Sportsshooter.com

Sports photography: it captures our hearts and minds through childhood memories, fondness of legends, and even things as insignificant as trading cards. All these things, as well as those cherished memories captured in newsprint, would not be possible without sports photographers. Having thus said, it is no surprise that there are thousands of bustling sports photographers, and their representative agencies. Moreover, with the advent of digital technologies and the internet, thousands of web sites have sprung up all over the internet, allowing many amateurs, enthusiasts, and professionals alike to congregate, read and view peer work and reviews. Sportsshooter.com is one such place, a community of photographers, editorial shooters and news staffers sharing their work and experiences online.

Upon completion of your web browser’s page load, you will see lots of links to other websites, a navigation bar on the left side (with more links), as well as the usual advertisements on the top toolbar, and finally, personal experiences of varied photographers from different regions in their words. Of course plenty of imagery exists on the web page, some relating to articles or other links, whilst others lead to still more captivating and insightful articles written by sports photographers or digital image makers. This site is definitely useful for photographers or photography students, as it provides much useful information and insightful trick techniques.
The very first article I read I learned a new trick (see the article about ‘Clone Pitching’) and I even viewed articles on online community courses, an extremely helpful tool for those wishing to further their education. A link exists regarding the upcoming guest speakers at one of Brooks Institute’s visual journalism seminars, something which strikes close to me as a Brooks student myself, and fellow students ought to feel the same way. Of course, any student can benefit from any seminar or professional photo workshop. Moreover, upon looking over the available links and articles, you’ll see the vast amount of knowledge on the site as fulfilling and up to date.

Links to certain articles are located right on the home page, and those links range from articles to tips to images to unique experiences all the way to links to other photographers, whereupon you can view their images or links as well. One link will take you to the startling image of an Alabama college football player breaking his leg, right in the middle of the bone breaking. A disturbing image but an extremely sellable one nonetheless; links like these and others can be extremely beneficial to both photographers, graphic artists, and designers as well as amateurs, fans, or even just enthusiastic readers. The photographer who authored the shot usually tells of how he got the shot and which ways worked and which failed. There is something available for most everyone. However, there are some drawbacks.

Right away, the site’s navigation bar bothered me; this is supposed to be the tool which allows the web browser to easily navigate him/herself throughout the site and its content. While the current navigation bar would work, I feel that with a different manner of holding the links to articles would be extremely beneficial to the site and its viewers. The “nav bar” just bugs me; it’s too plain and reminds me too much of plain, unanimated HTML websites. Don’t get me wrong, HTML is a great tool and resource, but Flash site building is so much more powerful by leaps and bounds, and I would expect no less from a website whose scope imagery and layout (more or less). I think something like a folder or drop-down menu for articles would be better organized; one could scroll through the drop-down menu and search via categories: articles concerning health, family, sports, et cetera. Also, I felt the hit state of the buttons for the links is too vague, or disconnected, from the text; if the links are going to be displayed in separate, tiny “boxes” on the page, the web designer may as well have had the whole box which holds the link be the “hit state” (area one scrolls over to click on a link). In addition, the overbearing text all over the page (and every subsequent link) is quite an eyestrain on a viewer’s eyes; many better ways exist to display all this information. And seeing how most of the text listed is the beginning of an article (to which clinking on the link will take you) there is no logical reason to display such information in this way. Any site with its textual information spread so far across the page, left and right, up and down, such as this makes me and others want to find an easier to read site, and one that is better organized and structured.

I think the summary of the web site’s efficiency is excellent for its content and subsequent information and stories, whereas the little, technical things involved with web design seem to be under drawn, as though content was first place and appearance was secondary; unfortunately, as any professional photographer will tell you, presentation is everything. And, sportsshooter.com’s presentation needs much improvement.

Submitted by Kyle Cavallaro