I set up my Sony A7R4 alpha camera with a Sony 70-200mm, F2.8, telephoto lens, the way Australian Sony Ambassador, Mark Galer recommended for shooting high action outdoor sports. After seeing the resulting image, I have to sing the praise of both Sony and Mark Galer. My attached image is so amazingly clear taken from over 220 feet away and displays such interesting body language and facial expressions of the players, that I couldn't delete it. It was taken from a position outside the entire width of a 220-foot-wide outdoor soccer pitch with only a 200mm maximum telephoto lens. The common rules of composition would suggest that I delete the image because a defender was partially blocking the camera's view of the two subjects. A second reason was that the ball had bounced off yet another defender to the far-left side of the frame and wasn't near the two subjects. Yet the expressions on the two subjects faces and their body language is so revealing that viewers will feel their intense battle over the ball, which is the essence of soccer. Also one can easily see each of the well-worn individual cleats on the two subject's feet which is amazing at that distance. I hope you enjoy the image I created and feel free to make comments on how I can improve my image. Shooter41

I set up my Sony A7R4 alpha camera with a Sony 70-200mm, F2.8, telephoto lens, the way Australian Sony Ambassador, Mark Galer recommended for shooting high action outdoor sports. After seeing the resulting image, I have to sing the praise of both Sony and Mark Galer. My attached image is so amazingly clear taken from over 220 feet away and displays such interesting body language and facial expressions of the players, that I couldn't delete it. It was taken from a position outside the entire width of a 220-foot-wide outdoor soccer pitch with only a 200mm maximum telephoto lens. The common rules of composition would suggest that I delete the image because a defender was partially blocking the camera's view of the two subjects. A second reason was that the ball had bounced off yet another defender to the far-left side of the frame and wasn't near the two subjects. Yet the expressions on the two subjects faces and their body language is so revealing that viewers will feel their intense battle over the ball, which is the essence of soccer. Also one can easily see each of the well-worn individual cleats on the two subject's feet which is amazing at that distance. I hope you enjoy the image I created and feel free to make comments on how I can improve my image. Shooter41

Your title suggests (...okay, states) that you've somehow broken one or more of the rules of composition, then in the body of your text, after describing your gear and Gaier and the distances involved and facial expressions and where the ball was (and/or where the ball was not), you devote a sentence to the presumed (?) "compositional rule" you feel you broke, then secondarily mention the bit about the ball. How, pray tell, is it the breaking of a 'rule' if (in either a sports action, a people in general, or virtually any other genera of imagery/photography) when/if an element within the confines of the frame (the sum total of which, and the arrangement thereof, forms, delineates, and constitutes what-all results in "a composition", regardless whether that arrangement be a "defender [that is] partially blocking the camera's view of the two subjects", an out-of-focus leaf in a corner of a landscape, or an unresolved color or tone that is nowhere made whole (metaphorically speaking, since a metaphor must have both a vehicle and a tenon in order for it to be metaphoric, as opposed to the pair being merely random colors and/or accidental elements).

Compositionally, your image would've been 'improved' had you leveled the playing field. Literally. Beyond that, had you 'placed' the faces of your facing players at equal distances from the right and left sides of the frame, you'd have achieved better balance in the shot. Compositionally, there is absolutely (compositionally) NOTHING wrong with the fact that an opposing player's back is shown. It breaks NO rule other than one someone (you?) decided was a 'rule'. If anything --that player's back, and the fact that it is out of focus/short of depth of field-- it strengthens what could easily be considered a primary, contextual, thematic, and much sought for protagonist~antogonist 'theme' inherent in sports photography: conflict.

I set up my Sony A7R4 alpha camera with a Sony 70-200mm, F2.8, telephoto lens, the way Australian Sony Ambassador, Mark Galer recommended for shooting high action outdoor sports. After seeing the resulting image, I have to sing the praise of both Sony and Mark Galer. My attached image is so amazingly clear taken from over 220 feet away and displays such interesting body language and facial expressions of the players, that I couldn't delete it. It was taken from a position outside the entire width of a 220-foot-wide outdoor soccer pitch with only a 200mm maximum telephoto lens. The common rules of composition would suggest that I delete the image because a defender was partially blocking the camera's view of the two subjects. A second reason was that the ball had bounced off yet another defender to the far-left side of the frame and wasn't near the two subjects. Yet the expressions on the two subjects faces and their body language is so revealing that viewers will feel their intense battle over the ball, which is the essence of soccer. Also one can easily see each of the well-worn individual cleats on the two subject's feet which is amazing at that distance. I hope you enjoy the image I created and feel free to make comments on how I can improve my image. Shooter41