my first try at sports

well my college newspaper needed a photographer so it looks like my work will get published in there. no pay, but i credit for them. let me know what you guys think CC is welcome.

Looks like a good start to me. You've got some good timing there.

Good shots, but move right or left a foot or two and you have better ones. Backround in wrong place in several. Great timimg!

yeah the background killed a lot of my pictures and get this the whole outfield wall has white signs on it what a bummer. there just was not many places to stand so i worked with what i had, but i learned some things like sometimes it's better to use manual focus when you are trying to get a certain shot like maybe at second base i would focus it before the play and then wait. the softball field was a whole differant story no where to stand took alot of my shots threw netting picture #2 is though the net and then over on the first base side just no where to get a clean shot people were in the way of almost all of the ones i took. i did get some cool shots from the right center field fence. i love my 100-400L for sports, but i wish it was 2.8 it just has a bit much DOF. I just try to think about budget and what will these lens make me, well nothing right now so they will do maybe if i can make some money with my gear then i would like to upgrade to a 300L or something like that. I was jealous of the PJ next to me with three EOS 1d bodys all with L's on them and one of them looked like a 300L 2.8 i think that thing is huge, but then i thought of all the money he had hanging on him so i hope he gets paid that well. anyway thanks for your comments and this won't be the last of the sports this year.

like this one

Your timings pretty good on a lot of those but your biggest shortfall is your focus. You've missed your optimum point in a few and what, for me, is your best one (the girl sliding home) is quite a long way out. I'd go so far as to suggest most editors wouldn't use it unless it was made a lot smaller.

Edit - you also need to look at your horizon and level it out quite significantly.

The more you do this the more you'll see that type of thing for yourself and in 6 months, you'll come back to these and be HORRIBLY critical about your early days. Be kind when you do!

They look pretty good to me, izatt, but I'm not a baseball aficiando.

yeah i know that one is pretty bad, basically i am glad i got the shot there were three things going on swung to home plate and pulled the trigger. thats what i got, but i think you are right about some more time and i will look at these a say what the heck was i doing. I do so with some of my first photos that i took hahaha guess it is the way it goes. and alot smaller as in resizing? or i need to crop closer? i hope to shoot a lot of sports this year as i am basically the only photog for my colleges newspaper.

The timing is pretty good, but they're all soft. It helps if you post your EXIF data so we can try to assist in determining the cause of the focus issues.

I was able to pull the EXIF info off the shortstop (I believe it's the SS) shot, and it's 1/1000s f/5.0 ISO800 190mm . At 1/1000s your focus should be much sharper. The 100-400 does decent work, so I'm guessing you need a little more practice.

I concur that your horizons need a little work, to.

However, for your first sports outing, you did well. Next time you'll improve.

Are you a student? If so, you should have a TON of opportunities to shoot more.

i am a student yes, well i will say this it was very cloudy and dark. but yes i hope to get better. check this out http://www.sj-r.com/sports/stories/2​7410.asp

well this is not my picture as you can tell, but must have been doing something right, almost the same shot as my #3. just posting this up for example of what the pro next to me got with a 1d and looked like a 300l 2.8


this one was my frame after

i guess that faster burst rate is good for something. and it looks like his smaller DOF really helped. that picture is the one that made the paper

You can see your right on track to shoot well. Luckily you can see the same shot you took with another camera and lens does in comparison for shot timming and distance. You only need to practice your set up, since you have the timming down. Love the shots!

thanks man, yeah he was standing 5 feet from me taking that so it's a pretty good comparison

i got this one too i forgot about this one

izatt82 wrote in post #5175836
i guess that faster burst rate is good for something. and it looks like his smaller DOF really helped. that picture is the one that made the paper

Timing is much more important than burst rate. Once you get to know your gear and shoot the sport more you'll be able to get shots like that as well.

izatt82 wrote in post #5182230
i got this one too i forgot about this one

I think this shot would be great with better focus on his expression..
However, you did capture the moments!