the pass with one hand away from the defender, and I snapped the picture.  I had the photo I wanted as he ran into the end zone for a touchdown and celebrated with his teammates.

3 Tips:

1) Successful football photography requires anticipating the upcoming plays and the area on the field where the action will occur.

2) Position yourself to get the best possible photo, with the ability to react quickly to get different shots if the play is different from what you expect.

3) Pictures of passes are often more spectacular, but shoot running plays first because they are usually easier to photograph.

“He’s Taking Our Picture”

Even a simple thing like kids whispering can make a great photo.

Hiding from the camera, a young girl converses with her friend during a St. Louis School public meeting in Lowell, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
There’s probably nothing more boring for a photographer than a public town meeting where the only thing happening is not very visual -- people making motions and rendering objections about local government issues. You usually end up with head shots of people speaking or gesturing with their hands. On this occasion, I was lucky that two young girls in attendance were having a great time conversing back and forth while their parents were paying rapt attention to the meeting. The girls didn’t want to make it easy to take their picture, so they covered their faces with their hands. I played a game of cat-and-mouse with them. They saw me point my camera and hid their faces. I put down my camera, and they talked with their faces visible, but when I raised my camera, they hid their faces again. This went on for awhile, but one girl stopped hiding her face as the other, still hiding hers, whispered that I was taking their picture.

3 Tips:
1) Children will express their personalities in the most unlikely situations, so be alert for a great photo opportunity.
2) If children make it difficult to take their pictures at first, be patient and persistent.
3) Watch for powerful children’s smiles or facial expressions that you won’t see on adults.

House In Flames

Fire photos almost guarantee your pictures will be published.


Flames envelop the side of a vacant tenement during a four-alarm fire on Fayette Street in Lowell, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
Following up on a nighttime police radio alert about a nearby house fire, I encountered a large plume of smoke billowing from both the front and top of a 3-decker house, with fire engines all around. First I looked for dramatic photos -- either big flames or some human emotion -- but nothing like that was visibly present, and I learned there weren’t any residents at risk because the house was a vacant tenement. It was easy to get a few good photos by using my flash to photograph the firemen spraying water on the smoke clouds pouring from the front. When the smoke got heavier in the front and clouded my view, I moved to the back of the house where some small flames were showing and the Fire Department was congregating with additional hoses. Suddenly the entire rear of the house exploded into bright flames, so I turned off the flash to shoot natural light photos of the burning house brightly contrasted against the black nighttime sky. The flames stopped as the fire was brought under control, so I patiently looked around for photos of the firemen doing strenuous firefighting activities, or reaction shots of people watching. However, there was almost no one around and there was nothing compelling to shoot in the reactions of the fire and police, who were disgusted with having to fight yet another fire at an abandoned building that was likely caused by an arsonist.

3 Tips:
1) The strongest photos of fires contain some element of human interest or drama, such as firefighters strenuously working, residents anxiously watching, or spectators looking on intently.
2) If there is no human perspective, look for bright flames illuminating against a black nighttime sky.
3) Firemen spraying their hoses on the burning building is another very strong photo.

Softballers Popping the Cork

It was a big surprise and a great photo when these high school softball champs started celebrating with champagne.

Saugus, Ma. High School players pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly to celebrate their victory as Eastern Ma. State softball champs, 8-5, over Billerica (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
The Ma. state high school softball champions were about to be crowned, but the game was a rout, with no suspense about who would win. The winning Saugus team was clearly better and led much of the game, so I shot whatever action photos I could. There was no exciting finish, so I resigned myself to doing without an emotional celebration photo, although I was ready with a long lens to isolate happy faces from the background, just in case. Suddenly, someone pulled out several bottles of champagne and the winning team could finally show their jubilation by squirting it at one another and into the air. I momentarily wondered if this photo might create a problem when it was published because all these kids were under age, but none of them drank the champagne. While I sought a happy winner picture I never could have anticipated this very unique sports celebration photo for a high school game.

3 Tips:
1) Prioritize capturing the happiness of the winning team.
2) Use a longer lens to isolate happy faces and emotional expressions.
3) Position yourself to react quickly for post-game celebrations in many forms.

Big Upset in Close Election

When photographing famous people, look for them showing emotion or having a natural reaction to a situation, and avoid the standard head shot.

