[VisualDarkness]

Had my first pic in a newspaper today. The home team goalie got the Player of the Game award last game. It's not a big one but it's something.

Shot a couple of basketball games last night. All using the K-5 with a Tamron 70-200 f/2.8. ISOs generally 2500 to 6400. Some with and some without flash.[/url]

Lovely ones! I've discovered that dark skin tones are really tough in bad lighting but you managed to keep "greens" low.

[dosdan]

Unfortunately, with sports photography, a lot depends on your access to a suitable shooting spot. At the big regional and state level swimming and athletics meets, access to track-side or pool-side is restricted here to a professional photography company (ImagesWithAttitude) and media photographers. So as an amateur I'm limited to the locations I can shoot from. Since I can usually shoot from a good position at smaller meets (district and lower levels), it's not too bad, but sometimes it really hurts.

On 15 Dec 2012 I was at the Qld State Athletics Facility, Nathan, Brisbane (smaller facility on the left in this map: State Athletics Facility, Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD - Google Maps) for the Queensland IGA State Relays because my son had done well enough at lower levels to qualify for the State Relays U11 Long Jump & Discus team events. It was announced over the PA that the famous athlete, Sally Pearson, 2011 World Champ and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100m Women's Hurdles (Sally Pearson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), was going to be running in the Open Class 4x400m Relay as part of the Gold Coast Victory Club.

The crowd cheered wildly when she was running. Her team won and she was very fast in her leg. Afterwards she spent over an hour signing autographs for vast numbers of young athletes.

I was at the outer railing near the finish line, jostling with lots of others. In front there were plenty of officials, marques, equipment and other fences, as well as competitors who were competing in other events. Anyway, in between people or things getting in the way, I managed to get some shots of her receiving the baton, running and passing on the baton. Equipment was K-5 & Sigma 70-200/F2.8 II.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/32glt3sh8fbx4fe/VkjR533U5h

I've never seen muscles on a woman like I've seen in some of these shots.

Dan.

[VisualDarkness]

Oh, "be a professional sports photographer for a day" and all goes to charity. I would love that one if I had the money to take win the auction! You get to borrow professional equipment for it and get some guidance and get taught the workflow. You get to choose from three international soccer games. I need to find a sponsor...
Bli professionell sportfotograf för en dag på Friends Arena under

It's one of the auction in the Swedish charity project Musikhjälpen (the music help) where a couple of celebrities are locked inside a glass cage where they broadcast radio and TV from and people send in money, wish for songs to be played (for money), celebrities auction things and random people simply collects money in every way possible. This year it's for clean water to children in the slum areas and they got over 1.5 million Euros at the moment ant it closes tomorrow evening. I find it quite amazing and wonderful.

I hope it's not against the rules (just erase this part) as this is for a good cause and If you're interested in watching (in Swedish) you can find it here:
Musikhj
Or contributing: Önska en låt - betala med kort - Engagera dig i Musikhjälpen - Musikhjälpen 2012

[RonHendriks1966]

Unfortunately, with sports photography, a lot depends on your access to a suitable shooting spot. At the big regional and state level swimming and athletics meets, access to track-side or pool-side is restricted here to a professional photography company (ImagesWithAttitude) and media photographers. So as an amateur I'm limited to the locations I can shoot from. Since I can usually shoot from a good position at smaller meets (district and lower levels), it's not too bad, but sometimes it really hurts.

On 15 Dec 2012 I was at the Qld State Athletics Facility, Nathan, Brisbane (smaller facility on the left in this map: State Athletics Facility, Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD - Google Maps) for the Queensland IGA State Relays because my son had done well enough at lower levels to qualify for the State Relays U11 Long Jump & Discus team events. It was announced over the PA that the famous athlete, Sally Pearson, 2011 World Champ and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100m Women's Hurdles (Sally Pearson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), was going to be running in the Open Class 4x400m Relay as part of the Gold Coast Victory Club.

The crowd cheered wildly when she was running. Her team won and she was very fast in her leg. Afterwards she spent over an hour signing autographs for vast numbers of young athletes.

I was at the outer railing near the finish line, jostling with lots of others. In front there were plenty of officials, marques, equipment and other fences, as well as competitors who were competing in other events. Anyway, in between people or things getting in the way, I managed to get some shots of her receiving the baton, running and passing on the baton. Equipment was K-5 & Sigma 70-200/F2.8 II.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/32glt3sh8fbx4fe/VkjR533U5h

I've never seen muscles on a woman like I've seen in some of these shots.

Dan.

Thanks for these images. I shared them with our national champion 100m hurdles and she is also a big fan of Sally.

Well I spend a lot off time on getting all accreditations to get to different events and sometimes I also am not allowed to enter. I want to go next year to Sweden to the EC Womens Soccer, so I'm again up for some work to get that done and get in.

