Thanks everyone for your comments! I've really been working on the sports shots and was reasonably pleased with these.
Gavin-
Yes, this was a terrible first game for our girls. The population of that town is three times the size of ours, so they have more students to choose from in terms of players. Their team is always very good. The shots I have from under the basket were a bit disappointing, so I didn't post them. The ones you posted from Essex are fantastic!
The lighting in this gym was actually pretty lousy. They upgraded recently but bought cheap lighting. It's still fairly dark, so I was shooting at 1600 and, at times, 3200. I'm very familiar with poor lighting, as our own school upgraded from the sodium vapor lights just this past summer for the first time since the gym was built in the 1960's.
Croasdail,
Glad to hear that you're going to shoot Duke. I'd like to shoot some college basketball and am working on a media pass from the local newspaper since I'm a regular contributor.
I would recommend the 85mm 1.8 lens to anyone who shoots basketball in venues with challenging lighting conditions. After you become accustomed to the focus, it's great! And, Joey, the 50mm 1.8 isn't a bad lens for under the hoop shots where the 85 is a bit too long. I played with it and the 100mm lens alternately last night just to get some practice from different angles. Shoot on Av with your lens wide open to get some nice background blur. You can raise the ISO speed to increase the shutter speed, thereby eliminating blur. The shutter should be around 1/500 or above to freeze motion.
Thanks again for all your comments!
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