Boys Football League (age 10-11ish)

[JerryRice]

Some good old Canadian boys football action... anyone notice what all 3 pics have noticeably in common? (this is my first pic post, I have better shots but wanted to share these 3 because I am proud of the subject, not the actual shot).

http://joshvalentin.com/media/emma-980w-1.jpg

http://joshvalentin.com/media/emma-980w-2.jpg

http://joshvalentin.com/media/emma-980w-3.jpg

[Dennis Valet]

#1 has really long hair for a boy :p

[snyderman]

Yep. #1 is a girl! having been around youth sports for years, I've seen some pretty darned good young ladies playing baseball and even football! The starting QB in the feeder program to Jr HS football in our town is a girl. She can flat out THROW a football!

Also, another local HS football team's FG kicker is a young lady! Akron Firestone HS.

dave

[JerryRice]

Yep. #1 is a girl! having been around youth sports for years, I've seen some pretty darned good young ladies playing baseball and even football! The starting QB in the feeder program to Jr HS football in our town is a girl. She can flat out THROW a football!

Also, another local HS football team's FG kicker is a young lady! Akron Firestone HS.

dave

Yes this one I was throwing 40 yard bombs to last summer and told her to try out for a guy's team. Glad she did. She has a great arm too!

And I just realized I forgot to retain the EXIF data when re-saving in IrfanView after I did some cropping, oops!

I think the originals were something like F5.6/6.7 1/180, 1/250s, ISO 400/800 with my XSi and 250mm probably at or close to 250mm. I should have upped the shutter a bit but ah well, some action blur is nice.

Critiques/comments welcome since I've never posted pictures before.

[cstewart]

... anyone notice what all 3 pics have noticeably in common?...


They are all out of focus? :) Seriously though, 1/180 to 1/250 shutter speed is way too slow for any level of sports, especially if you are handholding a 250mm lens. All of your shots show too much motion blur for my liking, even the 3rd one, which despite the crop is the strongest image of the three. You need to be at 1/400 or higher so crank the ISO and get aperture as low as possible (f5.6 with that lens?). You may also want to think about a monopod to help stabilize as well. A bright overcast day (which it looks like this was) should yield some solid images with no harsh shadows on the faces, but if your gear can't get you to where you need to be shutter speed wise on such a day, maybe its time to invest in a faster lens, especially if you will be shooting this sport regularly.

Cheers!

Chris