Many Games, No Posts

I have shot a few University of Utah and Highland High games since my last post. Below are games and clicking on the game will link to the gallery on my webpage:

University of Utah vs UC Santa Barbara - March 25, 2009

University of Utah vs Colorado State - March 22, 2009

Highland High vs Skyline - March 17, 2009

I noticed I have gotten away from posting camera settings information for each event.

A new Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR found a home on my D300. The first copy did not connect with camera consistently so Nikon Support suggested I contact Amazon to ask for a replacement. Amazon customer service was amazing about it and had a new lens to me on Wednesday after I placed my call on Saturday.

Way do I tell you this? Because I used the new copy of the 70-200 in the Field House for the U vs UCSB game. This is a very dark indoor field and the 2.8 was slow, but I wanted to run the new copy hard to make sure it was working properly and the issue was with the old lens and not the camera. It worked great. What is interesting the new copy has a lower serial number than the old copy. I had to shoot with ISO 2500 to get a shutter speed of between 160 and 400. While I love to freeze action, a good blurred motion picture can be pretty cool and harder to come by. I think some of the better paintball shots have motion blur, but they are so hard to capture correctly (head in focus and other parts blurred). It definitely takes practice to capture. That said, I also love freezing paintballs mid flight or breaking open (shutter speed over 2,000 for best results).

For the prior games at the Field House I would shoot my 50 1.8 at one end of the field and gave up capturing action at the far end. I could get away with ISO 1600 to get good shutter speeds and then crop into the action later.

For shooting sports one of the best investments is a monopod. I purchased the Manfrotto 679B for around $50. Some of the best $50 I have spent. The stablity is great and it takes all weight off my neck and arms. To easy switch from landscape to portrait using my 50 1.8 I would mount my ballhead on my monopod. It is quite easy to switch between the two, but the stability in landscape suffers a little. I did not get a swivel tilt head to go with the monopod and have not felt the need for it. Maybe someday I will try it out.

Next paintball post I will though my set up and thoughts in a little more detail.