A Lesson Learned

Took some photos at the VCU field hockey game tonight, it started at 7, so the game started off well lit. The first half of the game was fine, I think I got a few good shots, first time photographing a field hockey game. Once you get the timing down, the game is about the same as soccer, the planes seem to change a lot faster though, more like lacrosse. After the first half, it got pretty difficult to photograph any of the game, Cary St. field has horrible lighting, the lights only allow you to shoot at 1/100 of a second, which seems like it'd be okay, but most of the photos turned out blurry. If you're zooming in, the f-stop and shutter speed go up as well. Even shooting at 1600 ISO, you have a lot of trouble producing the speeds you need. I was shooting with a 5.6 lens, wide open, but another photographer I had talked with was shooting a 3.5 sigma at 3200, and he was having trouble as well. All I can say is that paying for those huge lenses makes a big difference in low light, during the day (how i usually shoot), the lens works perfect, nothing to worry about. When light becomes a problem, you're pushing your ISO as high as possible and the lens doesn't respond as well as you'd like. I hate to make that discovery after I just bought this $1000 tamron lens, but I'm not worried about it, most of the schedule games are daytime, and I'll use what I've got. I can still get plenty of learning experience, make contacts, and shoot some good photos in the process. Until I graduate and start getting paid for my photographs, I'll make the best out of the equipment I have.

As it got darker, me and this other photographer noticed a member of the audience was using a flash on her camera, which is usually illegal in NCAA games. But after asking the referees, they didn't mind, so for the remainder of the game, we shot TTL flash, zoomed all the way out. It worked in some instances, at the point I concentrated on sideline, reactions and portraits. Action shots from the game were pretty much out of the question at that point. I did what I could though. I plan on sorting through my images tomorrow as I'm watching college football, and finally getting my desktop computer up and running. Once that computer is functioning, it should make my editing, workflow, and life run a lot smoother. I still haven't posted any soccer photos yet either. My plan was to post some photos and ask people to give me some suggestions on which photos they preferred. I need to narrow down the photos I want to use, so I can get into the editing process. Well, they should be up soon, but for now, I'm gonna relax and watch some baseball on t.v.