Fencing Take II

[mattbikeboy]

Last night I shot the Main Events at the 2009 Duel in the Desert. There was much better lighting but the venue was tiny. My only fast lenses are the venerable Nikkor 50mm f1.8 and the Nikkor 80-200 f2.8. Yikes, even the 50 was too long for the narrow (two or three rows) seating along the strip. Lighting was much better with the entire strip was light by the house can lights --YEAHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I didn't de-noise any of these shots and there is some graininess making an appearance.

Anyway here are my favorites:


Some foil action!


The mens Epee bout was the final event and boy it was a good one that came down to a final touch tie break (or what ever it is called).


The guy in the bow tie in the background is my daughter's coach.







I'm thinking a full frame D3 would have helped a bit with higher ISO (so I could have increased the shutter speed) and it would have removed the crop factor and brought my lenses down in effective focal length.

mbb

[DHMN69]

I tried to watch fencing on TV during the last Olympics..and it's too nuts.. every 'touch' seemed to be a tie and just too confusing to figure out how they actually decide which person touched first...good action shots though

[SmartWombat]

That looks hard to shoot !
I like the face in the 3rd shot, almost impossible to get through the mask.
But the second looks more like I imaging fencing.

[Jimmy B]

The second shot looks like he got it through the heart! Nice capture.
Jimmy B

[mattbikeboy]

Originally Posted by SmartWombat

That looks hard to shoot !
I like the face in the 3rd shot, almost impossible to get through the mask.
But the second looks more like I imaging fencing.

I've been wondering how hard it would be to install a little led light unit just behind the mesh to illuminate the face. Not during a match -- but maybe a mock match for photos. I'll probably make one and test with my daughter -- maybe some club photos are in order if I can get it to work well. I may corner the market in fencing photos --- oh yeah, all 40 people in the area who do it.

mbb