john_pang

I just got back my F2s from Sover about a month ago, and the entire experience has been fabulous, and I am very, very happy with the results. If you don’t mind the long wait time, he is definitely the go-to person for F2 repairs.

Sover does an excellent job keeping you in the loop – with detailed explanations and photos of what he is doing, and gets your buy-in before he proceeds. Talk about excellent customer service!

Hi Adrian,

Finally a response! I thought this thread was dead.

I agree with most of what you?ve stated about the difficulty of shooting kendo. I used to shoot film, because I felt for a long time that pushed film (1600) performed better than digital. However, I very recently got a Nikon D200, and am happy with the results for the most part ? I especially like not having to pay for processing, etc?.

So far, I?ve been trying out different settings and lens combinations. I use the 70-200 f/2.8 lens, although mine is a much older model. I?m thinking about getting a 35-70 f/2.8 or a 28-70 f/2.8, as the 1.5 focal length multiplier with the smaller sensor is really a challenge to deal with in (sometimes) small space.

Around here, I have not been able to shoot at 400-800. I usually have to shoot at 1600. I really don?t like going over 1600, but I have shot at 3200, with varying results. Like most of your shots, the best results are those shots taken during pauses in the action, and yes, I also have a ton of blurry shots. If you do get the 50 mm f/1.4, I?d like to hear of your experiences with the extremely shallow depth of field.

What modes do you shoot in? I?ve been using AF-C, Single-Area AF, although I am thinking about experimenting with AF-C, Dynamic-Area AF. I?ll have to see if the movement of others in the frame (such as the officials) will confuse the Dynamic-Area AF. Do you use noise reduction in the camera? I?ve tried it, and it definitely takes something away from the image (texture?), and the images ?feel? optically softer.

By the way, do you practice kendo yourself? My e-mail is johnkichu@gmail.com, if you want to talk about photographing kendo off line.

If there are folks here who photograph kendo, I'd like to hear from them and

share experiences.

Peter - I am freaking out because I don?t want you to photograph my kids? If you want me to be a nightmare to deal with, I can be. Instead of making personal attacks, you need to concern yourself with how (or whether) you?ll operate in a shrinking market, and how to deal with real issues that parents have, regardless of what you think of those issues. You're making a lot of assumptions here.

Michael - If you can coexist with others taking pictures, that's great. My ire is directed toward those who seem to think that the only way to deal with loss of business is through preventing others from photographing (restricting supply), not through better and more creative products, and to those who don't take parents' privacy concerns seriously.

Jeff,

Here is one example:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CzSh&tag=

One poster (Gary Wray) is quite proud to actually have other photographers physically removed from the field.

This has been discussed in this forum before; if you do a search you'll find a very long thread on the topic of preventing other photographers, but in this particular thread, from Michael Brown:

In some cases yes, at these types of events we have usually have a contract with the club or league and a fee is often paid to access the event, some events we can request that no one has a camera or at least cant use flash (gymnastics), most we can't.

My problem is not with the business of photography. I do have an issue with you guys trying to prohibit parents from photographing, and the generally condescending attitude you guys have. And few other issues, also, such as:

1. I never gave permission to have you photograph my kids. If I see a pro at a game I am covering, I will tell him my son?s number and specifically request that he not be anywhere in the frame, unless he is working for the yearbook or a school publication.

2. Who owns the image of kids you shot without permission of the parents?

3. Related to #2, When you sell your photos, do you make sure that only the parents of the kids in the photo are buying those particular photos? Do you think you have the right to sell it to anyone who pays?

Let me comment on some of the points you are raising.

Recognizing, anticipating and capturing moments takes experience ? yes it does. Are you saying only you guys have this ability? I?d say that you need to know the sports you?re covering, not necessarily photo techniques.

Most folks who shoot a few days a month ? again, you?re making a flawed and overly general assumption here about volunteers. Perhaps the crowd I hang out is more experienced than the general population you run into.

Market gets saturated and sales drop, simple supply and demand ? in a saturated market, if your products and services are no longer valued, and you cannot differentiate yourself, then you need to go do something else, instead of whining or trying to prohibit parents from photographing. I really am waiting for someone to trying doing this to me.

In fact there are sports photography training camps ? I?m sure there are. So what? Some of us went to these paid workshops.

But you will be out-shot 99% of the time by a more experienced one ? Do you know what my photo experience is? Again, get off your high horse.

He took 800 photos, over 24 games ?You should pick a better example to make your point. You feel superior to someone who shoots less than a 36-exp roll per game? Good for you. If this is your level set, then you should worry about competition from anyone with a camera. As another data point, I cover my son?s lacrosse games with another parent, and we were pretty much at every game, and each of us shot about 600-700 frames per game. We shoot both digital and film, depending on lighting conditions, as we feel that pushed-film perform better than digital at ISO 1600 or higher.

As someone pointed out - technology is getting better and cheaper, and it's going to be tougher and tougher for you guys.

You guys are severely underestimating the volunteers/parents who photograph at games.

+ They do value quality products. They probably don't see a noticeable difference in quality between what you produce and what they produce. You're also assuming that the measure of quality is purely technical - in focus, nice exposure, etc...

+ They are not price minded. You're assuming that parents take photos of only their sons and daughters. Volunteer parents invest an enormous amount of time and their own money into covering their teams.

+ They are not total newbies who happen to have expensive equipment - newbies don't volunteer to photograph. "Trained to do this"? What does this mean? Is there a sports photography basic training camp you guys went to? That you photographed more events than they did/do? Some of us could just as easily have taken the career paths you guys took, but instead chose a different paths.

I'd love to have someone come up to me during a game and try to tell me not to photograph. What a laugh.

The underlying assumption in everyone's posts here seems to be that those parents who take photos and give them away free don't take good photos (or at least are inferior to you). Why do you feel that way? Are their equipment inferior to yours? Did you ask them how long they've been photographing? Have you looked at what they shoot?

Do you think you have a "right" to sell your photos and that the parents are somehow infringing on your rights?

I like the single sensor idea - I've been thinking about it, also, and I'll definitely try that.

Hey Dan - lacrosse is a great sport. Don't paint the whole sport negatively becuase of what a small number of immature drunks did. These things happen much more often in other sports, and I don't see the same reaction simply because those other sports aren't perceived as privileged, preppy sports. If this happened to a Division 1 football team, and someone raised race and social class as contributing factors, I can only imagine what the reaction would be.

John

Thanks for the tip. I might try manual focusing and pre-focusing - this is what I used to do at basketball games, before auto focus, but a basketball court is much smaller & the action is more confined.

I shoot both from the sidelines and behind the goal, and yes, I have had balls zip by me several times. Nothing like seeing the ball disappear from the frame and knowing that it's coming toward you!

I volunteer as the "team photographer" for my son's HS lacrosse

team. I shoot with a Nikon F100 plus 80-200 f/2.8 Nikkor. I shoot

using the Continuous Servo AF mode, C, with Dynamic Tracking, [+] on

the back of the camera. Because lacrosse is a pretty fast moving

sports, often I find one of the following two:

1. the lens is still trying to focus while the action passes by.

2. the camera trie to figure out what to focus on (many players in

the frame) and when I get the photo back, it looks like camera

focused on the wrong player.

Is there a better setting for fast moving sports with many potential

subjects in the frame?

Thanks in advance.

John Pang

I'm new to this, so this may have been asked & answered already, but here goes ...

Can you list the same photos at multiple agencies/sites?