Miami played Eastern Kentucky University, so I had another opportunity to shoot some good ol' American football. First off, I'm really thankful for having a great supervisor. He really lets me explore the world of sports photography for myself and learn by first hand experience. Let me tell you though, there is so much to learn and I feel like I could spend years on this and still have so much to learn.
This time around I got to use the 300mm prime lens for the duration of the game. Seriously peeps this lens is massive. I am legit sore in my left arm from carrying this lens. Here's an idea of how massive it is:
It's basically three 6D's big and basically the same girth. Massive. I may end up having some ripped arms after this season. Ha! I got jokes, I know, I know.
Anyways, today I learned about positioning. I was actually fine with getting used to the lens and it didn't feel like I was new to photography again. Things were going fine up until I started missing shots because people were in my way. Honestly, I was missing good shots because I was not in the right position. Here are some examples of what I am talking about (click on the photo for more):
You can see how sometimes the cheerleaders were in the shot, or even the referee was in the shot. I played a lot with positioning today, in terms of where to be and when to be there. It's actually really critical to understand what is happening in the game, so it's not just simply pointing the camera at the QB and pressing the shutter as much as you want. It's important to understand what down you're on, how close to the goal, quarter, players, trends, etc.
I've realized how fortunate I am to have this opportunity and it's turning out to fit in so well with what I am learning in graduate school. I mean there is an entire subculture existent within football at the university and even a subculture within sports photography. I'm getting real excited because of how well this experience is turning out to be. It is definitely refining the fact that I want to go into student affairs media and communication.
Here are some of my fav's from today's game (click on the image for more pictures):
Next week there is no home football game, but I will be shooting cross country and a Latin American festival. I plan to keep this blog up weekly. At least one post a week about my adventures in photography.
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Until next time friends!