K-5 for sports-photography

**dadipentak** · 05-22-2013, 12:27 PM

Originally posted by mattb123

This is just a small fun race

Quit while you're ahead--that's a terrific shot!

**mattb123** · 05-22-2013, 02:53 PM

Thanks, the light was really nice. But I'm committed to shoot this weekend so I guess I can't quit.

Sadly most of the race will be in mid-day light but that's just how it goes with these events.

**dadipentak** · 05-22-2013, 02:55 PM

Originally posted by mattb123

I'm committed to shoot this weekend so I guess I can't quit.

Looking forward to seeing some of those photos

**The Kellyboy** · 05-27-2013, 08:03 AM

I used a K5 and a 16-50mm 2.8 for these shots of The Tour Series Cycling held in Aberystwyth, Wales.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587532407947680.1073741829.178625365505055&type=1

There's quite a pile up!

VisualDarkness · 05-27-2013, 08:14 AM

Originally posted by The Kellyboy

I used a K5 and a 16-50mm 2.8 for these shots of The Tour Series Cycling held in Aberystwyth, Wales.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587532407947680.1073741829.178625365505055&type=1

There's quite a pile up!

Nice pics, right in the action!

**mattb123** · 05-28-2013, 01:18 PM

Our big event on my local trails, Hartman Rocks is the Original Growler which is put on by my friend and mountain bike OG Dave Wiens. It's offered as a 32 Mile Half Growler which is one lap of the technical singletrack course. Full Growler riders do two for 64 Miles. I have done the full a couple of times myself and can verify it's pretty hard!
I spent both Saturday and Sunday out on the trails shooting photos, averaging 1000 per day. I primarily used my Tamron 28-75 with a flash on my K-5 and my new (to me) Pentax DA* 60-250 f/4 on my K-x with a monopod for stability. I really like that new DA* lens!

Here are a few highlights:
K-x & DA* 60-250

K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash

K-x & DA* 60-250

Brian Smith who just became a dad a few days ago in the lead
K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash

Colorado Trail Race winner and Ride the Divide contender Jefe Branham
K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash

Every finisher of two laps gets a Growler (64 Oz beer jar). Looks like this guy sure earned his!
K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash

VisualDarkness · 05-28-2013, 02:12 PM

Darn you for making me once again think about switching my 300mm for the 60-250mm. Really nice shots that captured the atmosphere.

**crewl1** · 05-28-2013, 04:53 PM

Originally posted by mattb123

Here are a few highlights:

Greta shots Matt!

**dadipentak** · 05-28-2013, 05:15 PM

Nice shooting Matt! Just curious: how long does it take you to go through 1000 shots and edit your keepers?

**mattb123** · 05-29-2013, 06:58 AM

Originally posted by dadipentak

Nice shooting Matt! Just curious: how long does it take you to go through 1000 shots and edit your keepers?

Thanks! Definitely a few hours. My workflow goes like this:
Quick run through all of them to flag keepers - 1 hr

Then an edit run of just the keepers where I'll fix up the first of a batch of 20-50 similar photos and then I'll sync those changes to that grouping and move on to the next group. I also tag them with the racer bib numbers. This is probably another 2 hrs. I'm getting better at this part.

Then uploading 6-700 photos takes 12 hours on my DSL. The family hates that part because it slows down our connection a lot!

I'm also a software engineer and have toyed with the idea of writing a plugin for LR to read bib numbers and tag the photos. If I could pull it off it would be a big time saver. But it would not be trivial to write.

FrancisK7 · 05-29-2013, 05:44 PM - **1 Like**

I was contacted by a girl I went to high school with a few weeks ago. She sits on a charity board, and they were working on an amicable biathlon organized within the business community to raise money for Ste-Justine Hospital, a world leader in neo-natal care. The board was looking for photographers to donate their time to cover the occasion to create promotional material, or Facebook-worthy material so participants can tag themselves on Facebook and create a small buzz about the event. There was a theme for the teams of three: they had to show up in costume, and incorporate a business suit into the disguise. Pretty fun!

Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious. We had pounding rain. There were seven other photographers (one Sony, the rest Canikon) and all were scraping for towels or stuff to cover their gear. And I, with my DA 50-135 and K5, was soaking wet but was laughing all the way to the bank ANYWAY because my gear is made for those conditions!

Light sucked, these were running people, so I had to bump ISO, but then again, the K5 handles it fine. No noise reduction used in this. In fact, only PP was in LR4 (basic slider ajdustments)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

In the end, we raised 360,000$ and it was all donated to the research center, so all-in-all, a good cause, a good challenge... a good day.

FrancisK7 · 05-29-2013, 05:45 PM

The three guys and their kid as chicks were just too adorable for words imho

VisualDarkness · 05-29-2013, 06:03 PM

Lovely and super-funny! Actually the rain just enhanced the comical effect, like a Hollywood "rain-run scene" gone wrong. :P
Can you link to the event? I would like to see more!
(Your marketing works.)

FrancisK7 · 05-29-2013, 06:09 PM

The event happened this afternoon so the press release hasn't even gone through yet. I suspect the material will appear online soon. I'll link to it as soon as it's up

Funny thing is, out of the eight photogs, I was the only pro there, so the committee asked me to deliver my photos as fast as possible for the press releases tonight and the newspapers for tomorrow. So maybe I'll be published in print? That'd be nice!

VisualDarkness · 05-29-2013, 06:16 PM

Being published in print when not feeling ripped off (when feeling your work is worth more than what you get) is always funny!

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
The danger of sports photography	mindglow	General Talk	10	12-22-2009 06:50 PM
Sports photography help	Mann	Photographic Technique	36	06-23-2009 12:49 AM
Help with sports/action photography	monochrome	Pentax DSLR Discussion	31	11-02-2008 03:49 PM
Amateur sports photography...on a Pentax?	pixelpruner	Pentax SLR Lens Discussion	18	07-13-2008 05:40 PM
Indoor sports photography how to?	sglj3	Pentax DSLR Discussion	9	04-24-2008 11:32 PM

05-22-2013, 12:27 PM	#1321
dadipentak Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Baltimore, Maryland Photos: Gallery Posts: 11,590	Originally posted by mattb123 This is just a small fun race Quit while you're ahead--that's a terrific shot!

05-22-2013, 02:53 PM	#1322
mattb123 Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Colorado High Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,872	Thanks, the light was really nice. But I'm committed to shoot this weekend so I guess I can't quit. Sadly most of the race will be in mid-day light but that's just how it goes with these events.

05-22-2013, 02:55 PM	#1323
dadipentak Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Baltimore, Maryland Photos: Gallery Posts: 11,590	Originally posted by mattb123 I'm committed to shoot this weekend so I guess I can't quit. Looking forward to seeing some of those photos

05-27-2013, 08:03 AM	#1324
The Kellyboy Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Pembrokeshire Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 86	I used a K5 and a 16-50mm 2.8 for these shots of The Tour Series Cycling held in Aberystwyth, Wales. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587532407947680.1073741829.178625365505055&type=1 There's quite a pile up!

05-27-2013, 08:14 AM	#1325
VisualDarkness Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Uppsala, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,439	Originally posted by The Kellyboy I used a K5 and a 16-50mm 2.8 for these shots of The Tour Series Cycling held in Aberystwyth, Wales. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587532407947680.1073741829.178625365505055&type=1 There's quite a pile up! Nice pics, right in the action!

05-28-2013, 01:18 PM	#1326
mattb123 Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Colorado High Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,872	Our big event on my local trails, Hartman Rocks is the Original Growler which is put on by my friend and mountain bike OG Dave Wiens. It's offered as a 32 Mile Half Growler which is one lap of the technical singletrack course. Full Growler riders do two for 64 Miles. I have done the full a couple of times myself and can verify it's pretty hard! I spent both Saturday and Sunday out on the trails shooting photos, averaging 1000 per day. I primarily used my Tamron 28-75 with a flash on my K-5 and my new (to me) Pentax DA* 60-250 f/4 on my K-x with a monopod for stability. I really like that new DA* lens! Here are a few highlights: K-x & DA* 60-250 K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash K-x & DA* 60-250 Brian Smith who just became a dad a few days ago in the lead K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash Colorado Trail Race winner and Ride the Divide contender Jefe Branham K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash Every finisher of two laps gets a Growler (64 Oz beer jar). Looks like this guy sure earned his! K-5 & Tamron 28-75 & Sigma EF-530 Super flash

05-28-2013, 02:12 PM	#1327
VisualDarkness Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Uppsala, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,439	Darn you for making me once again think about switching my 300mm for the 60-250mm. Really nice shots that captured the atmosphere.

