john_strong1
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Posts posted by john_strong1
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Sports Photography is a hobby for me. I wanted to jump into some college sports, but the big ones like Basketball and Football are too difficult to gain a press pass to around my way. The programs are too big and popular, so usually Associated Press and newspaper photogs are the only ones getting in. I managed to get into some schools by shooting their gymnastics events. Alot of college gymnastics teams are not the best funded programs, therefore can't afford to pay anyone to shoot the events. Since College Gymnastics is not a widely popular sport, there is very little to no press.
What did I do? I took a look at the photos on the websites of some local college gymanastics teams and knew I could do better. Most of the schools allowed me to come in as long as I adhered to the rules (no flash photography is the big one). I did my thing and gave away some photos to some schools. Now, I have one of the colleges offering to hire me this coming season to shoot some of their home meets. Mind you, there were other photogs at these events shooting with me, but my work clearly was much better.
What am i getting at...
In this day and age, digital photography is the norm and everyone can get into for not a ton of money. To make your work standout, it does take money. For me and gymnastics, it did take spending some money on some good gear, namely fast prime lens. Thats what allowed me to get much better photos than the others shooting there. I have coaches loving my work.
Make your work stand out above all others!
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I shoot college gymnastics with my D200 (retired the D70) and the 50mm 1.4 & 85mm 1.4. The big thing here is....fast fast fast lens. Thats my experience to getting great shots. You can keep the ISO lower which equates to lower noise (if you get everything else set right. The EAGL Championship meet photos on my site were done with dual D70's and both lens previously mentioned. Both set to ISO 320, 1/320 @ f1.4. Custom WB set with a gray card.
http://strongdigitalart.smugmug.com/Sports/154166
John
Focusing speed of D70 Vs D80 VS D200?
in Nikon
Posted
Frank, what are you planning on shooting? Sounds like Sports Events from the sound of you wanting faster auto focus and possibly missing some shots.
The D80 is nice, but for sports photography, the D200 rocks! It shoots more frames per second than the D80 AND has a much larger internal buffer (D80: 4 shot buffer VS D200: 22 shot buffer when shooting RAW) so you don't have to wait for the buffer to empty and miss shots.
Think about that also.
John