I probably shoot more (and get shot more) than anybody at the events; I take about 3000 shots per day. I have developed a very efficient work flow so I can go through all of these fairly quickly but it still takes a lot of time. I spend almost as much time going through my pictures as I spend on the field. Many players do not realize this but for photographers our work really begins after the event. Sometimes it is very stressful going through all of these pictures especially when you are up against a tight dead line.Sometimes going through all of these pictures is like a treasure hunt because you never know what you may have until you look at your pictures on the computer. Frequently something you though would be really good is not and I am always surprised when I find some really good splat money shots that I never expected.

Many times at events teams invite me to go out to dinner at the events, I always decline because I have so much work to do at night in my hotel. It takes several hours to clean my cameras, upload pictures, format memory cards, spot check several photos to make sure cameras are working correctly if time permits begin sorting photos. It takes me several hours to do all this so I am not anti social I just have a lot of work to do. I have a very business like approach to photography at these big events, I am there to take pictures not socialize. I really just want to concentrate on getting the best pictures possible.

I am always amazed by the number of paintball photographers who never venture beyond the automatic settings on their cameras. The only way to truly become great photographer is to learn and master the settings on the camera and move away from the automatic “point and shoot” settings. This is after all why you bought that big expensive digital SLR camera instead of a point and shoot camera.
I use all sorts of camera settings depending on what I am trying to do and the conditions on the field. The automatic settings are good for beginning photographers but once you learn about light and relationship between shutter speed, aperture, depth of field, and ISO you will learn what works best.
I frequently shoot in something I call ISO priority; I am constantly changing the ISO setting on the camera in either program mode, aperture mode, or shutter speed mode to get the settings I want.
I usually shoot high resolution JPEGs most of the time because this format maximizes the speed at which the camera can take pictures. In paintball photography speed is everything. For indoor events, team and event pictures I always shoot in RAW format because you have so much more control over white balance and other setting during post processing

I am always asked which type of camera to buy. I always recommend that you buy the most expensive camera that you can afford. Sports photography is very much like paintball it that it requires very durable fast equipment. If you were to start playing speed ball with a Tippman or a spider you would not really have much fun and you would likely have a poor experience and not want to play again. Photography is the same but about $1000 is the threshold of what you need to spend…

For sports photography I highly recommend going with a Canon camera and lens.

If you are shooting portraits or landscapes Nikon has the best optics, but if you are shooting sports or fast moving objects is it widely known the Canon lens will auto focus much faster than Nikon lenses. Next time you watch a sporting event on TV if you ever notice the professional photographers you will see an abundance of the big beige canon lenses.

Check out the prices on a Canon Digital Rebel XTi and a Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens. This IMO is the absolute minimum you will need to buy to get good results.

Another thing to consider is some sort of protection for your brand new expensive camera. I always use a Kata rain cape on my cameras and this has saved my camera countless times (Kata-Bags.com) and a clear filter on the end of the lens for protection.

It really helps to have played paintball because you already know the game and you can predict what will happen so you can position your self to get that great splat shots.

It really helps to have played paintball because you already know the game and you can predict what will happen so you can position your self to get that great splat shots.