High School Track Meet...

Here's a few pics I shot this weekend at a Houston area track meet.
Mike

a few more.
Mike

Great intensity in all of them but the Long Jump shot really works for me. Your WB looks as if it had drifted a bit greenish however.

Yeah, I saw that. It was early morning, misty and hazy and the stadium lights were still on.
Mike

Very nice. Are these with Sigma 120-300mm f2.8?

bobbyz, I used the SIgma 70-200 on the long jump and triple jump and the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 on all of the other pics.
Mike

How do you like the 120-300? Can you hand hold it or do you need to use a monopod? I'm thinking about get the 120-300 F2.8 or the 100-300 F4.0 but wondering whether the extra stop is worth the extra lens weight.

dschach, the lens weighs about 6 lbs. Add that to the 40D and battery grip and it is heavy...at least it is to me. In a pinch I could take a couple of pics if I got caught in a bad angle, but otherwise, I use a monopod all of the time. I've gotten used to it. I've shot over ten thousand clicks since I bought the lens in Dec.

Mike

What settings did you find yourself using for track?

Nic

Nic, the exif information is in the images if you want to take a closer look. I shot in AV mode with f/stops between 3.2 and f/4. As the day progressed I changed the ISO so I could keep the shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action. I started off at ISO 800, then cut it back as the sun finally started to peek out.

Mike

Thanks, Mike - I've never figured out how to read the exif info in someone else's images.

I'm assuming shutter speeds of no slower than 1/500th?

My main interest was in maintaining enough dof so it's helpful to know the f stops.

Nic, you can download Opanda exif viewer from the internet. It's a free viewer. After you install it, place your cursor over an image and right click your mouse. Select to view the exif information and it will be displayed. That is unless the poster has removed it during post processing.

Yeah, I was trying to stay above 1/500th sec. More like 1/1000.
Hope this helps.
Mike

I really like all of these action shots. I do feel like your color is all over the place.

Nice Pictures. These are hot!!!

Did you set a custom WB? It looks like the temperatures drift around quite a lot, in some the red of the track infuses the whole picture, in others it seems to go blue, and others are amber. The shots look really good otherwise but you might want to make sure the WB issue is in check in the future.