Dear CHG_CANON... Coming from an excellent Canon photographer such as yourself, that is a welcome comment. Mucho Gracias! Shooter41

I decided to use my Sony A7R4 with my Sony 70-200mm F2.8 telephoto lens to take photographs of Friends University versus Newman College outdoor soccer game to keep my reflexes sharp in preparation for the Wichita Wings Indoor soccer season opener this fall. I set my shutter speed at 1/2000 and the ISO on auto, the aperture at F2.8 and shot bursts when the action required it. As usual, I wanted the pictures I took and displayed to tell viewers a visual story the moment they take a look at them. The less text it takes to explain what was going on when I took the picture, the better! The attached image of mine is a good example of what I try to achieve when I am shooting and when I am editing for publication. Early in the game I noticed that the slender Friends University player with a #16 on his jersey was far more active than any of his fellow teammates. #16 didn't hesitate for a moment to take on the biggest opposing player on the pitch. It didn't seem to matter to #16 that the giant was serving as Newman's ENFORCER! So, I followed #16 actions more closely than any other player on the pitch. I kept my shutter finger on the ready button in anticipation of good action unfolding. If you look closely, you will notice that not only is the enforcer WAY bigger than #16, but he puts all of his body weight on slender #16's left leg trying to prevent him from being able to take the ball away. In the background you see three other Newman players watching in amazement as little #16 is challenging their enforcer. The look on the face of the Newman player on the far left is my favorite element of the story. He can hardly believe that the little fella is beating their giant and is going to escape with the ball. I thought to myself, "It appears there is justice in the world on occasion." Any suggestions that the excellent sports photographers on UHH might have for me to enable me to create; better images that tell a good story, are welcome. Shooter41

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Dear goofybruce... You are my kind of guy! You look at a picture somebody took and immediately see all of the positive things you can enjoy and celebrate yourself. Your appreciation for "overshooting" reminds me that we now have digital mirrorless cameras that allow us to adjust our settings so we can press a shutter and our cameras sound like a machine gun while taking thirty frames in the blink of an eye. I love to pick from a series of my images to find just the right one where the striker's toe is buried in the ball as they take a shot on goal.
I am betting that you are the kind of person who enjoys his life to the fullest and doesn't sweat the small things. Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Cordially, Shooter41

[quote=raymondh]I could argue that the defender isn’t blocking are view but rather directing are view to where the action is.
The only difficulty I find in action shots like these, football, baseball, etc, is getting the horizon line right. It always seems to be running on a slant, no matter how small, & regardless of whether I use, in this case for instance, the vertical fence post or the horizontal top of the fence.

Dear raymondh...Very often the subjects in action in outdoor soccer are not squarely across the pitch from the camera which would give a background of a fence that is level like the horizon. If the subjects are far down the pitch at an angle, then your viewers recognize that fact by taking into account the railroad tracks principal of the tracks appearing to become closer and closer together indicating what distance they are at an angle from the camera. The top of the fence in my soccer picture where the two subjects are not straight across the pitch and not at a right angle with my camera, should not be level with the horizon in reality. It is my humble contention that one should not tilt one's image that a fence is level if the players are downfield at an angle and the fence appears to get smaller in the distance. There is no horizon in my image. Shooter41

Dear tcthome... I retired my excellent Canon camera and went to a Sony A7R4 three seasons ago to get the larger sensor for indoor soccer under poor lighting situations. I am starting to get very comfortable with it and really appreciate the 61MG sensor especially considering low light conditions. To get great clarity and stop action during high action sporting events under low lighting conditions, I routinely shoot at a shutter speed of 1/2000 second off of a monopod to avoid camera shake. The poor mercury vapor lighting at Hartman Arena and the Kansas Coliseum where I have photographed the Wichita Wings Professional Indoor soccer team at all home games for the last 43 years requires that I shoot at ISO 3200 with my mirrorless Alpha camera and then denoise during editing with Topaz denoise. (Outdoors in direct sunlight, I can shoot at ISO 100 with no need for Topaz.) I always shoot at F2.8 to get a blurry background when photographing soccer and bokeh which photographing wild birds.) Hope this is helpful. Shooter41

