First Attempt at Track

[btrips]

Here are a few shot with my 30d, sigma 2.8 70-200. Still feel like I am having trouble with the sun. Seems like shooting outdoors is harder than in the gyms! Anyway please comment as you wish and thanks for looking.

btrips

[btrips]

Hurdles

[btrips]

High Jump

[btrips]

Discus. This wasshot with a 1.4TC

[btrips]

My son at the long jump!

[btrips]

Last one also long jump. Shooting lonj jump head on turned out a little hard than I thought.

[JohnG]

Nice first attempt! You are 100% correct by the way - sun is extremely difficult. Overcast is your friend. I think the first 3 shots turned out well. On shot 4, I'm not sure the sharpness is there. Tough to tell from this image size, but the face doesn't look sharp. And to me anyways, the face is more important than the disc. Yes you want it in the frame, but what will make the shot interesting or not interesting is the face of the thrower. On the broad jump, there is too much dof (i.e. distracting backgrounds) and I tend to prefer a strait on shot rather than an angle (but that is a preference thing).

By the way, the high jump shot is good for photographer instruction purposes. The photog in the background is a prime example of someone who doesn't know what they're doing. Jumpers are consitant in how they approach a jump - they don't come from the left on one jump and then the right on their next jump. So, you should know where their face is going to be. Even with perfect timing that photog is going to have a picture of the back of the kid's head - which means it should go in the trash bin. Kudos for being in the proper place to get the jumper's face. It is what makes this a good image.

Good job!

[btrips]

John,

The 4th shot was taken about 50 yds away w/ 1.4 TC (first time I used the TC). The after getting the 30d so I could take indoor basketball shots thinking how hard that was, that outside sports would bea breeze. Boy! was I ever wrong! Thanks to forum I am learning.

Would you suggest a filter (UV or Polarizer) for shooting in bright sun?

I was shooting wide open @2.8, how do I blur out the background more?

On the high jump the photog in the background is the boys mom. I wanted to tell here she was not in a good postion, but decided it would be better to give here the link to my smugmug site where she could see the shots I took. Maybe she will figure it out form there. I am an idot with a little knowledge and realy don't feel like I should be giving advice to somebody else at this point. :G

Thanks for the comments

btrips

[JohnG]

btrips wrote:

Would you suggest a filter (UV or Polarizer) for shooting in bright sun?

I was shooting wide open @2.8, how do I blur out the background more?

Answer to question 1: UV filter does nothing. A polarizer might help to a degree but usually it's a matter of exposing for faces and doing more post processing to fix blow-outs and shadows.



Answer to question 2: you were too far away. with 200mm you should be no more

than 25 yards away, 280mm (200mm plus 1.4x TC) no more than 35 yards away. You'll get the most blur when your subect completely fills your frame and your lens is wide open and at it's longest zoom. So, for predictable things like high jump - adjust your distance from the line / pit until you can fill the frame with a jumper at full zoom.