Mentoring
Having built up masses of experience at sport photography, I love helping others – if I can – who are new to the genre.
What is mentoring? A mentor is a person who can support, advise and guide. A mentor might say: “Have you considered this approach…?” A mentor won’t however give you THE answer, because when it comes to photography there is no right and wrong, just opinions.
My mentoring is reactive – i.e. a photographer will contact me and ask me a question and I will do my best to help. This might be a general question about sport photography, such as how to become a professional photographer, or a more specific request for help in improving the quality of their images.
“Thank you for taking time out of your day to message me and give me some fantastic tips and tricks to help me progress in my career as a sports photographer. Your insights have very much helped me and I thoroughly enjoyed how easy it was to understand the advice you have given me.” Lincoln M, Sydney, Australia
To give this some structure, I offer an Online Photo Critique package. This involves sending me up to 10 photos and I will provide comments on each of them, covering what I like and what I might have done differently. If the original files are provided, I will also show how I would have processed the images myself.
As an example, I have mentored a talented young photographer who has been working to achieve her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. I started by commenting on several images on her website and she has kindly allowed me to show one of her photographs, along with my edit.
General
A good shot. The action is in the middle of the photo, so it could have been cropped more tightly.
Specific
The first thing I always do in post processing is to crop the image – and the first element of that is to straighten it – if you look at the metal bar in the background of your photo above, it’s not level … Next crop in to highlight the main action and crop in to get rid of distractions such as the arm on the right!
At this early stage of post processing, I would also remove any other obvious distractions: on my version of the photo I have removed a couple of white patches in the distance (e.g. top left) and the shadow of the player on the left.
Again, had you been at f/2.8 you would have thrown the background further out of focus, bringing the attention onto the main action. Keep the lens aperture wide open.
I can’t quite make out whether you are standing or sitting, but a low perspective is good – and, although the players are not coming directly towards you, you have got a good angle so that you can see each player’s face, and also you can see their front (shirt, logo, sponsor etc) which is so much better than their back. Include the player’s face.
The final step of the process is for the photographer to go back out and shoot a further set of images taking my advice into account, for further comment.
Online Photo Critique Price – from £30.
If this interests you, use the form on the Contact page or email direct at berkeley.m@yahoo.com.
“Michael mentored me for Salisbury FC’s 24/25 pre-season matches, and I learnt so much about sports photography in such little time from him. He gives detailed feedback on your photos using his experience, providing advice on your compositions, crops, edits and timing, along with so much more information crucial to developing your photography!” Thomas B, Salisbury
Sometimes I am asked by a photographer to meet up to pass provide mentoring in person. Where this is feasible, I will run a Workshop, which could be as short as a couple of hours or as long as 3 days.
This normally starts with a presentation on my iPad setting out the principles of photographing the sport in question, then a practical session taking some photographs, and ends with reviewing the top 10 or so photographs after the event, along the lines of the Online Photo Critique above.
“Michael organised two workshops covering Polo and Cricket. His experience and knowledge of the sports enable him to maximise the impact. He listens well and provides excellent follow up and feedback. If you enjoy sports photography, I'm sure Michael will help you produce even better images” Geoff O, Emsworth
The 3-day course is aimed at people who are completely new to photographing sport. It too covers the principles and involves opportunities to practise taking images of a sporting event, as well as tuition in post processing (Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge), and culminates in selecting, printing and framing an image.
Workshops Prices - from £100. 3-day course: from £600.
“My 15-year old daughter was desperate to try photography for GCSE work experience and after a number of failed requests to other photographers, Michael kindly offered to give up his time to help. Well beyond expectations, Michael organised a 3-day course which took her from the basics of sports photography, all the way through to photographing and processing the images of a live polo match. He was even so kind as to print and frame her favourite photo to take away with her. The short course / work experience was excellent. Michael’s enthusiasm was infectious and the knowledge and experience he imparted was invaluable. The subsequent A** in GCSE photography that my daughter went onto achieve is testament to the solid foundation the course provided. We are forever indebted to Michael and his remarkable professionalism, patience and generosity.” Mark F, Austin TX
As part of my desire to pass on my experience to other photographers, I give Camera Club Talks in person or by Zoom, and I am happy to deliver these to other groups – or to individuals – if there is an opportunity.
I currently offer 3 different talks, 2 on sport photography and one that covers both sport and music photography. Further information can be found on my Lectures page.
Camera Club Talks Prices – from £60.
As a permanent resource, I have written a series of blogs on my experience of photographing a wide range of sports, and have distilled that experience into a single-page How to Photograph ... a number of sports, as well as producing a pdf with my Sport Photography Top Tips.
If you would like to be mentored by me, use the form on the Contact page or email direct at berkeley.m@yahoo.com.