btbg

I have not posted any photos for quite a while. Thought it was about time to post some of the stuff from the last few weeks, including basketball, baseball, softball, tennis, track and golf. Just a small sampling of each. The osprey is thrown in just for fun as they nest adjacent to the baseball field and fly across the field during games.

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Michael1079 Loc: Indiana

Very well done. Some great captures. Softball/baseball is tough to shoot. How do you get around the fences?

btbg

Baseball I usually shoot on a ladder over the fence
Softball I shoot straight through the fence at f2.8 with the lens right against the fence

Michael1079 Loc: Indiana

Thanks! And thanks for sharing your images!

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

Nice job capturing defining moments in such a wide variety of sports.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice variety!

tshift Loc: Overland Park, KS.

These are real nice photos btbg!! Not posting for a while, looking at these you definitely need to post a lot more sport photos. Thanks and BE SAFE!!

Tom

btbg

Thank you all for the kind words.

pnittoly Loc: Mountainside, New Jersey

Thanks for sharing. Great work. Can you share your settings, camera, lenses ? Paul

btbg

Settings vary depending on sport and lighting. Generaly in aperture priority with a shitter speed of 1,000th of a second or higher. Frequently shoot baseball and softball at 8,000th of a second or faster to stop the ball. Iso is set to automatic with a maximum iso of 20,000. Lenses on those photos are eitjer a 70-200 f2.8 or the Nikon 400f2.8 which has a built in 1.4 extender. The baseball photo was taken from behind the outfield fence woth a 2x converter stacked with the 1.4 that is built into the lense makin it an 1120f6.3 lens. On answer to the next question someone will ask about shooting with the 400 and a 2x converter that lens with a Z9 weighs just under 10 pounds combined and no I dont use a monopod. All are hand held. Hope that answers all of your questions.

pnittoly Loc: Mountainside, New Jersey

Thanks. Looks like you’ve mastered the Z9 especially without a monopod. Please keep sharing. Paul

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

I am going to chime in here. Your photos are very nice, but are you getting the most out of your gear. Maybe shoot simple. Like shoot in manual. 1/4000 at wide open, no no extender which softens the photos. I always use a monopod for all sports except basketball. Gear just to heavy for me anyway. When you shoot with a very high iso image quality will suffer. A monopod will help keep your shots in focus, limiting camera shake. Fill the frame with your shots, contentrate on quality each shot. It's very easy these days to depend on Topaz and other products out there to make an average shot better. That's ok as long as the shot itself has merit.
Just my thoughts sir. Throw them out or try a few suggestions. Your stuff is good make it better. You have great gear.
Jules

tshift Loc: Overland Park, KS.

btbg

Sorry I'm slow getting back to you. I've been working every day. I appreciate the compliment, but will have to respectfully disagree with some of what you are saying.
First, a monopod is simply not practical for many of these shots. I frequently shoot off of a ladder to get over softball and baseball fences as well as tennis. If I was having trouble with focus or holding a camera steady then a monopod would undoubtedly be practical. Otherwise it's just extra weight to drag around.
Second I don't use Topez, or any other sharpening or denoise program. Since the corporate office took over doing page layout for all 23 papers in the corporation they do not want photos sharpened or denoised as for some unknown reason they are applying the same amount of sharpening and denoise to each photo that goes in print, so what you see is the sharpness and noise that was there when the photo was taken.
Third, I will continue to use an extender. My boss asked me to take photos of baseball games from the same location I have been shooting softball from, which is in right center field behind the fence. I need at least 800mm and in some fields 1120 to shoot from there. Yes, there might be a small amount of image degredation, but it is still better image quality using the Nikon 400 f2.8 with a 2x extender than my old Sigma Sport 150-600 without one and it gives far more reach. When a sports editor says to shoot from the outfield you find a way to shoot from the outfield.
Finally, I went back and looked at the Exif data from all 10 of those photos I found one photo that was not shot wide open and it was the only one where the ISO appears to be a little high. The reason for that is pretty simple. There are several buttons on the 400 lens that are near where I hold the lens and if I accidently hit one it changes the fstop, which is exactly why I do not shoot in manual. Shooting with auto ISO adjusts so that even if I accidently do change the fstop while shooting I will still have properly exposed photos. I think you do a great job with your photos. I also think that the photos that my sports editor and publisher expect are very different from what Max Prep Sports wants, so what works for one of us may not work for the other.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Well said. I do respect others and their ways of working. I thought I would add some insight into our craft. What works works and we have to listen to the people that sign our checks.
Be well
Jules