First Regular Season BB Of The Year

[dhyravy]

So the season has begun in KY! While that may be OK in most places, here it's on the level of a state holiday. I got out last night and covered the first HS girls game for MaxPreps and it sure was nice not to be walking up and down a sideline freezing. I was also doing some experimenting for some posts on my new blog for budding sports photographers. (actionphototips.com) Anyway, good game and the home team started the season with a win which is always a good thing!

Setup for this was:

• Small flashes clamped to the railings off the corners of the court about 10 rows above the floor set at 1/4 power and fired with Elinchrom Skyport triggers.
• ISO 800
• SS 1/250
• Single Point Autofocus
• Center Weighted Metering
• Custom White Balance

[Photo-John]

Nice! Those look great - especially the second one. Your strobes really make a difference. The white balance looks really good, too. What camera and lens are you using?

[Old Timer]

Love the way you have captured at the peak action in both images. I have already shot seven basketball games, but haven't gotten to a high school game yet, should do that tomorrow night with our hometown girls.

[mattb]

Yeah, those look great. Have you had any problems with the organizations or players objecting to the flashes? How many flashes are there in your whole setup?

[dhyravy]

OK, let me answer the questions:

Camera - Nikon D300
Lens - Nikkor 80-200 2.8 (at f2.8 in these shots)
As for the strobes - I've been strobing HS basketball for about 6 years now including Regional and State Championship games. I also strobe NCAA basketball. I have never talked to a player that has noticed the flash. I would NEVER use a flash on the camera for any indoor sport. I do use flash for HS football mounted 3ft below the camera on the monopod, and that has never been an issue either. Several coaches have told me that if the players are paying attention to something like that, they don't have their mind on the game. I also played HS basketball back when it was common for all the newspaper guys to use on-camera flash and I don't remember noticing either.

Here's a shot from the far end showing my strobe mounting locations.

[dhyravy]

Thanks Larry! (and mattb/john) I feel kind of like we grew up together shooting sports in KY and posting on here! Still having fun, so I guess I'll keep doing it. I shot some college football this year, but I don't think I'm going to cover much NCAA basketball. I really like shooting HS, much simpler and no halftime uploads.

[Adaugeo]

very nice!

[dhyravy]

Thought I might add a couple more shots to this since it seemed to generate some interest. Same game, same setup as before. Thanks everyone who commented!

[Old Timer]

I notice your high angle here and wondered where you shot the image from.

[dhyravy]

If you look at the shot showing my strobe placement in this thread, there are a couple of sets of low bleachers off of the end line. I typically end up on top of them on the ends near the corners of the court to shoot over cheerleaders. Our HS has 36 of them this year and some schools bring theirs as well.

[Old Timer]

36!!! That's ridiculous. I try not to be to demanding but I get my position and the cheer kids have to work around that. I have had visiting squads with ridiculous number where they take-up the entire baseline behind the basket try to move me but it just doesn't work.

[dhyravy]

They accommodate me OK if I want to shoot from there. The issue I have is when the action gets close to the baseline, there's always at least one of them in my way. I've found that it's just simpler to shoot over them.