U. S. Representative John Anderson, underdog Republican candidate from Illinois, wipes his face as the election returns come in during a tight 1980 Ma. presidential primary, where Anderson finished in a virtual dead heat with Ronald Reagan, and later became the third party candidate for President of the United States (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
The Massachusetts Republican Presidential primary was an important vote to legitimize Illinois Republican Representative John Anderson’s candidacy nationwide. He was running on the Republican ticket against Ronald Reagan and several other formidable challengers. This primary was so important that Anderson was in Massachusetts campaigning on Election Day, and would remain until the returns came in that night. Anderson made a great showing, finishing neck-and-neck with favorite Ronald Reagan, so I headed to his Boston campaign headquarters before the vote count was final. Because of this surprising result, I dearly wanted more than just the typical shot of a candidate behind a podium, with hands gesturing. After the final tally was in, Anderson stood behind the podium to thank his supporters, but when he was done, he walked through the crowd, spoke with them and shook hands. The media followed close behind, which made things very cramped, but I was able to shoot a photo of him trying to cool off from the hot TV lights and intense attention, wiping his glasses, as an aide tried to move the crowd of media back. Poor Anderson just wanted space to actually meet and greet the people who voted for him, but the large media contingent made it very hard to do. Anderson’s Ma. success launched him to later become the Independent candidate for President against Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter.

3 Tips:
1) One potentially great political campaign photo is the candidate dealing with the crush of supporters and media coverage.
2) Try not to settle on the common picture of the candidate speaking from the podium.
3) The best way to get unique photos is to follow the candidate through the crowds at rallies, and capture spontaneous emotion during interactions with family, friends, supporters, and media.

Easter Dress Clothes

It's wonderful when a holiday photo can simultaneously captures a family member's personality.

Megan Maher, left, winks as she poses with her sister Colleen for her annual Easter photograph (© Michael Maher).

The Photo:
Each year, we took a photo of our daughters in their Easter clothes, sometimes with other family members or friends, other times alone together. The key to making this a great photo is capturing an outstanding facial expression and lighting the shot in a way that highlights the dress clothing. This year, the weather was nice, the sunlight was bright, so I found a dark background against which to place the children where the sun could shine on them from behind. This took awhile to set up, but the backlighting effect highlighted the bright colors of their Easter Sunday dress clothes. I took several pictures, but the kids were getting bored with the routine, and I could not get them to show any interesting facial expressions. Fortunately, Megan decided to ham it up for the camera, cocked her head, and winked at me. The beautiful highlighting of their colorful clothes and Megan’s funny wink made this one of the best Easter photos we ever took.

3 Tips:
1) For holiday portraits of your children, capture interesting facial expressions and show what their clothes look like.
2) Backlighting with the sun shining from behind is a great way to highlight colorful clothing.
3) Determine the photo you want to take and where you want to line it up before asking kids to pose, or they’ll get bored quickly.

Montreal vs. the Media

The crowds of media covering an event often provide better photos than the event itself.

Victorious Montreal Canadiens pose in a team picture for a group of photographers after defeating the Boston Bruins in six games to win the 1977-78 Stanley Cup Championship (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
For the second consecutive year, the Montreal Canadiens were in a position to win the Stanley Cup championship against the Bruins (potentially their third title in a row). I didn’t have the official press pass to go onto the ice surface and photograph the Canadiens as they were crowned National Hockey League champions, so I needed a good photographic vantage point that didn’t require special access. At first, I planned on moving down to the front row of seats to shoot the winners, like all the other fans. However, when I looked up and saw a catwalk high above the ice surface, I realized it could provide a more unusual and interesting angle. I quickly climbed to the very top of the building where I fortunately found the catwalk entrance open. As the game concluded, Montreal won the game and championship series 4-2, and I had a clear overhead view of the entire celebration, as the team skated around the rink holding the Stanley Cup aloft. I did manage several standard photos of players skating while holding the Cup overhead, but this was too common, so not very interesting. The champs quickly posed for a group photo with the Cup, and the horde of credentialed press photographers crowded into another swarm across from the Montreal team. With a 180MM lens, I easily shot this overhead perspective of the two groups, which was a compelling alternative to the typical ice level shot of players holding the Stanley Cup over their heads. Not having on-ice access forced me to come up with a strong, yet unusual, photo.

3 Tips:
1) When you don’t have the shooting position you want, be resourceful to find an alternative, more powerful photo.
2) The cheap seats high up in an arena will often give a vantage point that almost mirrors an overhead view.
3) Sometimes the crush of media coverage can provide its own unique photo.