The American Variety this time. This is a High School game my friend's son played in and her husband (an ex-pro) assistant coached. It was fun. I think it's a bit easier than the real football (soccer - no I'm not biased) because you get breaks. With soccer it's non-stop shooting. With this you can actually lower the camera once in a while. We're green. We won 30-0.



This one came out a tad soft but I loved the way the defensive players were just coming into the frame. I could say I planned it but I was really concentrating on the guy with the ball.








I loved the pile-ups. It was fun looking at those shots later and seeing how many legs were sticking up in the air and all the funny positions the players were in.

Great shots Mel, you made it look interesting even to me.

[bdery]

Those are very sharp, you must have used a fast shutter speed! Nicely contrasted, to, but they look a bit underexposed to me. Still, good work!

[Arpe]

Whadya mean "the other football", there's lots of them! Soccer, American football, Rugby, Rugby League, Aussie Rules, and probably more! All of them abbreviated to "footie" by some! That's why I call soccer "soccer".

Your comment about being able to put the camera down amused me - not knowing much about this football it has always struck me a a really slow game, lots of stopping and starting, how long does a (is it) 80 minute game last really?

I take a few rugby photos, and that also has it down time, and if you're not using a monopod, that can be a relief. I've never tried soccer, maybe next winter.

Those are good - cropped? What lens do you use?

[rmtagg]

Hey Mel! I miss everyone here Seems you are spreading out and I like the work!

[mel]

Great shots Mel, you made it look interesting even to me.

Thanks Gary!

Those are very sharp, you must have used a fast shutter speed! Nicely contrasted, to, but they look a bit underexposed to me. Still, good work!

Yeah they look underexposed on this monitor here at work but on my big ol' 22 in hd monitor at home they looked fine. On my friend's Mac they looked over exposed, so go figure.

Whadya mean "the other football", there's lots of them! Soccer, American football, Rugby, Rugby League, Aussie Rules, and probably more! All of them abbreviated to "footie" by some! That's why I call soccer "soccer".

Your comment about being able to put the camera down amused me - not knowing much about this football it has always struck me a a really slow game, lots of stopping and starting, how long does a (is it) 80 minute game last really?

I take a few rugby photos, and that also has it down time, and if you're not using a monopod, that can be a relief. I've never tried soccer, maybe next winter.

Those are good - cropped? What lens do you use?

Okay okay. Point taken. How about the other football that exists in my household. Although my husband lived in Melbourne for a couple years and loves the Aussie rules game. We do watch a bit of that when we can as well.

The comment about lowering the camera is because I shoot a lot of soccer and that's camera up non-stop through the entire half, short break, camera up again. By the end of a game my arms are really tired.

I cropped when necessary for compositional purposes and to get rid of superfluous grass. However, I tried to zoom in as much as I could. The game lasted for 2 hours. The lens was just my cheap Quantaray 70-300 that I use for other sports.

Hey Mel! I miss everyone here Seems you are spreading out and I like the work!

Thanks Rosemary! We miss you too.

[LaRee]

Nice shooting Mel. My favorite is the second shot. I bet the players will enjoy seeing these images too!

[vievetrick]

Great shots!!!

[dazman]

Great shots, Mel...showing that Pentax can do sports!

[roentarre]

Definitely a lot of action. Great shots.

[JMR]

In the third image, is that orange doorway not the door to another world- where photographers get to rest their weary bones and all time stops? Nice work. Very sharp, vivid colours.

So how do you get that sharpness and vivid colours? Anything special, adjustments? I would like to achieve this vivdness if I can before autumn is past. I used to get colours like that when shooting Fuji Velvia slide film.

[mel]

Nice shooting Mel. My favorite is the second shot. I bet the players will enjoy seeing these images too!

Thanks LaRee. The kid that was my connection to this game is also on the yearbook committee so he was all over the idea of pictures. This is a new school so they're just getting started. What was funny, is that after I set this up with them (the dad who is one of the coaches, arranged it) at this game, there were four cameras with long lenses. This was the first time there had been any cameras at a game. One guy with a Nikon with a big ol' something on the front of it, approached me and we chatted briefly. He said he was there to take pictures for the yearbook and asked if I knew who the head coach was. I guess the arranging of me to come caused something of a snowball effect?

I ended up giving them 78 images on a disc. I really like shooting football.

I asked the Nikon dude if he got the shot of that hit in #3 and he said no, he missed it.

Great shots!!!

Great shots, Mel...showing that Pentax can do sports!

Definitely a lot of action. Great shots.

Thanks all. And YES, Pentax CAN do sports!!!

In the third image, is that orange doorway not the door to another world- where photographers get to rest their weary bones and all time stops? Nice work. Very sharp, vivid colours.

So how do you get that sharpness and vivid colours? Anything special, adjustments? I would like to achieve this vivdness if I can before autumn is past. I used to get colours like that when shooting Fuji Velvia slide film.

I think the secret is to use cheap lenses because that's all I have with any kind of range. I adjusted the tone curve a tad because the black tended to lose detail and the dark green would look black, then sometimes the white pants would lose detail as well, but that's it. Just little tweaks to bring out detail.

I shoot outdoor sports in SV mode so I have more levels of ISO, and have the other dial set to adjust the f/stop to keep the shutter speed as fast as possible. I just adjust the two dials as needed as the light is changing. I know this is kind of unconventional (some have told me I'm doing it wrong) but it works for me.

Thanks!

[maxwell1295]

Good stuff, Mel. Well exposed and you did a great job of freezing the action. I agree with LaRee....#2 is really good!

[Venturi]

Now, now, Mel. Girls are not allowed to shoot sports. Now get back into your gender stereotype and put some rhinestones on that K10D. tsk, so un-ladylike....

nice shooting.

[gawan]

Very nice, I love it when you use words like "other football"