AFL Game
Well, Today I spent an afternoon at the Footy - I went to watch Norths and Sturt Play at Prospect Oval. I packed a Camera, all my Flash cards and choose my longest lens and my new 1.4x Tele-converter.
The motivation for going is that the local weekly newspaper is running a photographic competition during the SANFL season - with a weekly prize and a final prize at the end of the Year. Not only was it an afternnon out at the Footy, but If I managed to get a decent photo I would submit it.
Of course, there were other motivations as well. A couple of weeks ago I purchased a 1.4x Tele-converter to give me a bit more reach on the long end - With the tele-converter in place it turned my 50-200mm lens into a 70-283mm lens (remember this is 140-566mm equiv on a 35mm film camera) and this was my first real chance to try it out.
It has been a long time since I shot a football game and last time I was up high in the stands. Well today, I was right on the fence at the same level as the players, and I positioned myself about 20m around from the Goal. The position was OK, but the sun was 90deg to me and it got worse as the game went on but it was the only spot left on the fence that was not taken by other spectators.
With a lens this long I chose to set up my Camera as follows. Shutter Priority set to 1/500sec, auto ISO. The maximum Aperture with the lens/tele converter is F4 to F4.9 I chose Shutter priority as the sports action is fast and I was using a long lens - I wanted to minimise the chance of camera shake in any photos. A look at the EXIF info when I got home indicated that most shots were wide open.
Well, the game got underway, and I started watching and shooting. It took me most of the 1st quarter to get comfortable and into a decent rythm with my shooting. I tried to watch as much of the game as possible, with the zoom wide open, and when I anticipated some action worthy of capturing, I zoomed in as much as possible and grabbed the shot.
The first Quarter was played mostly at the other end of the ground to me and I only got a few shots. The next 3 quarters were over more of the ground and at times the action was only 10 metres away from me.
The game went on and was eventually won by the Roosters (Norths - the ones in Red) and I had shot just over 100 photos.
I have just finished processing them and I actually had quite a lot of shots that were Out of focus. I did a cull and found that I had around 25 shots that showed promise. A further cull and I ended up with 19 photos I was happy with.
Out of the other 80 there were quite a few where I cad captured the action and spirit of the game but I had failed to get the right part in focus - it was a bit of a bummer!
Out of the 19 shots I finally processed there are only about 5 or 6 that really capture the action aspect well. I am going to have a bit of a browse of the entries from previos weeks and see if I can find 1 of mine that is worthy of entering.
Out of the game, I learnt that I need to put in a bit more time practising and that I need to make sure I get to the ground earlier next time so I can get a better spot to shoot from.
Anyway, here are a few photos of the game action from Todays Clash.
I have put a few more photos of the game into an Album
