Thanks for sharing and the tech info. Impressive shots.

It looks like the delivery trucks we had when I was a kid. There was the milk man and also a bread man that would each come a couple times a week.

I'm picturing just sitting there with a warm cup of coffee and some mellow tunes. That is such an inviting scene.

Thank you for sharing.

My experience is with our rug rat's school basketball career. Where ever you sit will give a different angle and shots. I would suggest moving a couple of times during the game to try out different views. One thing though is to do your best not to obstruct the view of others watching the game.

While your samples don't show it, be careful about trying to get shots on the other side of the net. The net will throw your auto-focus off. I used a wider telephoto when near the court, such as a 24-70 and bigger when sitting in the stands, such as 70-200. Don't be shy about cropping the photo in post to get a better shot and level to correct the angle.

The one angle I personally dislike is level. Either slightly above or below the action has much more impact. That is because there is less background to distract from the action. Shooting across the court puts those on the other side in view. Shooting up puts the further side even more out of focus. Shooting down leaves the court itself as the background.

School gyms are notorious for poor photography lighting. Those in the stands don't notice, but cameras do. Usually I will boost the ISO to 1600 or even 3200 and shoot between 320 and 500 along with a f4.0 or f5.6. Too wide an aperture can cause its own problems with moving action, but, that is also a matter of personal taste. My experience is while some motion blur of people is undesirable, motion blur of the ball isn't and may even add to the shot. You seem to have hit all the technical requirements in your samples.

Set your color for incandescent (3200K) or auto. This though is one reason I shoot RAW; so the color may be corrected later if needed. Older lights tend to get pink while newer lights are generally bluer.

And my caveat remains that my opinion and $1.19 gets you a coffee at the Family Express gas station. Enjoy your volleyball game. Your samples are well done.

With all due respect to your talents, but dang that's ugly. I just had breakfast.

Thanks for sharing the technique.

The minimum focus appears to be 1.3 ft / 0.38 M. That would be from the object to the focal plane. I don't think there is a dedicated mode for macro, just the minimum focus. (The focal plane is a circle with a long line through it, located on the top of the camera. It represents the sensor on a DSLR or film on a SLR. This is for those who actually measure the distance. Some newer cameras may not have this mark.)
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-18-70-3p5-5p6-m15/3 .

This appears to be an older and different from the lens referenced by jerryc41. Your's appears to be a rebranded, old Konica-Minolta lens Sony inherited when they bought them out.

If it still works and the images make you happy then enjoy. Few of these older lenses have Image Stabilization but do have good optics.

Some nice shots of a wonderful day.

I love the shot. I wonder though, why isn't the moon red?

I like your humming birds. If I could suggest, brighten the bottom one just a little for more impact. The color contrast of the (plastic) red flowers against the light green background would nicely frame the bird. And remember, my opinion and $1.19 gets you a 24 oz coffee at the Family Express gas station.

Thank you for sharing some nice shots.

Li-on batteries have circuits in them to prevent overcharging and to cut them off before going totally dead. If they refuse to be charged then the circuit is probably bad.

While they may be disassembled and booted with success, it does require some special tools. My advice is to just recycle it and get a new battery. If there is a warranty then follow up on that.

That is a scary looking rack. Great shots.

My suggested action is to manually reset the WB if this happens again.

My first DSLR was an 8 MP Canon. I had few qualms about cropping up to 75% on it.

The biggest reason I crop today is to square the photo. Taking a lot of sports photos, I found many of my shots were slightly crooked and / or off centered.

Often, when you sit down to look at your photos on a computer, they appear different than they did in your viewfinder. You have too much sky, someone is walking into one side of the frame, etc. Cropping those out of the shot can make a huge difference. Also cropping to just one thing in the shot can give you an entirely different photo.

A suggestion is when you crop a photo, save it with a new name. My practice is if the original file is 12345.jpg, I will name the cropped photo 12345-c.jpg. The "-c" tell me that I cropped it. If I dislike the crop (or other editing) I still have the original I can revert to. By just adding a suffix to the original file name, I can trace it back and find other photos from the same shoot.

Good luck

My first DSLR was an 8 MP Canon. I had few qualms about cropping up to 75% on it.

The biggest reason I crop today is to square the photo. Taking a lot of sports photos, I found many of my shots were slightly crooked and / or off centered.

Often, when you sit down to look at your photos on a computer, they appear different than they did in your viewfinder. You have too much sky, someone is walking into one side of the frame, etc. Cropping those out of the shot can make a huge difference. Also cropping to just one thing in the shot can give you an entirely different photo.

A suggestion is when you crop a photo, save it with a new name. My practice is if the original file is 12345.jpg, I will name the cropped photo 12345-c.jpg. The "-c" tell me that I cropped it. If I dislike the crop (or other editing) I still have the original I can revert to. By just adding a suffix to the original file name, I can trace it back and find other photos from the same shoot.

Good luck

Lithium batteries have protective circuits in them. That prevents overcharging and over discharging. However, those circuits also need a very minimal current to keep the battery working. Even sitting, a small amount of energy will discharge. When the charge reaches too low a voltage, it will go into a deep sleep or hibernation. Sometimes it can not be woken out of this sleep and the battery becomes useless or dead.

There is no magic number of when a battery goes too discharged to be used. Normal use and charging cycling though is more than sufficient to get a lot of mileage out of your battery. Your camera or phone will usually shut down with enough energy left in the battery to keep it alive.

The best advice is to charge the battery every 6-8 months. Fully discharge the battery (using the camera flash helps discharge it quicker), then fully charge it and store it again. Store it in an air tight bag in a dry location.

***
NOTE: While dead Li-on batteries may sometimes be revived, it is not a given and is usually prohibitive. A totally discharged battery (reading 0.0 volts) is usually damaged and not recommended for reuse. Trying to force charge a dead Li-on battery may cause an explosion or fire.

Good luck