Womens Field Hockey

Forgot to include this one as well.

Any critique welcome. This is the first time I've shot womans hockey as well as shooting through the wire mesh fencing.

5.

IMG_0281-10 by DRounding, on Flickr
 
OK I'll have a go. They are all reasonably sharp and exposed - so good work on that. You have blown out the mesh fence you are shooting through and I can't see much image degradation so that hasn't caused too much of an issue. From a technical camera point of view I think they are fine - where I think you could improve is in composition and in shooting "action".

1) You have clipped the base of the foot and cropped at the knee. In fact the whole frame is cropped very tight. Little context to the image. It might work as an event image for sale to the person in the shot but otherwise doesn't tell me much as a sports image.

2) Better. You have some action - both feet off the ground. I'd crop the red shirted girl on the LHS out and maybe even clone out the hook of the stick near the ball. Ideally you would have been wider to get that opposing tackler in - which would also have stopped you cropping the head off the other player in the background.

3) Fairly static image and the player in blue disengaging from the action doesn't help.

4) As with 3 - I see disengaged subs and managers/spectators on the bench/background and there really isn't any action.

5) Better action - although it is mainly a bum shot and you needed to be composed to the RHS to get the action and not have 1/3 of the LHS of the frame empty whilst missing the tackle coming in. I'd also probably have cleaned up the astro as well - leaves are distracting on the green.

There also seems to be a general lack of goal mouth action. Were there no short-corners, hits inside the 25, goals ?

Here are three on my blog from a Mens match I covered a while back to give you an idea of my viewpoint and the comments above.

http://www.meonshorestudios.co.uk/blog/2012/03/hockey-photography-guildford-hc-vs-cardiff-uwic/

The other thing is why you were outside the fencing - could you not have got inside ?
 
Many thanks for the feedback Mike, it's my first time shooting this type of hockey and I found it quite difficult to both follow the action and frame the shot. More practise will hopefully help that.

A lot of the images taken were affected by the fencing. This was my first time with the team and it was an away game. I hope to be able to get inside the fencing next time round.

I take on board your comment re capturing the action rather than just the players, I need to forsee the play better. Again experience will hopefully help.

Nice shots of yours on your site BTW.
 
Duncan,

I played for over 10 years at a high level, and it definitely helps to have a solid understanding of the game and how play develops.

As with all sports photography knowing the sport itself - either as a player, or an experienced photographer of that sport makes a big difference.

Good luck with your next outing.

My tip would be if you are shooting with a zoom then frame a little looser than normal, you can always crop in. Better than than miss the action, and tighten up your view as you get more used to it.
 
One thing that Mike forgot to mention is that because of the speed of the game & size of the ball, hockey ( along with its icebound sister) is one of the hardest field sports to photograph.

Ie: don't get disheartened too quickly! :)
 
I'm shooting ice hockey as well. Viewing from a better vantage point helps. I'm persevering.
 
One thing that Mike forgot to mention is that because of the speed of the game & size of the ball, hockey ( along with its icebound sister) is one of the hardest field sports to photograph.

Ie: don't get disheartened too quickly! :)

Good point...
 
I'm having my first outing tomorrow at shooting hockey. I regularly shoot football, rugby and cricket but hockey, never! :) Really looking forward to it and trying a new sport. I'll have a 70-200mm and a 300mm so hopefully have all 'bases' covered.
 
I actually shot hockey for the first time over the weekend. Great sport to photograph and would probably have been even better if I had more knowledge of the sport. I'll definitely shoot it again
 
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