It started with a friend asking me to shoot his varsity football game and ended in a new discovery – sports photography. I have focused far too much on portraits, mostly because I did not have a good lens to shoot sports. But now I have the perfect lens – the Canon 70-200mm. For those that don’t know, this is one of those long white lenses that you’ll see professional photographers use on the sidelines of games. In fact, for football, it’s the perfect sidelines lens.
When I arrived at the game, I was surprised at the number of people for a game in the summer at 10AM. I noticed two professional sports photographers on the other side of the field. I started taking some shots from the seats, then I walked down to the sidelines, about 3 feet from the bench where the football players sat who were not playing. Then I eventually took some shots from the field. Generally you’ll know which way the ball is going and can even be in the middle of the field where reffs go. This, however can be very dangerous. Two times the ball was turned around and I was almost tackled by football players. One of the times I had to make a very quick dash with my camera. That would be awful to disrupt the game and damage my gear at the same time – especially if you knew what I paid for my lens and camera.
After about 30 minutes, I found my self being where the other photographers were. One used a Nikon mount with a massive lens and the other used a Canon D30 and 70-200mm, same lens as me. We talked a little on the sidelines and sometimes would show each other our good photos. We talked about technical things like what sports at best for AI Servio and what modes to shoot in. He told me he shot for a newspaper in Brevard and I gave him my card, then I went back to shooting. Here are a few shots I got. Both were taken at f/4 at 1/1500th of a second.
More photos from the game HERE http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oliver-Sholder-Photography/106283589406299?ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=20137&id=106283589406299&ref=mf
