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Prior to teh Vivid Sydeny meet, i pottered along to another game of footie, similiar conditions to my last effort but there was some more light available which made things more interested.

Any sports photographers got any advice about getting teh action shots, more specifically is it worthwhile running up and down the side of teh field chasing the action? It may provide a variety of backgrounds, but i am there to enjoy the game also

Nonetheless I thing I have the lineouts sorted, can just about nail the ball each time

yep thats the sideline...shoulda been a dancer





oh man this is gotta hurt...not the best shot technically, lots of noise, but the composition and action make up for it imo.



look ma, I am soo damn good I can do it with me eyes closed.



comments, crictisms, improvements...hit me with it...

I bet I won't even have a single shot in focus if I tried this!

Really like the #3 for it's composition and mostly capturing a great moment (for us; not so much for the person getting punched in the face )

People getting hurt (esp willingly) makes for great photography in general!  BTW the light, exposure seems spot on! Do you use shutter priority (and auto ISO?) I am impressed that the D80 can focus so quickly. [or are you using manual focus? ]

Having shot some Rugby back when I used to play and help out with some coaching I can say these are really well done. It's damn hard to follow the action a lot and you've done well here.

These are all good but for me #1 and #2 are the standouts. Nailed the timing, nailed the focus, nailed the composition. Not much left after that is there?

surenj wrote:BTW the light, exposure seems spot on! Do you use shutter priority (and auto ISO?) I am impressed that the D80 can focus so quickly. [or are you using manual focus? ]

ta Suren, I use full manual and adjust the iso as required, thinking about it, i might try the shutter priority next time with the auto iso.

The focus on the 300mm f4 is pretty sweet, it misses a few and picks up the back ground sometimes, but it definitely has a much higher strike rate than my old 100-300mm manual lens.
I have just be using teh centre spot focus which works most times, however I find sometimes It means I chop heads and stuff off. I should try using the top focus point and keeping that on the head of the player..

Nailed the timing, nailed the focus, nailed the composition

yeah agreed, the rest is elementary after that - its just trying to get all those 3 things to occur on a more regular basis

People getting hurt (esp willingly) makes for great photography in general!

yeah, in this game they had one bloke stretched off after a serious ruck, did not look good at all.

surenj wrote:I am impressed that the D80 can focus so quickly

following on from that, do people out there who do sports stuff, do you use spot focus? or something else?

Great action shots! Timing is perfect!