Month
Oct. 08
SAC vs Citrus
Shooting Junior College football gives the photographer almost unfettered access to the sidelines. Just don't get run over by the players or the coaches.
This game was a twilight game. The lighting started with heavy shadows and a bright orange-ish background and ended with uneven, florescent lighting from half burnt out light banks. Great!
Due to the ease of access and the ability to move up and down the field, an 80-400 with vibration reduction is generally more than adequate. But not in a twilight game. I had to move up to a 120-300 F2.8 lens on bipod. As it gets darker, you will be shooting at F2.8, ISO 6,400 . To shoot without motion blur, a 1/500 second or faster shutter speed is absolutely necessary. Don't even think about a slower shutter speed or you will be highly disappointed.
Notice that I mentioned "bipod" above. The 120-300 F2.8 is a really heavy lens and requires support. Unfortunately, a monopod doesn't do it for me especially since the 120-300 doesn't have vibration reduction. I went to a hunting store and purchased an inexpensive bipod to support a rifle. I bolted a panorama head to the top so I could mount a camera and lens. Looks funky but is very portable and adds an additional dimension of stability, enough so as not to have any problem with camera movement.
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