I've got to say this. I don't know how they do it. I spent the first period down on the boards, and I was always trying to find the action. By action, I mean trying to find the puck, the flow of play, and keeping the damn camera in focus.
I think I took about 700 photos. And I think I deleted about 600 of them. Here are five that kind of convey the night. This first photo is just as Cody Almond has scored his short-handed goal to tie the game.
Here's the story. I was down at the other end, the end where Almond scored. And the Aeros were whistled for a penalty, so knowing the Rampage were going on the power play, I started hiking down toward the other goal. Which is when the Rampage scored their first goal, when I was under the stands and couldn't see anything.
Then the Aeros were back on the penalty kill. And I was trying to get situated, and Almond takes off. And before I can locate everything and get the focus and distance at a good spot, Almond scores. Yeah, it sucks.
This is shot I got of Mike Yeo just after the Aeros were called for a penalty in the first. He told us after the game that he was very displeased with the team's play in the first two periods. He told us he challenged them during the second intermission to go out and play some good hockey, and he was very, very happy with their response.
There's nothing really special about this photo. It's of Max Noreau, and it's one of the few photos that I got all night that I just really, really like as a photo. I'm still learning all of the camera details and all of the editing tricks. But I think this worked out. I did fix the white balance and sharpness and I tweeked the colors just a bit.
And here we see the team reacting as they tie the game. Yeah, Cody Almond was in the middle of the action on this goal, just as he was in the middle of the action all night. The kid has really been impressing me, lately. He's been impressing Yeo, as well. He's one of those guys the Aeros need to continue performing if they're going to get anything done later in the season.
And in this photo, the guys are celebrating like they just won the Calder Cup. I've seen the team win lots of games over my four years covering the team, but I can't think of a time that I've seen more happy about a win.While not happy with the team's overall record for the past month, Yeo was pleased that they were able to hang together and not totally fall out of contention. And along with the 4-3 win, the Aeros got an even bigger victory in that nobody was injured during the game. The team now has a week until their next game, and Yeo's trying to figure out the best way to use that week because the team needs some regular practice time on their game and power play, etc., but he's well aware that they're mentally and physically wiped.
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Fred Trask's brilliant photography has, without a doubt, been truly missed by serious Aeros fans.
It is really great that you are hell-bent on re-integrating meaningful photography with the colorful, in-your-face journalism of Third Intermission. Fans will appreciate your efforts!
By the way, you might want to check in with "artsnhockey" on tonight's game photos (See my comment on Ms. Conduct's Post).
Go Aeros!
John - Photography is not learned in a day. Keep workig at it. You also need to learn your camera, somethign again not learned in a day. Since processing digital photos is essentially cost free, feel free to experiment with different settings. Also, seek the advice of more experienced photographers.
FC, don't worry, I paid a lot for this camera, so I plan on learning how to use it. Most advice that I've gotten, especially from Fred, is to just take photos and experiment. And Heather will back me up when I say that even on press row, I was constantly snapping away and fiddling with settlings.
So I just hope to get better from game to game.
John, the best advice is to learn the camera. There is no substitute for that.
After that you need to be sure you have the correct tools, without those it will not matter much.
As far as shooting the action of the game goes it's all about anticipation. You need to be 1/2 step ahead of the action to be prepared to capture it.
That doesn't happen over night.
The easiest way to start is to select an area where you know there is going to be action and wait for it. Sure you'll miss a bunch of other action at first, but eventually you'll learn how to position yourself to catch all of it.
One of the easiest places to set up is action in the corners, or along the back wall, or coming from behind the net. You can start there and be pre-focused. When the action is there have it in high speed continuous and hold that button down!
Do that a few times as see what you get. You should end up with something in focus. If the photo is blurred from action then you know you need to increase the shutter speed. If it's fast enough but too dark you need to open the aperture more (I suggest wide open anyway, you need all the light you can get) which is the lowest number you can select. And you need to have your ISO setting as high as you can without having undue noise in the shot. It's a learning process. It even starts out with holding the camera properly so it is stable, proper breathing, proper shutter actuation etc. It's not unlike shooting a gun. Many components go into making a good image.
I don't know what you are using for glass but with some fast glass you can set it to shutter priority and say 1/800th of a second with an ISO of 1000 or so and see how that does. With that setup you'll either be too dark, or too noisy or just about right. I'm going to guess that you'll still be too dark because I doubt you've got anything that is a 2.8. You many have to go with a slower shutter speed and you'll find you can't freeze some action.
It's all about the marriage between the the hardware, software and the event. The basics are always the same, the proper amount of light hitting the sensor. You have many tools to help get the desired result it's just what does it take to get the proper combination. The beauty is you'll have pretty much the same setup night after night so that's a constant that you can build from.
You can see how the bikini contest photos came out better than the action shots. That's either because you preferred the subject matter or you had more favorable conditions (the subject wasn't moving as much, you were able to steady the shot better, the shutter didn't have to be as fast, etc. The lighting was exactly the same.
With enough practice you'll be able to make the gear you have do what you want. Eventually your inner critic will no longer be pleased with what you are capturing and you'll investigate different methods to get better results.
Welcome to photography - the learning process never ends!
Oh and then there is the whole science of post processing! :-)
Thanks, Fred. I'm not sure of all the info you were asking about because I don't feel like pulling out the manual at the moment. But I am trying to learn everything I can.
