Hi

Shot my first track meet on Friday. Middleschool Very different from the X-country and Bball previously worked.

Posting two pics to get feedback on general composition for high-jump. I tried to get myself in a position where I could try to get faces and a sense of the action, but found the angles difficult as my subject, in addition to moving, is also 6 feet in the air (ie higher than my camera). Sun was off to my right side late mid afternoon sun. Was at the jumper’s feet, as it were.

Posting from my iPad via photostream, so my quick edits (cropping, straightening) did not come through. Sorry about that, but am traveling away from the main computer. that said, I wanted you to see what the basic shot was in the view finder. I did crop out much of the side of the blue mat and most of the sky.

In terms of my position vs subject and where I should be to capture this sport, looking for tips from some more experiences sports shooters for this particular sport. I wanted to see their face, but it was tough. Further to the right, and the shoulder blocked it. Further to the left, and got the top of their head.

Also, I found that tracking focus from the start of their run to the jump did not work well. With these, I focused on the middle of the bar with a medium DoF, locked the focus (finger off BBF), and then tracked and followed the athelete as they came to the bar, working to time the moment. Is this the right technique for this type of shot. If not, please recommend another way

I have 3 more meets to experiment with until the state finals, so I have to get this down quickly.

Thanks it advance for your help for this beginner

David

PS. Yes, that is my son, and he set a PR at 5-2 in the meet, taking 1st place in this middle school meet. Sorry - couldn’t resist. Many of you know this is why I got back into photography in the first place.

Hi

Shot my first track meet on Friday. Middleschool Very different from the X-country and Bball previously worked.

Posting two pics to get feedback on general composition for high-jump. I tried to get myself in a position where I could try to get faces and a sense of the action, but found the angles difficult as my subject, in addition to moving, is also 6 feet in the air (ie higher than my camera). Sun was off to my right side late mid afternoon sun. Was at the jumper’s feet, as it were.

Posting from my iPad via photostream, so my quick edits (cropping, straightening) did not come through. Sorry about that, but am traveling away from the main computer. that said, I wanted you to see what the basic shot was in the view finder. I did crop out much of the side of the blue mat and most of the sky.

In terms of my position vs subject and where I should be to capture this sport, looking for tips from some more experiences sports shooters for this particular sport. I wanted to see their face, but it was tough. Further to the right, and the shoulder blocked it. Further to the left, and got the top of their head.

Also, I found that tracking focus from the start of their run to the jump did not work well. With these, I focused on the middle of the bar with a medium DoF, locked the focus (finger off BBF), and then tracked and followed the athelete as they came to the bar, working to time the moment. Is this the right technique for this type of shot. If not, please recommend another way

I have 3 more meets to experiment with until the state finals, so I have to get this down quickly.

Thanks it advance for your help for this beginner

David

PS. Yes, that is my son, and he set a PR at 5-2 in the meet, taking 1st place in this middle school meet. Sorry - couldn’t resist. Many of you know this is why I got back into photography in the first place.

Hi Jules. Nice shots as always. I learn more each time you post. Alas, I wish the sun was coming from where it was in your shots (i.e. from the landing side of the bar) for me, but I was exactly opposite. Did not seem workable to ask them to turn the whole jump around just for me. (Would put in a smiley here, but it seems to only want to post at the end!)

Are you tracking focus on the head (I found that to be difficult to keep on subjects jumping), or did you prefocus and time the shot? if the latter, how are you dealing with DoF?

Thanks