Been working on shooting tighter, and getting the 1.4x helped me quite a bit. It also helped that they were very lenient on where I was allowed to shoot from, so I shot from right behind the cage for the entire second half.
shot with the 1d, 70-200, and 1.4x

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4949/b70e5756copy4fu.jpg

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3581/b70e5785copy1qx.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6452/b70e5878copy7oa.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9403/b70e5954copy7qo.jpg

Tight helps if you are going for the expression shots that's for sure. You pulled off a couple of good ones here. But to me the best of the lot is the girl jumping in front of the goal where you can see her feet.

Hot damn Livin. Looks to me like you've mastered the 1D. Great shots.

Tight helps if you are going for the expression shots that's for sure. You pulled off a couple of good ones here. But to me the best of the lot is the girl jumping in front of the goal where you can see her feet.

I like that one as well. I have been shooting our local HS lacrosse all week. I try to only do the boy's games. The girl's game is no fun to watch, and I had a daughter that played for years. No team game play, from youth league all the way up to college. The game style is "me me me". Our local HS won the state championship last year. Current leading scorer has a ton of goals, and a few assists. I'll take the boy's game anyday. I shot a modified game yesterday (grade 7 & 8) and those kids passed the ball five or six times, minimum, before you saw a shot. Girls version, one player runs the ball from one end of the field to the other.

Great job, Livin. You did an excellent job of capturing the expressions, especially in the first and last shots. There is something that bothers me about the 3rd shot, though. I think you're doing a disservice to it by cutting off the goaltender. I think it would be a more interesting shot if we could see how the goaltender is reacting to the play.

On all but #2 you were way too tight. #1: what's this show? It doesn't show me anything but two girls and no point to what they are doing. #2: best of the bunch. #3: doesn't really show much with the goalie chopped off. #4: would have been much better if the girls weren't cut in half.

Going in tight is OK, just not for these, it really limits the action too much. The color is great and they are sharp. The TC doesn't seem to hurt anything on them.
So now you've used the 1D a few times what do you think so far?

JS

in my opinion, there's no such thing as too tight. When you go loose, you lose a lot of the intensity. THe girls loved these shots, and I've sold quite a few prints. if going tight is ok but not in these shots, then when is the right time? The ball is in every shot, and some great expressions. The intensity in these photos is much greater than a lot of shots I have seen or put out recently, and that's what sports photography is about: capturing the emotion of the sport. I'm going to have to disagree with you that these don't work. I think they work best of any photos I've taken so far. WHy would I want to keep the legs? DO they add anything to the shot? No, they're just there. Focus tight on the emotion and action, and leave out stuff that doesn't matter. You may disagree, but from what I've heard here and on other sites (including from my photography idol) they work very well and the tight crops are excellent.

Sean, I cropped it that way just to enhance the focus on the john stark player, since that's who i was marketing these shots too. I definitely agree with you, if I was shooting for a paper or something I would have left the goalie. It does add to the shot.

Ron, I have to disagree with your statement about girl's lacrosse, to a point. In high school, it is definitely the way that you described it. THat's the part I hate the most about the game. A girl can take the ball, run all the way up the field, and not be stopped. In fact, the other girls can even get a penalty called if they step in her way (shooting space). But when you get to the higher echelons of college, the play drastically changes. My sister's team (Stonehill College) won the DII championship when she was on the team, and their style of play was incredible. When you get into the higher levels, a lot less focus is on individual play and more on teamwork. When in lower levels though, its definitely that me me me style of play.

I like to take photos of the guys games too, but the UNH team has less games. Also, the annoying part about the guys sport is the helmets. If you have a sunny day, it makes it hard to get good facial expressions. Though these goggles are funky too. I love taking photos of guys lax though, and just wish I could have the time to be out there playing as well.

I went to a college game with my daughter one year. Syracuse vs. Georgetown. Saw the same style of play as I had at every other level. Put them in pads and let them play the real game. Although it could be worse, could be baseball.

I think it's really governed by the overall skill of the team. If you have that one player who is better than everyone else then you'll see that style of play where they just take it and run with it. But if the entire team is good and there's not really one player who's better than the rest, you'll see them work together.