Hockey with the "new addition"!!

Well, my "new" baby has arrived (Canon 300 2.8L) and today was the first chance to give it a run out.....as well as a chance to get used to using a 2 camera/lens combo again (one great thing about the Sigma 120-300 was the zoom!). Was blown away by the Canon - focus performance was awesome.

Hockey today was vs Leeds Uni and got a few good shots early on so spent the rest of the day shooting stock and "player" portraits - with Christmas coming up a few of the hockey lot had expressed interest in whether they could buy prints from me, so figured now was as good a time as any to start broadening the selection for them.

Techy stuff:

The first 4 pics are with a 1d, 300mm 2.8 + 1.4tc, ISO200 or 400, at f4.
The last 2 pics are with a 1d, 70-200, ISO 400 at f2.8

Anyway, here goes - C&C welcome as ever please!

Thanks for looking.

1.

Great shots, the lens is spot on and the pics look good!

Focusing spot on! I love pic No.3 with the water droplets from his feet. Great lens (I have always gone for Canon optics myself).

I think your white balance is off... The ice looks green!

Awesome shots. Not much more to say except, WOW!

super work Paul congrats on the new lens

Steve

beautiful crisp shots, fantastic color and focus

Lacks_focus wrote in post #2314479
I think your white balance is off... The ice looks green!

Awesome shots. Not much more to say except, WOW!

I think the water had alot of alge before it was frozen.

Great shots!

Lacks_focus wrote in post #2314479
I think your white balance is off... The ice looks green!

Awesome shots. Not much more to say except, WOW!

lol

I think there was some mould kicking around. Hygiene obviously isn't what it once was!!

To keep you happy I will post a couple of pictures from the ice hockey this evening - the ice should be white in that.......

Thanks for looking and the postive commments though.

Thanks to everyone so far for looking and for the kind words!

Other change that I made from previous shots were to also dial up the saturation to 3 in camera - shot a roll of Vevia the other day (film is such a strange concept now!) and the colours from it reminded me of the good old days. So logic said do it in digital too!

Thanks again.

Paul

Quality as ever Paul - hope you enjoy the new glass1
Kenny

Hi Paul,

Nice shots, you've got a good selection there! I shoot a lot of hockey myself (and play it, which I guess helps!) and just a couple of things I'd suggest if you want to sell stuff to players is...

1) Don't shoot too tight, so you can allow for cropping to fit certain print dimensions.
Of course, tight always looks best, but give yourself some room for manouvre!
2) Try to incorporate a lot of '2 players + ball' shots, as you'll always have a single photo
that can be sold to 2 different people!

Just a couple of tips, I'm sure you've thought about it already, but just trying to help! I have a couple of pics on my site if you fancy having a peek, although nothing substantial. Good luck!

Stacas wrote in post #2334874
Hi Paul,

Nice shots, you've got a good selection there! I shoot a lot of hockey myself (and play it, which I guess helps!) and just a couple of things I'd suggest if you want to sell stuff to players is...

1) Don't shoot too tight, so you can allow for cropping to fit certain print dimensions.
Of course, tight always looks best, but give yourself some room for manouvre!
2) Try to incorporate a lot of '2 players + ball' shots, as you'll always have a single photo
that can be sold to 2 different people!

Just a couple of tips, I'm sure you've thought about it already, but just trying to help! I have a couple of pics on my site if you fancy having a peek, although nothing substantial. Good luck!

Simon,

Love the photo from the U15 match on your SS page!

Most of the photos that I post on here and on Photoshelter (which drives the print sales) are tight crops of the original, looser shots. When someone orders then it is cropped according to the size ordered directly from the original. There is a line on the print ordering page which effectively points out that the final printed version of the image may differ slightly due to the cropping of the original (I work for a bank so disclaimers are a speciality!!)

The 2 person + ball shorts are proving quite tricky to get at the moment - largely as the team I cover are firing the ball around like a pin ball - starting to consider asking them to slow down their play so I can get some decent images of some challenges for the ball!!!!! I agree with you - definitely makes sense if I can get them - double the income for the same effort!!!

Thank you for the advice though - it really is appreciated.

Paul.

ps Have started writing you an email (couple of questions) which I will fire over to you later today.