An interesting sport to work with, but sadly it is all too often played in absolutely terrible conditions to photograph in. I got involved with a league that started up in my province a few years ago, and have learned a lot about taking photos and processing. I picked up a Rovelight to play with this season, and am getting some interesting effects with a 7 foot umbrella firing across the track and using 3 smaller speedlights ganged together as a bit of fill. It does mean I'm very limited as to where on the track I can photograph at a given time, but the colour and quality of the photos really beats what I normally produce under the usual ambient lighting.
However I'm really not a fan of using the flashes when there are other photographers working the same game, so I'm still debating if I'm going to focus on expanding my kit in that direction, and if so whether I go with Rovelights or other options. Also considering building some portable battery powered LED flood lighting that can be carted around to various events, and setup fairly quickly so that everyone shooting can benefit from the light instead of stepping on toes.
Photo from a coed game earlier this month. Setup really needs another two rovelights or similar lights. Really needed an elevated light shooting in from behind and slightly to the left of the image I think.
Earlier game from the same event. I need to remember to take photos of my general lighting setup for talking about it on forums. But the parabolic reflector I was using does a nice job of being able to give me a very large 'target zone'. The falloff from the light is such that I can get surprisingly even lighting across an entire end of the track. Of course modifiers that large are more than a little awkward to work with due to the limited spots you can set them up in so that you're not blocking someone's view, and I would probably consider them unusual in an overly packed arena. Luckily I've only been in spots where I've had lots of room to set them up without interfering with anyone. Players actually say that they rarely, if ever, noticed the flash going off while actually playing.
But having a powerful strobe has proven rather handy for some events. This one is from a game that was played in what is actually a potato shed on a wharf... To say that it was 'dark' would be kind of an understatement. Dealing with blown out highlights is a bit tricky with this kind of setup, and again I really could have used a few more lights for fill and backlighting, but setting up and treating it almost like a studio shoot on one part of the track is netting me some photos that the players have been very impressed with.
Canon EOS 7D | EF 28 f/1.8 | EF 85 f/1.8 | EF 70-200 f/4L | EF-S 17-55 | Sigma 150-500
Flickr: Real-Luckless