Dear Grahame...
Thank you for taking the time to view my post and make an excellent suggestion for me to take full advantage of auto ISO during changing light situations. (Also I have learned to shoot both JPEG and RAW formats so that I can delete the bad images quickly using JPEG and edit the winners using RAW format images which has more latitude to avoid clipping and open up the shadows and avoid clipping highlights by viewing the histogram enabling me to adjust exposure as needed to avoid losing detail. I also use several software editing programs to take advantage of each of their strongest points. (Topaz is great on getting rid of noise.) Love to see some of your work. Shooter41

Dear Cany123...Yeah. The picture looks better with the fence in the background leveled and the two player subjects centered. I think that the image looks worse with the defender with his back to the camera cut in half. So, you win two to one in my book. What do you think of my second edit compared to my first edit? Shooter41

Second edit with fence straightened and subjects centered

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First edit with crooked fence and full backside of defender intact

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Hi again, Joe! There you go being a gentleman again. I'm glad to be back on UHH after a heart attack on 11-11-22, open heart surgery five days later to put a cow valve in my heart and finding new appreciation for my life, my love of photography and my gratitude for having a friend like you. Shooter41

I set up my Sony A7R4 alpha camera with a Sony 70-200mm, F2.8, telephoto lens, the way Australian Sony Ambassador, Mark Galer recommended for shooting high action outdoor sports. After seeing the resulting image, I have to sing the praise of both Sony and Mark Galer. My attached image is so amazingly clear taken from over 220 feet away and displays such interesting body language and facial expressions of the players, that I couldn't delete it. It was taken from a position outside the entire width of a 220-foot-wide outdoor soccer pitch with only a 200mm maximum telephoto lens. The common rules of composition would suggest that I delete the image because a defender was partially blocking the camera's view of the two subjects. A second reason was that the ball had bounced off yet another defender to the far-left side of the frame and wasn't near the two subjects. Yet the expressions on the two subjects faces and their body language is so revealing that viewers will feel their intense battle over the ball, which is the essence of soccer. Also one can easily see each of the well-worn individual cleats on the two subject's feet which is amazing at that distance. I hope you enjoy the image I created and feel free to make comments on how I can improve my image. Shooter41

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Dear PAR4DCR... Thanks for the excellent suggestion for me to contact Jules Karney. Shooter41 (Don Marler)

Dear Ricardo...

I too like to make new amigos who also enjoy photography. I noticed that you are holding a Nikon camera with an interesting telephoto lens attached. I would love for you to share with me the age and specs on your beautiful "oldy-but-a- goody" lens and what you enjoy photographing with it.

I have been taking pictures of the indoor professional soccer team, the Wichita Wings, in my hometown of Wichita, Kansas for forty-three years.) The attached picture was taken at a tryout session in 2021.)

I went from a Canon camera to a Sony A7R4 camera about four years ago. My name is Don Marler and I am eighty-one years young. I go buy "Shooter41"on the Ugly Hedge Hog photo group. I hope to become friends with you.

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Recently, I took photographs of outdoor soccer players in sunlight during the late afternoon and later under night lights after the sun went down at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. When I got home and began editing, I noticed that my shot of two players going up for a header surrounded by additional players included players with three different basic skin tones. (Light, medium and dark complected) I had set up my Sony A7R4 camera and 70-200mm, F2.8, Sony telephoto zoom lens to capture the detail in the lightest skin tone. All of my JPEG images lost the details when players were in the shadow of the bleachers. All of my RAW images fared better than JPEG but still struggled to capture the finest details in the darkest skin toned players when they went into shadows. (Some clipping of shadows areas occured.) I welcome any and all suggestions from UHH sports photographers how they set up their cameras to capture the detail of all of the players, no matter how light or dark their skin tone is and whether the players are in sunlight, mercury vapor night lights or shadows. The attached image shows two fair skinned players on the left, a medium skin toned #7 and a dark skin toned player with his back to the camera after I edited the exposure trying to find the sweet spot. Shooter41

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NOBODY!!! That's the point I was trying to make.

No!

Dear Architect1776... This morning, I called B & H Photo in New York and was told that NO MANUFACTURER has created a lens converter for my sixty-three-year-old, 1958, Topcon, 300mm, F2.8, 44.7mm screw mount lens. Therefore, I cannot attach my Sony A7R4 mirrorless camera to my ancient manual lens to get to digital photographic files that I can edit on Photoshop. BAD NEWS FOR ME! Thank you for trying to help me. Shooter41