NGRHS senior boys and girls - Forest Heights (away game)

I wasn't sure about the weather and light, the games were scheduled to start at 3:30pm. I decided to go for it, and the lighting turned out to be petty decent. I was able to get some nice captures from both games, the field at Forest Heights was excellent for photos - you have to love those clean backgrounds.

There is quite a contrast between this age group and the U12 girls I shot most of the summer, these players are bigger and faster. I also noted each field is a slightly different size, this one seemed to be considerably wider than the one at NGRHS.

Home field must have been an advantage as New Germany came up empty in their visit. Better luck next time.

First attempt at high school soccer

Th fall season is the time for high school soccer, and I was hoping to do some shooting between the poor lighting and weather. The NGRHS senior girls played at 5:15pm, and the sky was already quite overcast with the pending early darkness not much later. Even using ISO 800 was a stretch since the shutter speeds were 1/500th second, tops, hardly enough to freeze the ball motion. But, the emotion and expressions were there as always - to me, that's the main point in taking such images, to get the reactions of the players as they endure during the game.

I solely depended on the forgiveness of RAW files, and I was able to record some keepers but better lighting is needed. This is one instance where a newer Nikon DSLR model with its improved high-ISO performance would have meant improved photos; I am quite open to anyone setting up a trust fund for donations towards the D7000=)

During the second half, as the light was really fading, I popped on the SB-800 flash. Neat effects with ghosting and plenty of shooting range, but these files look a bit artsy and odd. So much for that experiment.

Interestingly enough, there were a couple students who had the school camera, a Canon Rebel model outfitted with the 18-55mm kit zoom, they saw my D60 and 70-300mm VR and exclaimed that "Nikons are better cameras!" Who am I to argue? They need to invest in a telephoto zoom, they could capture decent outdoor sports images, but there is still skill required and just good old plain luck.

FWIW, the New Germany squad soundly beat their opponents (Bridgewater) - the final outcome was 14-0. Yikes. That is more like a football score.

Time for a dedicated blog to the beautiful game

Over the last few months that constitute the summer of 2010, I have been able to sharpen my shooting skills at local soccer games. Having failed miserably in the past to shoot film, the digital medium seems to be far kinder to me for a variety of reasons.

The viewer doesn't see my mistakes - crooked horizons, out-of-focus shots, erroneous exposures, and poor composition. Post-processing makes all of these warts go away.

Today's U12 provincial games were held at Centre Consolidated School. I soon noticed they had an exceptional field, with nice backgrounds. The lighting was just perfect, I could use 1/800th - 1/1000th second @ f/5.6 while the ISO was kept to 400, it was pretty consistent all day. My trusty Nikon 70-300mm VR is amazingly sharp even wide-open for a "consumer" zoom, but it's all about timing as much as the camera's ability to track and maintain focus. The lowly entry-level D60 body works great and I don't seem to miss a beat with its meager 3-point AF system.

The girls played very well, there wasn't any high-scoring contests and no blow-outs. New Germany won their first game by 1-0 (one to nil for you soccer affectionados) but fell behind 3-0 to a tougher opponent in the last game. The contest came to an abrupt ending when one of New Germany players got seriously injured, requiring an ambulance. Such is the reminder that athletic endeavors can have consequences at any level.

My old blog was filling up as bandwidth is scarily limited, I guess I shoot too much=) So, I added this to my second Gmail account and I now have almost a limitless amount of storage. One can never have enough digital files on the Web if he/she is trying to market one's work.

I intend to make all of my crops to fit the standard 4x6 proof size as any of these images are for sale, if anyone is interested.