Events to easily get in and shoot for fun/practice?

[keith204]

Local races have been rained out for 2 weeks, so I'm DYING to use my 70-200 f/2.8L IS!!!! You understand, I am sure!

So, I talked with some friends who have kids in a baseball league. Tuesday at 5 I'm going to shoot a game there. Then, I called up the Springfield Skate Park...Tuesday at 8:00 I am going to take photos there.

The skate park was more than thrilled to have a photographer there.

Are there any other events you've found that when you simply want to go shoot, you can?

 

[JimmyO]

Depends on your situation. I have 2 little sisters who are always doing things. But mainly im out hanging with my bmx and skate friends who i take pictures of.

 

[Jon0807]

Dog parks are always a fun place to take pictures.

 

[Heck]

Horse racing!! lol I was thinking of doing it myself. there is racing durring the day and even at night.

 

[usayit]

I like the whole experience of shooting Polo.. its pretty easy to get into one (at least around here).

I must admit it is one of the most difficult challenges I have had the pleasure of shooting. There are so many factors against you; the play is so fast (horseback), the field is HUGE, generally played at high noon (shadows). Watching horse and rider perform such complicated tasks seamlessly is such an experience. I was happy just to get a handful of shots.

 

[Senor Hound]

Anything with horses is cool, because the balance between rider and ridee (horse) is very complex and interesting, IMO. Then again, horses make me nervous, so I think its cool people can ride them like they do.

Keith, definitely give a try out to some of the Missouri State sports programs. With basketball, baseball and football (somewhat) excluded, a lot of these places are vacant for their games. Go to a women's field hockey game, a men's hockey game, or some lacrosse, and you'll be able to get close, and get some fun action. This is what I would do, and there's so many activities that you could go on and on. I don't know if the paper there buys outsider photos, but they may even give you some small coin if you shoot something they like. I wouldn't get your hopes up, but the worst they can say is, "no."

 

[keith204]

do you think that MSU still has games now that school is out?

 

[mrodgers]

Are there any other events you've found that when you simply want to go shoot, you can?

As poor as I am, I love free......

In 2006, a local RC flying field had a little air show. It turned out not to be so little. Many planes and many more people just spectating than I imagined it would be. Happened to just catch a tiny ad in the paper and figured my daughter might like it. Yes, she liked it and we spend probably 9 hours there. We returned last year and later this month is the 3rd annual show. All free admission with food and drinks available for purchase to benefit the club. If I get good shots, I plan to process them website sized and send the photos to the club as a thank you for putting on the show.

At the local dirt bike track, practice is every Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Weekend races cost an admission fee, but practices are free to go watch. Everything is a bit of a drive for me, so I'm waiting until my daughter is done with school for the summer and we'll go check out practice.

We've had many RC race tracks pop up year to year around me. They are always free to watch, practice or the races. Though they usually are pretty crowded and probably not "easy" to shoot at. More than likely, you would be stuck up in the stands rather than getting a better place to shoot from.

Along with the RC truck and buggy races, I've read on the local track forum that they have access to a pond. So, sounds like they may have some boat races as well.

Every year there is a Regatta weekend at Moraine State Park in western Pennsylvania. There of course are lots of boats out and about, Medevac is usually there with their chopper. There's a guy who has a helicopter every year that offers rides for $20. I may take a ride this year to check out shooting aerial photos. I've also seen a couple of guys every year running RC boats. I remember the RC boats even from way back when I was a child and we moved to this area. That was some 28 years ago.

A little farther away, there is the annual Three River's Regatta in Pittsburgh. I haven't been to it, but I can imagine there is a lot of stuff to shoot there.

There's always the smaller local airports. I don't know if you would be allowed to visit just for photography or not. Most of our local airports are so small that there isn't even a tower or anyone ever around. So, really, there's no one to tell you that you can't hang out with a camera.

Deck hockey. We have 1 deck hockey league local to me (local means under 40 miles for me). I'm not sure when they play, though I assume it is free admission to watch and easy to get a good position since there isn't all that many people watching.

Wings over Pittsburgh air show. Somehow I've missed the last 2 years since I've learned of it, but next year I'm going to try harder. Pittsburgh is a little less local for me, something like 80 miles. Again, another free admission event.

Of course, there's always the kids playing baseball. Any given evening or any given weekend, drive around and you are sure to see at least 2-3 townships playing baseball.

I plan on going to all of them through the summer. As I said, I've been to the RC field for their "show" since they started it, but only had a full automatic digicam and didn't know anything about photography or camera setup. Though I don't have a dSLR, I do have and shoot in full manual control of my little Fuji that I have now and I'll probably take the tripod as well. So, the only experience I have with a camera at an event is the 2 annual RC air shows with an auto digicam.

If I can find this many events, just the free ones at that, where I live way out in the sticks, I can't imagine how city folk can say that there's nothing to go see and shoot at. Starting on June 21st at the RC air show, I can get to 10 events, 1 per weeken, that will carry me through August just in time for my daughter to start back to school again. And that's with me living out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[keith204]

Wow, thanks Mr Rodgers...that gives me a lot of ideas. I am sure most of those things don't get covered by the media, or attract many big lenses...so those would certainly be fun places to go shoot. I'll do some googling and see what I can find.

 

[tirediron]

Wow, some really good ideas in this thread; things I hadn't thought of, and am definitely going to have to look into. Thanks!

 

[Senor Hound]

I don't think MSU will have any games going. But maybe some football practices? That's kind of boring though.

What about the Springfield Lasers, or any Tennis matches? Also, the Cardinals are a BLAST to go see, and you could probably get crazy close. Just watch out for those line drives into the stands...