I am officially the "team photographer" this year and shoot from the bench of a minor-league pro hockey team - scary, but fun.

"KJ goes Airborne"

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/001.jpg

"The Bear Attacks"

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/002.jpg

"Enlightenment"

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/003.jpg

"Ooh, this is going to hurt"

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/004.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/005.jpg

"Cheap Shot"

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/006.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/photos2/11-26-2005/008.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/posts/001.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/posts/002.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/posts/003.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/posts/004.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/posts/005.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/posts/006.jpg

and the rest are here http://www.icebearsphotos.com

Nice gig there AC! Also some nice shots, but that first one will give me nightmares! Thats pretty much how my career ended in high school except it was two players landing on me and I wound up with an almost unrepairable knee injury...29 years ago last month! Now I have trouble getting up stairs. :(

Wish I had that gig though! :D

JS

Thanks, JS - and sorry to hear about the career-ending injury. This one was brutal as well KJ Vorhees (the man flying across the top) bears new scar on his chin from the action captured in the photo. If you're an afficianado like you sound, then you can see from the photo that KJ was obviously crosschecked into and through the goalie. The refs in the SPHL have gotten real bad about letting cross-checking in the crease go unpenalized, and I'm afraid someone is really going to get hurt.

Yeah I saw that, it was a good catch on your part.
LOL, I got lots of scars playing hockey :) but I love the game. I may be doing some high school hockey next month, and I'm trying to get to a few Indiana Ice games this year. Since my boss at the paper has connections with them....and knows the owner. Shooting locations bite there though!

JS

great color, and nice and sharp. what are you shooting with, and what are you using for WB?

Thanks, Brent - I shoot with a Canon 10D and a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 - I love that sigma lens - less than half the price of the L, with almost the same power punch the L yields. Most of these were shot ISO 800, f4.0 at 1/350th of a second.

Honestly, I shoot Auto White Balance for these and then make a levels correction if necessary in Photoshop CS. With all that white around, it's pretty darn easy with hockey photos.

very true, I just wish I could get my hockey photos to look like this. What I really need is some good color uniforms for our team. All we have is navy blue and white. How boring. I love your border too, by the way. By far the most appealing border i've seen.

Brent - send me an email and I can send you an action that builds that border for you.

Andy,

These are some awesome hockey images. I wish I could get mine to look like that as well. Here's to hoping that my next hockey game will turn out half as good as these.

If it isn't a problem, I would be interested in your border action script as well.

Great images as always Andy. Love the way you caught the broken stick and some really great facial reaction shots. I really like your model stuff, but I love your sports. I had just commented over on a thread in viewfinder that I wanted see more of your images. Thanks for responding with this great post.

The blur mount and a couple of other actions are available here: AC Actions (http://www.andyarmstrongphoto.com/actions.htm)

First off, sorry for any moniker confusion between myself and the far more regular poster, "Tuna"! Anyway, continuing on...

Most of what I shoot are slow-moving subjects - land & cityscapes, parties and my first wedding was a month ago. Not near as action oriented as hockey and other sports so I'm kind of a fast-action noob. I'm curious about your method of focusing. I shoot with my center focus point as the sole active one, focusing on the main subject then recomposing as necessary. This method doesn't really work so well when there's mad skating going on about the arena and your subject keeps movin around as they do! So my question is what method you use to get those quick action shots so sharp? Manual focus, AI Servo or what?

I don't know about AC but I use Center focus with AI Servo. You need a fast camera and fast lens to do it though.
A real big help though is really knowing the sport and being able to anticipate the action before it happens, knowing what and where it is going to happen makes a big difference. I also shoot with both eyes open as this helps keep track of things to the left as well.

JS

Heh, yeah it may help to say what camera I use so if anyone can suggest anything they know my equipment limitations! I use a 20D and can borrow a 70-200 f/2.8L IS from work as long as I'm not shooting for profit, otherwise its a Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6 which obviously isn't as capable.

Thanks for the tips, JS. Shooting with both eyes open is also something I need to practice cause I tend to close my right (non-shooting) eye to frame.

Adam

Hey Adam,

The 70-200 w/IS will do just fine...it's what I use for hockey on the rare occasion I actually get to shoot hockey....I may try to hit a couple games this week :)

JS

Sorry for not being around much - I've been so friggin' busy lately.

I shot AI Servo up until to games ago, when I accidently forgot to switch from one shot to AI Servo after shooting intermission activities for the team. I noticed during PP that my images were much sharper with one shot at all the same settings. So, for the last 2 games I've shot one shot center focus on my 10d - here are some of the results:

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/01.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/02.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/03.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/04.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/05.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/06.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/07.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/08.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/09.jpg

http://www.icebearsphotos.com/show/0105/10.jpg

Well, I'm just glad you came back around! Thanks for the reply and the info. Great shots as usual!

I really like the third. what i like a lot about your shots is the fact that you don't restrict yourself with the common striaght horizon. You are free to venture out and twist and turn your images, and you get great results that way.

I shot AI Servo up until two games ago ...I noticed during PP that my images were much sharper with one shot at all the same settings. So, for the last 2 games I've shot one shot center focus on my 10d
That is interesting to know.
I wonder if it's the same with the 20D?
It may help with my AF problems on cars to try single shot vs AI Servo.

AC - check shot settings, maybe there is a different sharpness level between the two. I'd have never found that as I never take my camera off AI Servo. You wouldn't think the settings would be different but you never know.

JS