College Hockey (a bit rusty!)

I think I spent more time catching up with people I only see during hockey season than paying attention to the game.. oops.. Every other time I've tried to shoot hockey in this arena was around 1/400 at ISO 1600 so I never realized how much the lights cycle in the old Duluth Arena (if anyone here's been there.)

I may need to actually get an 8 GB CF card and learn to use RAW at least for these games this season. I didn't get close enough to the ice for the best custom WB either but was more interested in the speed of college vs high school, almost like the players, you gotta catch up to the game. Not that the game is new to me after 10 years of watching, but following the much faster college game through the camera is. Will work on some horizons on tomorrow's shots as well since i know some need work as well.

I should post a couple of the real failures.. from when I was up in the seats BS'ing ....

The goaltender is exposed decent but the ice and her pads looks like spring thaw

A few more shots.. from Saturday's 2nd game ...

After looking at all the shots together I really understand why the newspaper has 4 strobes mounted on the ceiling .. one in each corner .. the cycling lights are terrible, but I'm not about to stop shooting, and with the new arena opening mid-season next year it'll all be good.

Nice action in 2 and 4. Nice shots overall and you handled the bad lighting well. I also really like the second shot in your third post.

I really want the high school hockey season to come but we're 7 weeks away from that still.. our high school arena is fluorescent bulbs that don't cycle and I haven't had the 50D in there yet.

I'm trying to decide whether I want the ice "white balance" from the first post or the 3rd post, the first post was white balance from pregame and the 2nd was from the 2nd game's faceoff/game lights. Either way the jerseys look right on but I want the ice to be also!

I guess these aren't as bad as I originally thought.. considering they're using a couple for their weekly conference press release. Hopefully I'll like what I get this coming weekend better myself.

The second series is a little better. I honestly would not have kept any of the 1st game (shown above), even the goal. They lack the sharp detail you should be getting.

The best is the goalie making a save (elbow in/chin down). But I would have cropped out the players.

Looking forward to the next ones. On a side note, I almost refuse to shoot hockey unless using strobes.

I'm going down to ice level but still above the glass on Saturday afternoon I'm not all that fond of the face angles on most of them that I got from shooting from the lower balcony. If I could shoot the men's college team also I would but there's only 2 spots to shoot from and the angles the college's photographer shoots from almost require a 300 because he's at the red line behind benches and penalty box.

Good stuff. I've never shot hockey, but can certainly see its challenges due to the vast amount of WHITE in every picture. Pretty nice shots.

dave

Great shot, but to be honost. i think there over exposed