kirt1

Focal length was 70mm. Sorry, I generally put that in the details. I'll add it now.

Indoor sports in general are tricky. At least in basketball flash seems to be expected. If you're in the Nikon system, an 85mm f/1.8 is pretty reasonably priced and a good length for hoop. Or, a 50mm f/1.8 is even less expensive but maybe a little wide for a lot of things.

BTW, this assumes digital with a less than full-frame sensor.

The Canon 85mm f/1.2 would be pretty nice... though not cheap.

Pretty shot! Oh man, gotta love that f/1.2!

A nit is that the horizon is off (seems to be going downhill).

Patrick,

Nice of you to put the details of your shot in. Too many people put up a photo and ask for help without doing that.

One thought might be to try using a smaller aperture and trying an ISO of about 400 or so. That way more things will be in sharp focus, which will help isolate the moving elements.

Hard to not get some blur with the spectators at 1/2 sec exposure, even if they are just watching. If there's a way to brace yourself at a higher angle, you could fill more of the frame with the balls. Also, the relatively fast motion of the balls (at least in some shots) might let you go for, say, a 1/8-1/15 sec exposure, which might help keep the spectators sharper.

The only other nit is that the white balance seems to be off. Looks kinda orange/yellow.

Hope these ideas help.

Action from a JV basketball game in Fallbrook (CA) pitting the Broncos

of Rancho Bernardo against Valley Center. An interesting lighting

problem, as I had power on one side of the gym (so could use an Alien

Bee 800) but not on the other side. I used an SB-26 with an extra

battery pack but it doesn't have quite enough "umph" to bounce.

In this shot, the SB-26 is behind and to my right. The AB-800 is to

the left, and is giving some direct light (no high place to mount it)

as well as bouncing off the ceiling.

Thoughts and comments appreciated. Thanks for looking.

In the lane action from a JV basketball game in Fallbrook (CA) pitting

the Pirates of Oceanside against the Titans from Poway. An

interesting lighting problem, as I had power on one side of the gym

(so could use an Alien Bee 800) but not on the other side. I used an

SB-26 with an extra battery pack but it doesn't have quite enough

"umph" to bounce.

Thoughts and comments appreciated. Thanks for looking.

I'd crop off the right 1/3rd of the frame. I don't think it does much for the shot. It also seems a little oversharpened to me.

All that said, the moment is well captured and having never seen the sport before, this photo leads me to believe it would be quite exciting to see. Good job!

Something about the background still bothers me a bit. Not sure if the upper half of the background looks like a building or what, but it seems a little out of place. Maybe out of focus stadium stands, with or without people sitting in them would be more fitting?

As for the individual shots, they show a range of expression, which I like. Maybe a missing element is that "peak action" shot; a pass with just fingertips still on the ball?

Also, though you may have intentionally left it off for posting here, you're giving this young man the star treatment. Any NFL star's poster would have his name prominently worked in.

All that is just food for thought. I'm sure it would look great on his wall just as it is.

Runner steals 2nd, dives head-first. The result? Runner is called

out on the play, but is awarded the base because the SS (covering) has

obstructed the path to the bag without the ball.

Starting to lose light, so a little motion blur. Please comment.

Who in the heck would give this shot a 3/3?

Excellent work, Kenny.

Taken at the 2006 MCAS Miramar Air Show. Sadly, it wasn't a bright,

sunny day, but there was plenty of moisture to help capture the

effect. Hope you like it, and comments would be very much appreciated.

The girl throwing the ball is the big red blur to the left. So glad

that softball is year-round here, so when I get frustrated at night

football I can still go out under the California sun and take softball

pictures to make me feel like I can still do something at least

halfway right.

As always, your thoughts and ratings (especially combined) are

appreciated.

In the waining seconds of the first half, this Great Oak receiver

pulled in a deep pass, setting up a field goal to give his team a 3-0

lead.

I'd have rather been on the other side of this to get their faces, but

I was still pretty happy to get the shot. Let me know what you think,

and thanks for looking.

