michael_purvey

<p>If you have 20 min after the wedding ceremony to get your shots then you must have a shooting plan. Given that, consider re-enacting the crucial parts of the wedding that you can't shoot (the altar shots), those can ge knocked out in 5 minutes if you know clearly what you want to do. Talk with the B&G and see if they can get their wedding party their as early as allowed so you can knock out the basic shots (groomsmen, bridesmaids, family shots etc)<br>

If you're limiting your purchase to one lens I'd suggest the 17-55, it's excellently sharp and has a very close focus so if you want a crisp shot of the B&G's hands at the altar you can get within perhaps 1.5 feet (or so) and take the shot.</p>

<p>You'll have to do something to get your shutter speeds up to kill the blur. Your big issue here seems to be the basketball gym. The Sigma 50-150 F2.8 is an outstanding zoom range for basketball and is optically excellent. This change will net you 2 stops of light which you can apply to your shutter speed to good effect. Keep your ISO as high as you can and strive for at least 1/400-1/640. You may have to deal with noise later but it's easy to do with Noise Ninja or other programs, dark images can similarly be handled in post easily. Now, that said if you're limiting your shooting to close goal shots only, then a shorter zoom such as the Tokina 28-75 F2.8 might do well for you.<br>

As I tell people asking for advice when I'm shooting sporting events, 'I can fix dark and I can fix noise...I can't fix blur.'</p>

<p>Very timely question since I just signed up. I just got done this weekend shooting a Silver Sticks hockey tourny. The venue this time was well lit (a month ago they had a few lights out). I was shooting a D300 with a 70-200 F2.8 VR1 and got very decent pictures at ISO3200-F2.8-F3.5-1/800 for reference. I ended up with between 15-20K shots.<br>

I think that if you pick up a D3100 for around $650 and put a Sigma or Tammy 70-200 F2.8 in front of it you'll get very respectable images and stay around your price range. The 17-50 you mentioned is much too short for anything except for action right around the goal and there you need the quickest focusing rig you can get..in other words, not really your best bang for the buck. The D3100 has very respectable performance at iso3200 (which you'll find is almost required for a quick game like hockey).<br>

You can get away with shutter speeds of 1/400 (barely) for the smallest children as they don't skate or shoot all that quickly but by the time they're teens you'll really notice the difference in sharpness between 1/800 and 1/400.<br>

I shot a lot of quick bursts of 3-5 images but I had good position being the event photographer (often in the penalty box-a risky place to be so keep your wits about you). Practice your timing and the slower burst of the D3100 won't be much limitation and your images will be very nice indeed.<br>

Nikon's D-lighting is a god-send since kids faces are shadowed by their helmets and the d-lighting brightens them up nicely without blowing highlights.<br>

USE A LENS HOOD...always...I've had a puck slapped up that solidly hit the front edge of my lens hood. Resist the temptation to lean out over the ice (if you're in the box) and get shots of the puck/kids skating straight towards you along the edge. You'll risk getting nailed by a player coming up from behind or getting a slap-shot blasted into your face. If you have to shoot through the glass, put the lens hood right up against the glass if you possibly can, a rubber hood isn't a bad investment for that application. Otherwise the glare off the glass will kill your contrast.</p>