Girls Varsity Lacrosse

LINYBIMMER · Mar 23, 2012

Well, it's lacrosse season again. My daughters team had their first league game of the year. Late afternoon, and foggy. Tell me what you think:

1.

DSC03649 by jimkerr1961, on Flickr

2.

DSC03626 by jimkerr1961, on Flickr

3.

DSC03733 by jimkerr1961, on Flickr

Thanks for your help.

Jim

Big Mike · Mar 23, 2012

Great photos, not much to critique on them.

LINYBIMMER · Mar 23, 2012

Thanks Mike! That's the nicest thing I've ever heard (read). I'm blushing!

jwbryson1 · Mar 23, 2012

What s/s did you use in 1 and 2?

tirediron · Mar 23, 2012

C&C per req:

From a technical point, the work is good; exposure, focus, etc. Unfortunately, IMO, composition is lacking. In #1, I really had to look hard to realize that this wasn't a shot of a track & field event. When shooting team sports, your strongest shots will generally be ones which show interaction between the opposite teams. #2 is similar in that what she is doing and what sport is being played is not immediately clear. #3 is an interesting image, but my first thought was, "Why is #18 hitting #22?"

Understanding that you often don't have the best vantage point, this sort of work can be difficult. One suggestion I would make (assuming that you want these images to be at least as much about the sport as your daughter) is to shoot wider and include more of the surrounding action. You can always crop tight in post, but you can't "open up".

Overall, they're good shots, but with room for improvement.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

LINYBIMMER · Mar 24, 2012

Thanks Tirediron, I appreciate your points and will put them in my bag of tricks.

JWBryson - I'm pretty sure the shutter was around 1/800.

Jim

LINYBIMMER · Mar 24, 2012

Dreaded double post!

Tony S · Mar 24, 2012

Nice exposures on these, composition needs a little work as said above. Shoot tight if you can get the players face and the basket wtih ball, or another player up close with them. Shoot loose to set the scene or get overall action where the elements for shooting tight don't all appear.

Try to set up where you don't get distracting backgrounds. The first shot is a nice action shot of her running, but you really don't see the facial expression well and the stands in the background are distracting. To cut down on the distracting backgrounds shoot from behind the endlines behind the goal. If shooting from the sidelin, shoot at players on the same side of the field as you so anything in the background is a long ways off and clearly out of focus. When you shoot directly across the field, you get too much background in as there is not enough separation between it and the action.

LINYBIMMER · Mar 25, 2012

Great advice on the looking out for distracting backgrounds Tony. Thanks for pointing that out. With HS Lacrosse, shooting from the endlines is sometimes tough, but I'll do my best next time. Thanks for deconstructing my shoots.

Jim

2ManyToyz · Mar 30, 2012

Is the ball visible in #2...I can't find it

slackercruster · Mar 30, 2012

#1 ...girl has some nice strong legs. Great calf development!

Keep blasting away!

brian_f2.8 · Mar 30, 2012

THIS IS THE MOST VALUABLE TIP YOU CAN LEARN FOR SHOOTING LAX.

Last year I was shooting a game. I had a blast. Anyways here I am behind the net shooting vertical. I got a great sequence of the player taking a shot from a 45 angle off of the net. The shot went way wide and wizzed by my body by about 10ft. It scared the crap out of me because I said what if that shot hit me. It was my fault. The thing is that you are zoomed in so tight but if the player misses and you get hit, those lax balls could do some damage.

Other than that, I agree with previous mentioned post about composition etc...

Tony S · Mar 31, 2012

Shoot with both eyes open so you can follow the action beyond what you see in the lens. It takes a while to get used to it, but it's a life and gear saver. Coming from a shotgun competition background it was not hard for me to do.