[RonHendriks1966]

I've never seen muscles on a woman like I've seen in some of these shots.

Dan.

Well our national fieldhockeyteam is one big musclesfan:

Maartje Goderie, two times Gold in Bejing and London

[VisualDarkness]

A couple of quick and dirty edits from today's hockey game:

[Rich M]

VisualDarkness......very nice hockey shots.....and especially at ISO6400.

R

[GvilleRick]

VisualDarkeness' hockey shots made me want to try shooting hockey so my wife and I went to see the local team play tonight. Almost wasn't able to take the Tamron 70-200 in with me but was able to convince them to let me use it. Our seats were behind the visitors bench so the view was not great but the seats next to the bench at the glass were not taken and I was able to sit there most of the game.

[VisualDarkness]

Is this true?
Exposure Time 1/2500
F Number f / 3.20
ISO Speed Ratings 3200

Oh, can I borrow your lighting and clear plexi glass?
I usually go with:
1/500s
F3.2
ISO6400

[RonHendriks1966]

Is this true?
Exposure Time 1/2500
F Number f / 3.20
ISO Speed Ratings 3200

Oh, can I borrow your lighting and clear plexi glass?
I usually go with:
1/500s
F3.2
ISO6400

First off all, go to your club and ask them if they allow you to cleaan the plexiglass windows yourself.

[VisualDarkness]

First off all, go to your club and ask them if they allow you to cleaan the plexiglass windows yourself.

I doubt that they are even cleanable judged by how they look.
I bet that a proposition to change glass would be turned down faster than it would leave my mouth! I'm thinking of asking them if it's possible to make photography holes in the glass.

[GvilleRick]

Is this true?
Exposure Time 1/2500
F Number f / 3.20
ISO Speed Ratings 3200

Looks about right. This was the first time I've shot hockey so it was a learning experience. I tried different things through the night. I shot in AV mode so the shutter speeds varied from 1/250 to 1/2500 or so. I normally shoot EV -0.7 or -0.3 but with so much ice I ended up needing to increase the EV to +0.7 or so. The shots here at 1/2500 I added fill light in Picasa. When I shot manually I used 1/640 or 1/800 at f3.2 or 4.0. I'm more used to shooting basketball games or outdoor sports such as baseball or football. I'm not a big hockey fan but it is fun to watch live. Especially sitting at the glass. I pulled out my phone at one point and took a video as a couple of players slammed into the glass in front of me.

Oh, can I borrow your lighting and clear plexi glass?
I usually go with:
1/500s
F3.2
ISO6400

The lighting is pretty good in that venue. I've shot other things there where the lighting was not as bright but for hockey it is not bad. In buying tickets there were no seats available at the glass so I asked for an aisle seat as close as possible. Ended up with seats right behind the visitors' box with the coaches standing in front of us. Fortunately there were lots of empty seats so pretty much everyone in our section moved. Someone else sat in the seats at the glass during the first period but decided to move to higher seats at the break so I was able to sit there the last two periods. It was near one net so the 70-200 worked out well. I used a 1.4 TC some but really didn't need it much. The plexi glass wasn't real clear but there were good spots to shoot the one net. If I tried to get shots of the far net the glass created more distortion. If anything, I would have liked to get wider to catch the action closer to me.

As for the game, it was pretty ugly at the end. The home team scored in the first minute of the final period to take a 4-1 lead. There was a bit of a brawl a couple of minutes later resulting in both teams having players sent to the penalty box. That seemed to fire up the visitors and they scored three goals pretty quickly to tie it and then scored with a minute left to take the lead. They ended up with another empty net goal (shot from the center line) to take the 6-4 win. I have more of the shots from the night at my Smugmug site if you click on one of the images. I also uploaded the video I shot with the phone.

[RonHendriks1966]

I took my K-5 II to a few games now, but I'm still fidling on it to my own satisfaction. The use with my Sigma 70-200mm/f2.8 EX DG OS HSM is a very good one, since then you make the most out off the new AF system. With dimm light offcourse.

This one at a soccermatch:

200mm | f3.5 | 1/320th | iso 25.600

[VisualDarkness]

GvilleRick, nice recap! Thoung I'm still jealous of that arena.

I took my K-5 II to a few games now, but I'm still fidling on it to my own satisfaction. The use with my Sigma 70-200mm/f2.8 EX DG OS HSM is a very good one, since then you make the most out off the new AF system. With dimm light offcourse.

This one at a soccermatch:

200mm | f3.5 | 1/320th | iso 25.600

ISO "Through the roof!"
Wow, it must have been near dark.

[RonHendriks1966]

ISO "Through the roof!"
Wow, it must have been near dark.

Yeah, but I knew that, and that's why I wanted the K-5 II for that match and got it in just a day or two before. One week later we had a similar condition, but then in the rain, so even less light to work with.