Martin, J.C. and Eric,

I very much appreciate your positive comments. I suppose if we sports shooters want to raise our level of respect (at least as reflected in the ratings) we should rate more sports photos (perhaps anonymously) more regularly. Of course when I say "we" I really mean "me" because while I try to give helpful feedback on sports shots, I don't rate them that often. Okay, I hereby resolve to do that!

Been struggling with night football lately, so if I ever get a passable shot, I'll put that up and submit it for critique. Expect it'll get hammered. :-)

Tacklers from the Vista Panthers try to hold on to the back from the

Rancho Bernardo Broncos, as he tries to hold on to the ball. Your

feedback and comments are always appreciated.

Given the availaible lighting, the only lens I could really use was my 85 f/1.8, which I shot wide open. Agreed that the background is somewhat cluttered, just don't quite know how to get around it. With more available light I could have used a longer f/2.8 lens, but would have had to get into the stands, which likely would have moved the scorers up higher in the frame.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Actually found a gym where I was getting 1/500, f/1.8 with ISO 640!

As I'm relatively new to shooting volleyball, I'd be grateful for any

feedback.

Small world, isn't it? Did you just stumble across the shot or did someone else?

Anyway, looked through that game's shots and found the one above. I normally shoot the opposing team in some detail (I put them at http://kirt.eventpictures.com) but didn't do that since they had the photography group on-site.

She had a nice stretch up to get that throw, which I had in the frame before, except her glove goes out of the frame and pretty much ruins it. :-(

Hope you had a good time in Johnson City!

FYI...

John, Mathew,

Thanks for looking. Sometimes you push the button at the right time. :-)

Kelly,

You do seem a bit far away, which will decrease the difference in focus from subject to background. Assume you also mean you're using a 300 f/2.8, as something like a 300 f/4 or f/5.6 is going to have greater DOF.

Get closer if you can. I generally shoot portrait orientation and try to almost fill the frame with the hitter. I've attached the uncropped shot to give you an idea how close I get. The other trick is to orient the camera so you can keep your non-viewfinder eye open and see the pitcher. For a RH batter, you use your left eye to frame and your right eye to see the pitch coming. Takes a little getting used to, but you can do it.

Hope this helps, and thanks again for the compliment!

Kirt

www.refass.com

Good fun!

The coaches always tell the on-deck (next) hitter, "Watch the

pitcher." In 8 and under play, well, this doesn't always work. In

this case, however, she listened. Your thoughts always appreciated.

One of the toughest things about shooting kids' sports is the backgrounds. Here you have the fans and the bicycle competing with the action for your attention.

It looks like a bright day, so set your ISO to 100. Then try putting your camera in aperture priority mode and set it for the biggest aperture (smallest f-number) you can. This will keep more of the background out of focus. You will initially miss more shots because of focusing on things other than the action, but with time you will get better at that.

Oh, and tell the umpire to get his butt out of your shots. :-)

Hope you find this helpful.

Kirt

Actually, it didn't hurt too much. She was saved by the facemask.

Shaken but smiling, she took her base.

I would say that I'm fortunate to have a very accomplished team to photograph! I've seen these girls make plays that I don't think I could have made at any point in my life. Sometimes I manage to capture them if I'm not too awestruck.

This shortstop is an absolute keeper. She's about the quietest kid you'll ever find, but she is dangerous as a fielder and a hitter. About the only thing she doesn't like to do is pitch, but she's not bad at that either!

I appreciate the compliments, Keith. I've been taking softball photos for about six years now, and my initial efforts were pretty feeble. If there is one thing I will take credit for, it's the fact that once I got digital, I took pictures, and lots of them. I started with a Fuji S1 and probably took 20K shots with it before I got to use a work S2 for awhile and added another 10K. Then I got a D70 and put 30K on it (still have it as my backup). Started selling a few photos and financed my current D2x, which just passed the 40K mark.

I see too many people with nice digital SLR cameras who go to a game and take 10 shots. You won't get much better doing that. I push the button 200-300 times a game. You learn a little something every time you push the button and look at the results.

I'll be shooting football this fall. I've got a total of one night game and one day game of experience as of now. We'll see how that goes.