First volleyball shoot ...

And it was the State Championships in all 4 Classes ....

THIS SPORT IS HARD TO SHOOT !!!!!

I constantly thought I had:
1) the wrong lens on the body;
2) was in the wrong place to shoot;
3) couldn't follow the action; etc.

My hat is off and I applaud all those people that shoot volleyball on regular basis and get those outstanding shots .... lots I need to learn before tackling this sport again!

Here are some samples ....

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Love the varied angles and clean backgrounds....

The only one I don't like as much is the last warmup shot where the ribbon crosses the young ladies face... I have struggled with that issue andn the main reason why I don't like to shoot from the ends.

Great shots. It is tough enough to have the right lens, settings, getting the focus right. Then there is the timing of the shot. That is pretty hard and takes as much talent as the players.

What camera / lens did you use? The shots are pretty good. Volleyball is tough to shoot with fast action and poor light.

Mark ....

Actually, that last "warm-up" shot was in the 2nd game .... it was just that both teams had green uniforms .... in fact, in two of the 4 games both teams had on the same color uniforms .... very unusual .....

Those shots were taken with a Canon 1D MKII and various lenses - a Canon 85 1.8; a Canon 100 2.0; and a Sigma 120-300 2.8 .... and I think after every game I changed to a different lens .....

Thanks for the comments so far .... I appreciate them.

Volley ball isn't hard to shoot, NITRO car/Varsity Football shooting is difficult. In Volley ball, the ball goes back and forth back and forth, I think it's boring, your in a building, away from the wintery elements, plus you get paid....I get paid, I think it's loyalty sitting in a nice warm building taking pictures of volley ball, away from Old man Winter. .You have a Camera that can take litterly 9FPS, I have a camera that Yakes 5PS, your job is easier getting "the money shot", if your not happy with your job, I'll glady take it.

Great angles and action. You're right in that it is a difficult sport to shoot. I watch the action for a little while to get the rhythm of the game before I start shooting. Still, I tend to get a lot of backs and rear ends when the action speeds up. You've done a marvelous job for your first time shooting the sport.

I dissagree with ACDC.... football is a piece of cake... good "tight" volleyball shots are a lot harder. Indoor shots that can be reproduced at 13x19 shot without flash.... pretty dang hard. Just my opinion, I have been known to be wrong. As to fps - if you time your shots all you need is 1 frame at a time...

Cecil - had a simular thing happen - the uniforms weren't exactly the same - but very dark blue vs black with the same markings.... so I know where you are coming from.

I'll teach you volleyball, and you teach me Football

I'll show you a couple of football shots ....

Please show us a couple of your volleyball shots ....

Inquiring minds want to see your take on volleyball shooting.

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ACDCROCKS wrote:
The problem with football I had was the lesn . 75-300MM F.6.3IS0 1600and 3FPS all with the Noink D70'er

Paul ....

I remember those volleyball shots .... you e-mailed them to me for my "critique".

Those are all very nice .... I agree though with one critique that they're a little "loose". It'd be nice if they were tighter in on the action .... but nicely done anyway. Thanks for reminding me of who you are ....

As for football, yea - that 6.3 lens is waaaaaaay too slow for night-time football. I think the minimum you'd need for night time football would be 200mm and a 2.8 (which I see in your sig - is that something you have now or are planning on getting?).

However, I still don't think volleyball is an "easy" sport to shoot .... but from looking at your volleyball shots, and as "loose" as you're shooting, it may appear to be an easy sport to shoot since you're "seeing" so much through the viewfinder. I'm hoping that when you start shooting volleyball from courtside with a 100 or longer focal length and have to follow the action and shoot "tighter", then you might see just how quick that ball goes "back and forth, back and forth" .....

Thanks for sharing your shots ....

I think the shots are pretty good......to me any sport shot has to have or should have some action in it or at least movement. Some of your shots at least have a ball or a frown on the face of the players which make it interesting to look at.......

liza wrote:
Great angles and action. You're right in that it is a difficult sport to shoot. I watch the action for a little while to get the rhythm of the game before I start shooting. Still, I tend to get a lot of backs and rear ends when the action speeds up. You've done a marvelous job for your first time shooting the sport.

Liza ...

I forgot my manners .... .... it does happen on occasion .....
Thanks for the comments.

"...backs and rear ends..."
Yep .... got a lot of those, too .....

Oh yeah these are horrible... .......lol. Actually these shots are great.....ball, face, action, emotion.........love em!! And yeah volleyball is hard to shoot, just a fraction of a second off on your timing and the shot won't be the same. To get these tight of shots with all the stuff in them.......that's the trick. If you just want to have the ball going back and forth.....yeah it's not so hard. But to get images like this.......very tricky. Thanks for posting these.....really enjoyed them.