poor lens or poor photographer

[pdwire]

Hello.. first a big thanx for all the great advice I have gathered in my lurking. I am still just getting used to camera and trying to move from taking snap shots to photography. I bought a Sony alpha 33 a while back and added a Tamron 70-300mm zoom that I was hoping to use to get action shots of my kids playing sports. However the pictures have not been coming out very well so was wondering if someone could give some advice on how I can advance to a sharper capture and whether it is something I am doing wrong or a limitation of the lens. I know I bought a relatively cheap zoom that has limitations but just not sure if this is what was meant by 'limitations'... all relative I guess.

example photo on flickr

DSC02537 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Zeke Menuar]

Welcome

Nevrmind.

[pdwire]

Originally Posted by Zeke Menuar

Welcome

Before anyone can give an assessment of your images, we need to see your EXIF data

We need to know your camera settings.
Shutter speed,
ISO settings
Were you using full auto, shutter priority, aperture priority etc.

I posted pic to flickr which shows exif data (I think)

[mikoyan]

According to your EXIF data, you were only at 140mm, you might want to tighten in on your subject a bit more. If you can move a little bit, that might help too. I like a little more dynamism in my pictures....but that looks interesting, I suppose.

[oldwolf]

This might help a little bit as well.

Critique Forum Rules

[RichardTaylor]

Get close and fill the frame with your subject. That makes a huge difference.

[gturner]

It also looks at though you have the focus on the fence.
Select your focus point on your camera
Zoom intighter
Make sure you are set to Servo focus mode to track movement

[pdwire]

Originally Posted by oldwolf

This might help a little bit as well.

Critique Forum Rules

Apologies but after reading the rules I am not sure which rule I am violating. Could you be more specific?

[pdwire]

Originally Posted by gturner

It also looks at though you have the focus on the fence.
Select your focus point on your camera
Zoom intighter
Make sure you are set to Servo focus mode to track movement

Thanx.. I will make sure I have the right focus mode next time.. I don't remember checking it so that may have been why I am missing my focal point. I was trying to post a picture that would assess my skill vs lens but realize this picuture may have not been the best due to so many variables. Maybe I can try a still capture at a zoom to better assess this.

[Jim Bryant]

You might want to crop your pictures into the either hold your camera in the vertical position or crop the photo into a vertical format. There's way too much wasted room on both sides of the action. If your lens is limited you might want to get closer to the action, which might entail you to follow the players up and down the sidelines. Also, get lower to ground either sitting or kneeling.....gives you a different angle.