Our family recently went for a 2 week holiday in NZ to visit relatives. I was not expecting to shoot sports. So with my K-3 I only took Pentax DA 17-70/F4, FA 50/F1.7 and DA 35/F2.4 lenses. I used these with a Sigma 530 Super flash gun to shoot a 1st Birthday event in a hall.
While in NZ, my 17yo son was asked did he want to train with a local U18 rugby team ((
Pukekohe Rugby Football Club - Home). Rugby is very, very popular in NZ. He had just started playing rugby at school in 2019, (he previously played soccer for 10yrs), but only played it for a few games before suffering a partially-dislocated shoulder injury early in the season.He hasn't been able to play rugby since then. And he hasn't done any running or track work,concentrating instead on the field events of Discus, Javelin and Shot-put.
He accepted the invitation and attended a couple of team training sessions that week. He had to borrow boots, socks and a team jersey for the match on Saturday. The coach placed him out on the wing.
Since he had not played with this team before, they were unfamiliar with him and he didn't receive the ball much. But in one of the few times he got to touch the ball, he took off and scored a try. This made him happy because I think he was a bit worried that he might embarrass himself in front of his new teammates with his lack of experience. He was lucky because the linesman missed seeing his foot touching the sideline.
I'd never shot rugby before. Since 70mm was my highest FL and since my son was out on the wing, I decided to stand close to the goal-line on his side of the field and hope that he'd run towards me at some stage. I was set up with 9-point AF which proved problematic at the start of this sequence, as the centre of frame had no players. I've used FocusMaqic to improve these early shots a bit, and they're included here to provide context. My lack of experience with rugby shooting is shown in how I didn't anticipate how quickly I would need to pan, so the last shot only has him partially in-frame. But I think the sequence captures the drama well. The early shorts are heavily cropped due to working at a large distance with 70mm FL.
1/1600s, ISO250-320, f/5.6, FL70mm down to 17mm at the end, AF.C 9-point.
Dan.