[stepheno]

My lads play local soccer and they had a pre-season friendly on Saturday. Time to dust off the 70-300. Thanks for looking.

#1


#2


#3

[VeddieEdder]

Nice shots. Makes you really appreciate the value of those big fast lenses pro's use tho, doesnt it? You have good timing here tho.

[stepheno]

Thanks VE - recently I was near to buying a 100-400 L but backed down so I'll make do for the moment. I suppose to pro sports togs something like a 400mm prime is just a tool and I often wonder if they appreciate them.

[P-E]

Picture (1) did he hit the back of the net?

[Dave]

#3 is a good action shot. Any advice for taking shots at footie matches, as the stepson will be playing for a local team soon & thought I would pop along & fire off some shots. Must admit I find most shots of football in the papers quite boring to look at

[Gary Bagshawe]

Originally Posted by Dave

#3 is a good action shot. Any advice for taking shots at footie matches, as the stepson will be playing for a local team soon & thought I would pop along & fire off some shots. Must admit I find most shots of football in the papers quite boring to look at

Way back when I was still underage to buy intoxicating drinks I used to shoot the local teams for the national papers. We used to stick HP5 in the cameras and adjust everything to give us a minimum shutter speed of 1/500th. nothing else mattered. I would suggest trying the same but switch your auto focus to AI and another trick would be to keep both eyes open, it takes a bit of getting used to at first but I find it works well for all sports where "stuff" is moving fast.

[stepheno]

Originally Posted by P-E

Picture (1) did he hit the back of the net?

No - it went over the bar.

Dave - advice, who me? Good light is helpful unless you have a fast lens with IS. If not it helps to have a 30D (good at high ISO ) A shutter speed 1/250 or maybe up to 1/500 (as Gary says) and a good panning technique. I too have developed the technique of looking through the lens with one eye and looking at the field with the other. Not too often or you end up looking like Marty Feldman I tend to use centre-weighted metering. Other than that it's just practice.

One other thing though, depending on how old your step-son is you may have to be wary of the - "look - a paedophile" brigade.

[VeddieEdder]

Originally Posted by stepheno

Thanks VE - recently I was near to buying a 100-400 L but backed down so I'll make do for the moment. I suppose to pro sports togs something like a 400mm prime is just a tool and I often wonder if they appreciate them.

Probably not. Like driving a porshe, if you drive it long enough, you forget what your chevette was even like.

[Gary Bagshawe]

Originally Posted by stepheno

Thanks VE - recently I was near to buying a 100-400 L but backed down so I'll make do for the moment. I suppose to pro sports togs something like a 400mm prime is just a tool and I often wonder if they appreciate them.

Depends weather you are a pro freelancer having to pay for it yourself or working for an agency where you just get given one!!!!