Randy These look very clean and sharp 9 is spot on this has to be one of the hardest sports to shoot you have done great and I bet the kids love the slideshow
Thanks Mike....I am happy to park the ISO 1600+ for awhile. Getting meaningful, emotional action shots of this sport has given me fits. I learned a lot about auto focus and DOF management as a result and that's not all bad..... It is coming around, but then again so is my daughters events....the action as they move up is getting more photographic. I shot some level 4 & 5 for the slide show and the ability to get action shots was really tough....but it comes around...like this little squirt...36" tall on her tiptoes...I was laying on my stomach to give her some effect of height 1600 ISO and f1.8....missed the focus by a bit.....
Nice series pal! Shot 7 of your daughter on the vault is spot on. How'd the team do at State? Qualify for Nationals in my backyard I hope :wink:
those are awesome! When i saw the 1600 ISO title i thought that they would be really grainy, obviously not. also a random note.. are you a pilot? (just saw avatar)
Thanks.....Yes I am a pilot, as are several folks on this forum. Are you also a pilot...or perhaps an aspiring one? I fly a Piper Seneca II & Piper Chieftain...although I started in a Cessna 150....
The entire team qualified for Nationals in Seattle (good for them) They all decided it was too far to travel & too expensive (bad for me) Instead they have a serious one week gymnastics camp in Upper WI and the entire team (except me...and I don't count) decided to go there instead of the expense and time to go to Seattle. I had hoped to meet you personally, check out Seattle and take an additional couple of days to get one of my things checked off on my "to do list"....a visit to Alaska. Instead I'll be at home cutting the grass
Randy, You really have me contemplating going over to the dark side. I think that it all comes down to either picking up the nikon 200mm vr or selling my nikon lot and getting the new canon 1d mark 3 and getting matching canon glass. Great shots. I wish I could get my dance pictures to come out as clean. Larry
These are great! 1 is probably my favorite, but #9 is excellent! Did you have to do any special post-processing because of the high ISO?
Nicely shot!! Love the ones on the horse and the beam. You do get a lot out of that 1600 ISO...I always enjoy your stuff.
Easy now...steady.... That 200 VR is a sweet lens.... The 135 f2 is my next lens addition.....most likely later this fall. After that, I will swap out for either the 85 f1.2 or a used 50 f1.0 for my current 85 f1.8 or 50 f1.4. Stopping down to f1.4 sounds soooo cool.
Thanks Miriam...the post process has been a challenge for me. This particular batch was not my best. I have found that I tend to over-complicate things sometimes...I added a step in Bibble Pro this go around that seems ot have over sharpened and created a strange pattern on these images. I shoot RAW, convert in DPP for sharpness and noise...dump as a JPG. Review, cull & crop in Aperture and run though J-Album for watermark & web posting....whew...got to be a better way! Randy
#7 seems to work for most of us.....it is my daughter so I appreciate getting lucky on one of the right ones at least! Thanks!
Great job Randy! I really like the angle of the shot of your daughter on the vault. Thanks for posting.
LOL, another possible convert? Agree, take your time and rent something before switching. I did just that and made a decision that worked for me, but I left some $$$ on the table too in selling my Nikon kit. I was fine with that, but again, my advice is to try it out for yourself. Then sit down and weigh out the pros and cons that apply to your style of shooting. That said, I had the 200 f2 VR and was a wonderful lens. It's a big lens and something that can be handheld in short stints, but a monopod at best is required. I have Canon's 135 f2 and really like the results so far. Feel free to PM me for thoughts.
