Here's a couple shots from my brother's hockey game. I've never shot a sporting event, let alone one in tiny, dimly lit rink. The first one was taken with the sigma 70-300mm, at insanely high ISO (I think it was 5-6000, if I remember correctly) and wide open, and the second was with the Pentax M 50mm f/1.4, which was a little short, but I appreciated being able to use a more reasonable ISO. Also, both were shot through dirty plexiglass (no holes for cameras in the junior rinks, and I'm not sure I'd want to risk my gear anyway
) Now I know why everyone has a 70-200mm f/2.8 for these kinds of things. I did manage to find a very reasonably priced 100mm f/2.8 on craigslist, which should come in handy for future games.
I really enjoyed shooting the hockey game. Normally I do mostly wildlife and macro, out all alone in the wilderness, hiking around searching for that elusive eagle, darting dragonfly, or camouflaged catipillar, so it was nice to sit in one spot, with the action confined to a playing surface, and not get mud, dirt, and grass stains all over myself. It was especially cool because, unlike wildlife shots, there's a lot of emotion to be captured along with all the action. Also, I had at least ten hockey parents come up and compliment me on my awesome camera gear (most of whom assumed it was a canon
), and even had a couple ask for copies of my photos.
Thanks for looking!