You're right about the Bikini Contest photos. They're better, but not so much because I preferred the subject matter, but that anticipation thing. I knew where the action was, could steady up, and get everything lined up. I got a series of photos of Yeo that I like for that same reason, though I didn't recognize that's why they were better until you mentioned it, but it makes sense.
But I'll say this. I've always wanted to have a SLR because I'm interested in photography. And I had a blast, so I only hope I get better the more I go because I'm not quitting anytime soon.
All the things I mentioned will help and all transfer to ANY shoot. It's very important to know your subject. While you may know hockey you may not know how to shoot it with the camera as you know the game.
A good example of how knowing the game (I'm talking about knowing who is on the ice, what line it is, what the history is between the players on the ice, the team, what strengths or weaknesses the shooter or netminder have, is the enforcer on the ice, is there unfinished business, did the opposing team get blown out last night, are they playing the back end of a 3 in 3 etc) can help you get the shot you want is the way Andrew can "feel" a goal coming or an event about to happen. As a photographer you can do those things too. Knowing this in advance lets you prepare to capture that goal you know is coming. You can tell that player is going to score as soon as he hits the ice. Maybe you isolate on him, maybe you ignore the rest of the game for a bit and set up on him, knowing that you can feel the sheer determination and he will find a way to get the puck and get the goal.
You'll find your own inner voice to follow.
Also try changing only one thing at a time and noting the effect. when you change too many things at once you can get lost. Even if you end up with a good result you'll never be able to get it again if something changes.
If you have autoISO on that camera I'd try t5hat as well. The D3 has a brilliant AutoISO feature that allows the photographer to pretty much ignore that variable. The ISO will only go as high as it needs to to get the shot with the other parameters you've selected. And if the subject goes from a dark area to a lighter area your photos will still look the same without having to change that on the fly (pretty much impossible to do that manually at 9 frames per second anyway)
Have fun with it and read read read as well as shoot shoot shoot!
White balance shouldn't be too bad either. At least you have white and usually black to go by. You really want a gray but with a good what and black available you can get pretty close pretty easily.
Thanks for the kind words ICEVET. I have no idea why the Aeros did not, and do not,want the quality of coverage they were getting for free, but it's their call.
I thought I covered the games well and didn't miss much. You simply do not get that quality from them and that's a shame.
T3I was able to give the kind of coverage few teams, at any level, can get with the writing and photography. I feel the writing suffers a bit as well without the image to go along with the words but what can you do?
I think it's pretty easy to see the difference in those games that Chris is able to provide the images. It makes the words come alive just a bit more.
Apparently the Aeros have no interest in that.
John -
Looking these over, you might want to check the white balance method on your camera. Different types of lighting can require a different setting, and AUTO might not be the best choice though it usually is. I'd also ask around and find out what kind of lights they use at TC.
And Fred is oh so right about anticipation - as anyone like me who has tried photographing the Blue Angles in flight can attest!
Another area you might focus on, depending upon your angle, is about a crease width or so each side of the center of the net. Wide enough to pick up play and narrow enough to see the puck go in.... or stay out. This is a good angle when seated roughly center ice.
Thanks, FC. The white balance thing does bug me. I noticed my auto WB worked better when I was down low, of course, and the photos looked much better down low when I was shooting through the hole and not through the glass.
Those photos I took from the press box are yellower on auto. I'll fiddle around with that, but I also know I can do some editing in post and try and fix -- I did that with the Noreau photo.
I followed some of Fred's suggestions at the Rice basketball game today and saw a difference.
I think what I'll do next time out is stay in the zone where the opposing goalie sits and use the hole there. And I'll experiment from there. And I hope you guys don't mind looking as I try to learn because I had fun, which is the important thing, right?
As someone who has never taken a decent picture in her life, but enjoyed many, I'd like to mention a distinction between the two things a photo can do.
I miss Fred's photography because whether I'd been to a game or not, I got to see the important bits. It was as though he had the whole game on HD vid, and could just back it up a few frames if it turned out something important had been happening -- I swear it seemed precognitive at times. Fred's photos could show me a game I hadn't been to.
From the (maybe five) times I've tried to capture a moment for myself, I can extrapolate how difficult that must be and how much experience it must take, both with the equipment and the subject. I can't imagine how Fred did it, so I attribute that to magic.
But there's another thing photos do; they remind us of things we've seen. As someone who was at that game, paid extra to treat myself for the new year, was astonished (and eventually deafened) by the crowd, suffered and fretted for 59 minutes, and experienced the sheer stunned joy of those two last goals... I don't care if the pictures are blurry. I was there. I saw it in about the highest definition there is. I just want to be reminded of it every now and then.
So don't be too hard on yourself, John. Those last two photos will be desktop backgrounds for the next month around here, and I will enjoy looking back on them all year. Thank you for taking the trouble to provide them!
(No offense to Ms. C; I'd still love to see her stick-figure interpretation of the last minute of that game.)
John, if the auto WB is not working for you there are several options, one of the easiest is to get a gray card and go with a custom WB and save it to the camera. That way you can always select it when it the arena. I'm not sure how many you can save with that model but it is usually at least 3.
Thanks for the kind words Cassandra, I agree with your thinking on the photos - they make a difference for many reasons.
John, the one of Yeo is beautiful, the focusing is great and it looks really nice blown up, I have it as one of my wallpapers right now for my computer, the others are a little bit out of focus, but I like it, it's kinda a gritty look.
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