Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/01/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]There's nothing more humbling than going to do action photography for a sport you don't know. Maybe it would be easy for something, say, curling whose pace is stately, but ice hockey, well blitzing is more like it. A friend is the general manager of a Junior B Tier 1 team in Sacramento, the Thunder. He invited us to come share his particular passion. Now my wife grew up in northern Minnesota so she knows the sport, and her oldest brother is a landed immigrant in Alberta and his kids played serious hockey (one now works in player development for the Carolina something-or-others Hurricanes maybe?) But for me the hockey I have seen in person is an Oakland Seals vs New York Rangers game back in the late 60s and a Hershey PA minor league game in the 80s. And during the Olympics of course but that's on TV. So being there, very close to the ice, gave me a new perspective. The light was not the greatest - florescent fixtures for the most part in star arrays over the ice. I had to work at ASA 1600 and looking at the images I think I should have been at 3200. The action happened between the ranges of my zoom lenses. The 70-200 was too long and the 24-70 was a bit too short. I was wishing for that ever-favorite 50-150 zoom! <grin> So, all the details aside, here are the keepers: This is the best one I think: <http://www.adambridge.com/Photos/2006/01/20/_L3U8480-shrp.jpg> <http://www.adambridge.com/Photos/2006/01/20/_L3U8416-shrp.jpg> I like the checking action in this one: <http://www.adambridge.com/Photos/2006/01/20/_L3U8460-shrp.jpg> <http://www.adambridge.com/Photos/2006/01/20/_L3U8477-shrp.jpg> Now I'm sure there are hockey people rolling their eyes - so I'd like a bit of critique on maybe how to work this sport better. I definitely learned to keep the camera at my eye - watching with the other one - and trying to stay with the action - but it's so FAST and I can't anticipate the play like I can in other sports. Ah well, thanks for viewing and sharing your comments.