Over the past few decades, Hamish Blair has traveled the world in search of the biggest stories in live sport. Whether shooting the Olympics, Ashes cricket, Champions League football or the Commonwealth Games, he has earned a stellar reputation for capturing the most high-pressure moments in sports history.
Hamish’s career began at Sporting Pix, the Melbourne sports photography agency.
“I suppose it was an informal apprenticeship,” he says. “I couriered films from sporting events, did film processing, editing and scanning.”
He soon went full-time, shooting everything from AFL to basketball and traveling overseas to cover the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
New opportunities arose when Sporting Pix was sold to Getty Images in 1998, after which Hamish spent a decade covering the Australian cricket team’s tours, as well as the summer Olympics in Sydney.
“In 2007 I transferred to London and worked in the UK and Europe for four years; shoot Premier League football, Wimbledon tennis and the Champions League final in Rome.”
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After returning to Melbourne in 2011, Hamish left Getty to become a freelance sports photographer.
“The change from staff at an agency to freelance was a big challenge. Not having the security of a regular paycheck is an adjustment that takes a lot of getting used to. However, it is also very rewarding to work for yourself.”
Challenges aside, Hamish quickly established himself as someone media agencies could rely on to deliver the goods. Today he works with some of the biggest names in sports photography and shoots many of the highest profile games, matches and tournaments. However, he remains loyal to his roots and the people with whom he started his career.
“From Sporting Pix, owner Tony Feder and staff photographer Stuart Milligan – both incredible photographers – had a huge impact on my early career. At Getty I worked with Mark Dadswell, who is also a brilliant photographer. While covering cricket I spent many long days shooting with the incredible Phil Hillyard and anyone who has seen his work knows just how good he is.”
Having the right equipment is essential to successful sports photography. Hamish usually relies on his Canon EOS 1D X DSLR bodies and an arsenal of Canon zoom lenses.
“Right now I have the EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM, EF200-400mm f/4.0L IS USM Extender 1.4x with the built-in teleconverter. I also have the EF16-35mm f/2.8L III USM wide-angle zoom and the EF24-105mm f/4.0L IS II USM standard zoom for situations where I need more versatility.”
As well as having the right equipment, Hamish says adopting a winning mindset is also essential.
There are no replays in live sports, so when it happens you need to be ready!
Hamish Blair
“Patience and concentration are essential! For example, a cricket match can last all day, but the defining moment can happen in an instant.”
The tennis tournament was the first international sporting event in Australia since the release of the EOS R3 full-frame mirrorless camera where the Canon Professional team provided on-site CPS support to local and internationally accredited photographers. Hamish was loaned an EOS R3 to shoot with while freelancing for AP, making him one of the first professional photographers to put the new camera through its paces at a major international sporting event.
It was also something of a first for Hamish as it was the first time he had shot a major sporting event with a mirrorless camera. “It was amazing how quickly I adapted to these new features,” he says.
“This is a remarkable camera. I had very limited experience with mirrorless cameras, so the big initial difference I noticed was the electronic viewfinder. So, when you take photos, there is no reflex mirror that lifts up to momentarily block the view. Along with the silent shutter, it initially felt like I wasn’t taking pictures as I wasn’t getting the feedback I was used to from 25+ years of shooting with SLRs. There is an option to add an artificial shutter sound, which I used for the first few days, but then turned it off as I got a bit more used to the camera.”
“When shooting night game where there wasn’t as much light, I used my EF200-400mm f/4.0 zoom with the RF mount adapter, and it performed flawlessly.”
Mirrorless camera conversion
Despite being a lifelong DSLR shooter, Hamish quickly felt at home with the EOS R3 mirrorless camera in his hands. And, as can be seen from his beautiful images, he was quick to put the camera’s next generation technology to work.
“The focus system on the EOS R3 is really amazing, and both the face detection and AF subject tracking were perfect for shooting tennis. Once it closed, it followed the subject across the frame, making it much easier to compose photos while shooting, rather than keeping the subject relatively centered.”
The EOS R3’s wealth of customization options and functionality also helped Hamish configure the camera to suit his shooting style.
“I’ve really only scratched the surface of the adaptive focus modes and custom functions, but I’ve set up a second focus button with a more traditional center
focus point, which was useful when taking photos with more than one person in the frame.”
Ultimately though, it was the EOS R3’s lightning fast speed that allowed Hamish to unlock a whole new level of sports photography. “Shooting at 30 frames per second allowed me to capture action that would otherwise be missed. The classic tennis action shot – tight into the player with the racket and ball – became much easier to get and I often had three or more shots to choose from in a single shot! And despite shooting at 30 frames per second, I never hit a buffer limit. Even during extended post-match celebrations where I shot continuously for quite some time, there was never a problem.”
Hamish Blair’s best tips
1. Be patient and concentrate – the key moments can do anything
happen in a split second and then be gone!
2. Try to anticipate the action – you can never know for sure what will happen next, but you can often make a good prediction and make sure you are ready to capture it.
3. Know the sport – knowing the rules and main players is key to helping you take the best photos.
4. Be prepared – pack the right gear and know how big the playing field is, and how close you’ll be able to get. Check the weather forecast and take your wet weather gear, even if you don’t think you’ll need it!
5. Practice – it doesn’t matter what the occasion is, just get in touch with a local sports team and arrange for them to play or practice. Look at what other photographers are doing, look at sports photos you like and work out why you like them, then try to work out how they were shot.
6. Ask questions – photographers are generally nice people!
As with many mirrorless converts, Hamish says he has also come to appreciate the many advantages that come with shooting with an electronic viewfinder.
“Reviewing photos on the EVF instead of looking at the screen on the back of the camera was another big positive,” he notes. “Especially when you’re shooting in harsh contrasting sun. No matter how good the screen on the back of a camera is, reviewing your photos on your camera is difficult. But also when working in difficult light it made fine-tuning lighting so much easier by looking at the bright sharp screen inside the EVF. For example, a player wearing a white shirt in full sun but whose face is shadowed by a cap can be very difficult to balance, and seeing exactly how much detail there was in the shadow areas really helped .”
But it wasn’t just the fast 30fps frame rate that helped Hamish catch the action. The EOS R3 also boasts a top shutter speed of 1/64,000 second in its electronic shutter mode, making it significantly faster than current prop-level DSLRs.
“It was amazing how quickly I adapted to these new features. My second camera during the shoot was a DSLR and when I used it I was constantly trying to review my photos on the non-existent viewfinder screen! 25 years of one-way shooting and then, within a day or two, I completely adapted to a new way!”
Canon Professional Services
What’s better than shooting at Australia’s big tennis event with the brand new Canon EOS R3? Shoot at the event with the EOS R3 and have the CPS team in your corner, that’s what.
“I was hoping I could get the opportunity to try out the EOS R3, even just for a match or two – so getting one for basically the whole tournament was a huge bonus.
“The Canon team were generous with their time and helped me adapt to the new features, but also lots of little things like extra spare batteries when needed, the loan of a flash and other equipment. The logistics of having so much equipment available for all the photographers during the tournament, as well as offering cleaning and service on site, was great.”
