Not that great, but the story is good

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I take photos from the penalty box of my sons' high school hockey games about once a week...*context alert-I live in Huntsville, Alabama former home to the Von Braun rocket team and more non-native Alabamians than you can stir with a stick...and so yes we have a vibrant youth hockey scene here..its not Michigan but its something* ...it has been a learning experience for sure and most of the time I don't get it right... in these two photos there is more wrong than there is right... but, the story the photos tell (with a little help from text) is pretty funny...

I suppose it helps that I know these kids, they are friends of my sons', I have been called to their houses to pick up my sons when a dad is out of town party got out of hand, etc etc.... Teenage boys are so full of it, bravado, whatever you want to call it, trying so hard to act as if they are 30 when they are only 17...clearly lacking the maturity and judgement that we old guys have... to see a skilled defenseman break away with the puck and skate the rink in traffic, amazing puck handling skills and then, just as he is rushing to the net, the kid with a ponytail hanging from her helmet reaches out with her stick and picks the puck...funny stuff... but he keeps coming back for more...

In these two photos (again I know OOF and more).... this kid *in red* fancies himself a ladies man et al, he has a breakaway and in frame 1 is pushing the puck between the defenseman's legs, and in frame 2 said defenseman is befuddled to say the least as to where the puck has disappeared to.... his body language makes me smile...because the defenseman fancies himself a frontrunner as well...

I wish I had better sports photography skills and a f2.8 80-400mm Nikkor lens (if such a thing even exists)... until then I will continue to use the 80-400mm 4.5-5.6 Nikkor and do my best... but I thought it worth sharing the photos and the story...
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Awww, always funny when they go from cocky to befuddled :)
 
I'm a longtime hockey fan and photographer, I'm familiar with Alabama-Huntsville.

Good catching the moment of the puck between the skates. I'd suggest you not try to cover the entire ice or a large portion of it at a time, pick a good vantage point (which you did well in getting a decent background) and let the play come to you/your end of the rink. (Then next period if need be switch ends). A lot of shooting sports is timing and knowing the sport and takes practice.

I usually use a shorter prime telephoto (that's at ice level). If you can find a used lens that's sharp that might be worth considering (KEH has bargain which is actually pretty good, not necessarily pretty but who cares if it looks like it's been dragged around hockey rinks! lol).

High school hockey can be fun to photograph and is a pretty good level of play to watch, sounds like you enjoyed it.
 
Thanks for the input... I agree that hockey has its very own challenges... not the least of which is really poor inconsistent lighting... because of our rink, I usually photograph from the penalty box...as the parent volunteer to man the box.... because of "issues" with the high school fans in the past, everyone is required to sit up in elevated bleachers behind a nylon net... or inside a heated portion of the rink... neither offers much in the way of vantage point / shooting opportunities....

The way our rink is set up... the team boxes are side by side on one side of the rink... score box and penalty boxes on other side...

I am interested in your thoughts on a shorter prime ? I have a Nikkor 105mm f2.8 that I use mostly for macro shots... I think what I have for this camera are a 24, 28, 50, 105, and the 80-400 zoom.... Im guessing you are talking about something along the lines of a 150mm ? I shoot with a Nikon d810 so cropping out smaller sections is rarely a problem if necessary...

As you know lighting is always an issue and is inconsistent at best... one end of the rink might require 3200 and the other 1600 to keep shutter speeds between 1/500 and 1/250.... and then there is all the clutter behind the glass, the metal buildings are never very pretty..... the penalty box is open to the ice so that eliminates shooting through the beaten up glass... undoubtedly it would be nice to have a longer f2.8 lens preferably with fast auto focus..

Any thoughts or suggestions from your experience will be appreciated.... I generally shoot Aperture priority to keep the lens as open as possible at 3200 to give me sufficient shutter speed 1/500-1/250... I have shot shutter priority as well... but given the lens needs to be at 4.5 (best case) Aperture priority seems to have about the same result... and I rarely set iso to over 3200...
 
Im guessing you are referring to a used but useable Nikon AF-D 180mm f2.8 ?
 
I'm not familiar with the Nikon digital, you just wouldn't necessarily need a 400 at ice level I don't think. I've done hockey with old mechanical cameras and 400 speed film, LOL that's how I learned, so I shoot manual settings and focus manually, don't use priority settings. It's a matter of figuring out what works best for you.

Local rinks in my area are mostly crappy lighting and worse glass. And in more recent years netting to contend with too. I'd usually figure out after the first time at a different arena where the best spots were, where the lighting was better and where I'd gotten better shots. Probably the penalty box with no glass is a good option.
 
Oh... well I'm not really looking to move back to fully manual settings and manual focus...this is their last year playing and then off to college so I imagine I will just stumble through and do the best I can.... almost play off time !! I will sure miss sitting in the penalty box and watching their games ... Ive been doing that since they were about 5 years old... high school is certainly more enjoyable to watch that is for sure... thanks for the thoughts
 

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