Shooting night football in the Rain

[Satirist]

I'll bet the players really appreciated the flash in their faces from hers. Yours look nice.

[Jim Bryant]

Thanks everyone for the nice words. I'll try to comment on some of the questions asked.

Most of the time players don't worry about flash, it's a part of the game.

In getting passes, you can contact the Athletic Director of the local high school and ask for a pass. You might have to trade off pictures for passes. Or, bluff your way onto the field, just act like you know what you are doing. Tell them you are from the yearbook company

ISO's - You might want to shoot at ISO 1600 and set your camera on manual at 250th at f4.0. It really depends on the field lighting conditions. You might want to get there early to do some test shots and adjust as the game progresses into darkness. The 40D isn't waterproof like the higher EOS pro models, so wrap you camera in a white garbage bag and cover the lens as well.

Well lite fields...........try shooting at ISO 1000, 1250 0r 1600. try some the advice above. the 105mm is a great lens, but not so great for sports action. Be careful and wait for the action to come to you instead of shooting plays 30 - 40 yards down the field. You might want to concentrate on the players along slidelines as the offense and defense comes off their.......focus on their emotions as are important and tell as story as well.

[Tomara]

Very nice photos! Your "competitor's" shots could have been great with a little more effort.

I'm new in the photography world but am learning more each day. I've been taking football and soccer shots for a couple months now. I'm finally getting the hang of how the ISO works. High school stadiums have crappy lighting! I have to shoot from the stands (while keeping an eye on my kids!) so I don't get shots that are quite as good as the sidelines shots, but I'm learning.

Any tips for newbies? Like how to get crisp action shots in low light? I find that it's a lot of trial and error and experience.

--Tomara
PS. My uncle is "Jim Bryant". Lives in the Gig Harbor area. Funny!

[Rahul]

So, the paper didn't hire you and you are being a whiney baby in DPS forum. Yes, you have already established that you are not nice, but being truthful doesn't mean that you criticize another person who is not a member or can't come here to defend herself and tell her side of story. You know, economy and times are such that the companies won't hire the best of the best to get the job done. Now a days, anyone with whatever level of knowledge would do. It's true across various industries.


She made excuses, but we do not know what her real excuse was for being a sloppy photographer.

IMHO, sharing your good work and photography tips is what this forum is about. I'll leave it at that.

Good work in the rain, though.

[gazsus]

Originally Posted by Rahul

So, the paper didn't hire you and you are being a whiney baby in DPS forum. Yes, you have already established that you are not nice, but being truthful doesn't mean that you criticize another person who is not a member or can't come here to defend herself and tell her side of story. You know, economy and times are such that the companies won't hire the best of the best to get the job done. Now a days, anyone with whatever level of knowledge would do. It's true across various industries.


She made excuses, but we do not know what her real excuse was for being a sloppy photographer.

IMHO, sharing your good work and photography tips is what this forum is about. I'll leave it at that.

Good work in the rain, though.

You haven't posted since March and you come along with that.

Have you been dumped recently?

[Jim Bryant]

She has no side to defend. Like I said, she was unprepared for the assignment, didn't take the advice from the other staff photographer about going out and purchasing proper rain gear. And then only shooting enough images till she got four shots. Yup...this what she told me......."I only need four pictures." I asked her today after reading one of her postings on Face Book about hating to shoot sports. "Why did you even bother applying for the job when shooting sports is a big part of your daily assignments?" I couldn't get her to to tell me the real reason of how she was hired, but I'm working on it. What can I say? There's too many like her already in this business that shouldn't be and wouldn't be unless they were hired by a former co-workers. Like I said...it's not what you know, but who you know.

[photog1107]

Wow... those are terrific shots, Jim. Thanks for the great advice about rain shots. And the human element in yours cannot be matched. THAT is what tells the story... real photojournalism.

[abarickman]

At least you are not bitter. I respect your ability but calling another person out personally (ie. follow this link to see how bad her pictures are) on a forum such as this is pretty unprofessional IMHO. Maybe your surly attitude and "not being nice" is why you did not get the job? Just a thought.

[Jim Bryant]

We had a long talk at the soccer match on Saturday. She's not such a bad person and we became friends. I'm just bitter about the way she was hired. But that's water underneath the bridge now and glad I'm not a staff as I don't have to shoot all those, why I love where I live, my favorite chefs and a fine romance assignments. I even talked to her about shooting a variety of shots and using existing lighting instead of flash. Seems like the photogs at her former paper weren't really too good of mentors to her.