05-28-2013, 04:53 PM	#1328
crewl1 Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Los Angeles, CA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 9,807	Originally posted by mattb123 Here are a few highlights: Greta shots Matt!

05-28-2013, 05:15 PM	#1329
dadipentak Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Baltimore, Maryland Photos: Gallery Posts: 11,590	Nice shooting Matt! Just curious: how long does it take you to go through 1000 shots and edit your keepers?

05-29-2013, 06:58 AM	#1330
mattb123 Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Colorado High Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,872	Originally posted by dadipentak Nice shooting Matt! Just curious: how long does it take you to go through 1000 shots and edit your keepers? Thanks! Definitely a few hours. My workflow goes like this: Quick run through all of them to flag keepers - 1 hr Then an edit run of just the keepers where I'll fix up the first of a batch of 20-50 similar photos and then I'll sync those changes to that grouping and move on to the next group. I also tag them with the racer bib numbers. This is probably another 2 hrs. I'm getting better at this part. Then uploading 6-700 photos takes 12 hours on my DSL. The family hates that part because it slows down our connection a lot! I'm also a software engineer and have toyed with the idea of writing a plugin for LR to read bib numbers and tag the photos. If I could pull it off it would be a big time saver. But it would not be trivial to write.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

05-29-2013, 05:44 PM - 1 Like	#1331
FrancisK7 Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Montreal Photos: Gallery Posts: 474	I was contacted by a girl I went to high school with a few weeks ago. She sits on a charity board, and they were working on an amicable biathlon organized within the business community to raise money for Ste-Justine Hospital, a world leader in neo-natal care. The board was looking for photographers to donate their time to cover the occasion to create promotional material, or Facebook-worthy material so participants can tag themselves on Facebook and create a small buzz about the event. There was a theme for the teams of three: they had to show up in costume, and incorporate a business suit into the disguise. Pretty fun! Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious. We had pounding rain. There were seven other photographers (one Sony, the rest Canikon) and all were scraping for towels or stuff to cover their gear. And I, with my DA 50-135 and K5, was soaking wet but was laughing all the way to the bank ANYWAY because my gear is made for those conditions! Light sucked, these were running people, so I had to bump ISO, but then again, the K5 handles it fine. No noise reduction used in this. In fact, only PP was in LR4 (basic slider ajdustments) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. In the end, we raised 360,000$ and it was all donated to the research center, so all-in-all, a good cause, a good challenge... a good day.

05-29-2013, 05:45 PM	#1332
FrancisK7 Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Montreal Photos: Gallery Posts: 474	The three guys and their kid as chicks were just too adorable for words imho

05-29-2013, 06:03 PM	#1333
VisualDarkness Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Uppsala, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,439	Lovely and super-funny! Actually the rain just enhanced the comical effect, like a Hollywood "rain-run scene" gone wrong. :P Can you link to the event? I would like to see more! (Your marketing works.)

05-29-2013, 06:09 PM	#1334
FrancisK7 Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Montreal Photos: Gallery Posts: 474	The event happened this afternoon so the press release hasn't even gone through yet. I suspect the material will appear online soon. I'll link to it as soon as it's up Funny thing is, out of the eight photogs, I was the only pro there, so the committee asked me to deliver my photos as fast as possible for the press releases tonight and the newspapers for tomorrow. So maybe I'll be published in print? That'd be nice!

05-29-2013, 06:16 PM	#1335
VisualDarkness Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Uppsala, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,439	Being published in print when not feeling ripped off (when feeling your work is worth more than what you get) is always funny!