Equipment

I use Canon. They have been around for a very long time. Most professional sports photographers are using Canon for good reasons.

I use DSLRs and haven’t switch to mirrorless yet. The mirrorless cameras have fantastic features especially with tracking and focusing. One day I will switch but I’m not dissatisfied with the DSLR. The DSLR does have a distinct advantage in cold weather. I have been in -20 F (-30C) before and my DSLRs don’t have issues. Mirrorless cameras rely heavily on battery power. DSLRs do not as much which is why they seem to be ok in the cold.

I have two cameras I use for sports photography, the Canon 1DX Mark III and the Canon 7D Mark II.

1DX Mark III

The 1DX is Canon’s top of the line DSLR sports photography camera. It doesn’t have buffer issues. You can shoot at high speed continuously without the buffer filling up and stopping. Even recording in RAW. I don’t think any other camera has this capability. Auto Focus and Tracking is noticeably good. The Large Battery it has is important when using long lenses. It has WiFi and network capabilities. But overall, it is a very popular professional grade sports camera.

7D Mark II

The 7D Mark II is also a popular sports camera. It shares the same auto focusing system from the 1DX. It has a fairly fast continuous shutter. But it is much lighter and less bulky than the 1DX.

I have a variety of lenses. All of them are Canon L Series professional grade. They all get used depending what sport I’m photographing.

Zoom Lenses

The zoom lenses are used often.

The 24-70 is used not as often. It is a mild wide angle to a mild telephoto. It good for individual and team portraits. The 70-200 is used a lot. The 100 to 400 is used a lot for skiing.

Telephoto Primes

I try to use the telephoto primes as much as I can. Their photo quality and sharpness is the best of the best.

The 300 and 400 are used a lot for field sports like soccer. The 500 is a super telephoto that I originally got for wildlife photography but it is ideal for large field sports like Polo.

All of these lenses are big and heavy and I usually use a monopod or tripod.

I post process my photos. There is usually some amount of editing needed before they get posted.

Photo Editor

I use ACDSee to edit the photos. It is a professional tool that rivals Photoshop and Lightroom.

Usually there is some cropping especially if the photo gets posted to Instagram. Instagram prefers a format or crop, such as square, and resolution that is different from what a camera produces. And my clients may have a specific format that that require.

In addition I may do some color corrections, exposure, sharpness etc. ACDSee has all of these tools.

Backups

I have a NAS with RAID that I backup my photos too. NAS and RAID are proven storage technologies which is a good way to safety save my photos.

Distribution

If I have photos to distribute to someone I typically use dropbox. If you’re a client I will email you with a link to dropbox where your photos will be available to you.