Friday night football is back! I was in Cedar Park for game 1 against Westlake on Friday.
I had an early deadline for the Statesman, and a little bit of extra work to do (I’ll tell you about that in a minute), so I only got to shoot the first half. The final score was Cedar Park 43, Westlake 31.
For football I use my two Nikon D700 camera bodies, one with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens for wide shots and one with a 200-400mm f4 lens for action on the field. In my belt I carry an 80-200mm f2.8 lens and an SB910 speedlight, just in case.
Since it was the first game, there was some daylight to start with, so I began the game with my ISO at 1250, my aperture at f4 and my shutter at 1/640. I don’t like to shoot action with a shutter speed any slower than that, so I just adjust the ISO as necessary as it gets darker.
Here are a few of my favorite action shots from the game.
After the second quarter I ran up to the press box to download my cards, then ran back down to the field for the second part of my assignment.
I needed some images of Cedar Park drum major Wyatt Hahn for an upcoming story. He was on a tall platform on the 50 yard line, so I huddled in the pit area on the sideline and tried to stay out of the way of percussionists. Using my 24-70mm f2.8 lens and my SB800 speedlight, I placed Hahn in the frame with a stadium light behind him. Then, I zoomed in my flash to 85mm to light his face, and shot a few frames while he conducted.
I also managed to get a long shot of him in the stands early in the game with my 200-400mm.
After the half-time performances I had to get my photos in by my 10 p.m. deadline, so I ran back upstairs and sat out the third quarter. By the time my photos were in and verified, the game was almost over and it was way past deadline, so I called it a night.
Click here to read the game story by Statesman reporter Rick Cantu.
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