Photographing track athletes with a Canon super-telephoto zoom

You know which way they will be facing, and the direction in which they are travelling – but any predictability in athletics ends there. "It comes back to experience," says Getty Images photographer Julian Finney. "Shooting these disciplines, you make your mistakes, you learn, and you have a mental note of how they photograph best in the future. Experience is a big thing in athletics."

An international sports photographer based in London, UK, Julian has worked for Getty Images since 2004, shooting major sports around the globe. Usain Bolt, Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane: he's photographed the industry's biggest names, on and off the field, and was named UK Picture Editors Guild Awards Canon Sports Photographer of the Year in 2022.

Skill and experience are key to success in sports photography – but alongside them, new imaging technology is providing photographers with more tools than ever before to capture those defining moments. And the latest tool in the professional sports photographer's kitbag is the Canon RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM. This advanced L-series RF lens combines the versatility of a zoom with the focusing speed, sharpness and optical quality of a prime lens – and with a f/2.8 aperture across its zoom range, that applies indoors and outdoors, on and off the track.

In one of the world's first shoots with the lens, paired with the Canon EOS R3, Julian set his sights on the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London. He chose the venue in part for its architectural merit – "I've been a few times on jobs and architecturally it's beautiful, with wooden ceilings" – and, because he knows athletics so well, he felt the centre would be perfect to demonstrate the high-speed shooting and enhanced subject detection and tracking of the EOS R3 paired with Canon's first f/2.8, 100-300mm lens.

The shoot was planned to tell the story of the work that goes into sports off the track, as well as on it: "We wanted to show the warm-up training, to do portraiture, as well as some peak action," Julian explained.

Normally, Julian would have turned to primes for this shoot, including a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM. But the Canon RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM replaced his needs for any primes. A fast f/2.8 maximum aperture right across its zoom range and a 5.5-stop optical Image Stabilizer (IS) meant that even in the low light of the stadium, Julian achieved the shots he wanted, and the 9-blade aperture meant that any desired bokeh could be highlighted beautifully. And at 2.59kg, it is the lightest zoom lens of this focal length – making it a practical choice for photographers looking to reduce their kitbag with a single lens that can be handheld all day.

Behind every stunning sports photograph is a story of decisions, challenges and the thrill of capturing the perfect shot, all of which can be made easier with a versatile lens. "It's a little mini game, inside of the actual sport that you're shooting, with photographers competing to get the best shots," says Julian. Choosing the right lens has its role to play in who gets that winning photograph.

"For tennis, it's going to be brilliant because I've been carrying too many lenses in my career," says Julian of the new super-telephoto zoom. "The Canon RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM, for any sports photographer, is a dream lens, because it's got that range. It means you don't have to select all these different prime lenses, which add weight to your bag. You can get so much more peak action, and then you can also come really close to get a nice celebration – and that's without changing lenses."

Here, Julian explains his key lens considerations and why the Canon RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM is ideal for his needs.

Weight

"The weight of mirrorless cameras is an advantage – they're a lot lighter, which is a godsend for any sports coverage." And combined with the RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM, Julian was able to shoot handheld all day. In fact, the lens is only 190g heavier than the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, but has all the benefits of a zoom.

Versatility

"The RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM is like a longer version of the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM, and the 70-200mm is important for football and news – but this is going to help you get more," says Julian. "Also, I'm a big fan of prime lenses, but then your hit rate is quite low because you are waiting for that moment, you are waiting to fill the frame and to really blur the background out. This lens has that good drop-off, that depth of field."

Speed and accuracy

Shooting indoors as well as outdoors, and on regularly overcast days, means that sports photographers will fully appreciate the f/2.8 maximum aperture across the 100-300mm zoom range with IS, which makes this a practical replacement for a selection of primes. "I love primes, but you're always looking to reduce what's in your kitbag and this lens is fast and sharp. The IS performed well," says Julian.

Whether it's the moment when a runner crosses the finish line or the sheer determination etched on a player's face during a game, the story of an event can come at any time, and requires the right position, setup and speed from the photographer. So, what's Julian's advice for getting the shot?

Get experience

"It doesn't have to be a live event," he says. "It could be your local football match or tennis court. Just ask people if you can take some pictures. You start learning about ranges and lengths of lenses and what they do and how that affects your background – and how that affects your photography."

Study the sport, and subjects

Anticipate the highs and lows of a race, routine or game. "You research before, so you know the sport well enough, you know the subjects, the athletes, what they're possibly going to do, how they're going to react. But you also need to be ready for the unexpected moments."

Study your backdrops

Backdrops matter in sports: whether you're trying to drop them out of focus to highlight a person, or moment, or using the presence of a dramatic backdrop to elevate a scene. "I look at the backgrounds and what they look like at different parts of the day, and what lens you're going to pick for certain moments to improve that background or to make that subject look good," Julian says.

Go grassroots

"If you only want to shoot Usain Bolt coming over the line, then you're probably thinking about sports photography in the wrong way," says Julian. "I think the beauty of photography is capturing sport at any level. I'd be happier with a great athletic shot, beautifully lit, over Usain Bolt coming over the line – which is probably not very well lit!"

But even for the professionals, the chances of capturing ever-more interesting and technically challenging athletics images increases with zoom quality. "A lot of the time, you've got to react to those moments extremely quickly," says Julian. "If you've got the old setup of a prime lens, you miss a lot. I think the Canon RF 100-300mm F2.8L IS USM is going to be a very popular lens."