4802 - Three Photos

I've just got back from rugby practice at Epples field where i've been shooting my first 4802 assignment. I'm following Mizzou's women's Rugby team this season - the girls are feisty, and a little intimidating but the for the most part they were all really friendly and are in essence a great big extended family. Today was pretty much a recruitment day, introducing all the rookies to the rules and nuances of Rugby.

I'm not gonna lie - I was a little cocky coming into this one. I feel like I have an eye for composition, and i'm not new to using a DSLR so I thought it'd be pretty easy to breeze through it.

Boy was I wrong.

What I had also forgotten to take into account was the fact I was no longer shooting static images - sports photography is a completely new ball game and I found it extremely challenging in many ways.

While I was taking photos I tried to keep the reading on sports photography in mind by following the tips on vantage point and horizon... a couple of my favorite shots were taken while I was lying on the ground shooting the players above me - it gave me a clear view of all the action and on a more practical note helped reduce camera shake and blur.

Shooting in the fading light also produced some challenges. Because some of my pictures were taken with a telephoto lens I had to keep the shutter speed high which meant when I couldn't get the aperture down low enough I had to deal with under-exposure. When this happened I upped the ISO which often made a massive difference.

The whole time I was there I just tried to take as many photos as possible - you can only learn so much from a manual and i'm not going to get any better at sports photography by sitting on my behind. Yes, it was challenging, and certainly intimidating coming into a new environment like this, but it was a great experience and I look forward to moving forward with this team.