HS Wrestling - How to Make the Pics Interesting?

Have at it..

I attended my first HS Wrestling Championships on February 10.

It so happened it was the 2013 Nevada State Championships.  The event was held in the Reno Livestock Event Center.. a mulit-use facility that is not exactly photographer friendly if you don't have good photography equipment.  Add to that.. not having good floor access.. well the results tend to speaks for itself.

Arms with an aging Sony A700 which I picked up on E-Bay and mated to a Minolta Maxxum 3200i flash, and a manual focus Sigma 75-200mm f/2.8-3.5 lens (serial number 1008318).  Note.. Some models of the Sigma lens with higher serial numbers will auto focus.. but not this one I have.

With a $7 admission charge.. I'm in.

First Mistake..I didn't do any homework.. I should have tuned to something like flowrestling.org to match the athletes to national credentials, if any.

What ever floats your boat I guess, I rather get some average shots of Div 1 recruits than get more compelling shots of lower level of competition where you get better access.

Translation:  I rather have an acceptable blurry shot of Big Foot than a compelling and exotic wild animal taken at a zoo.

Second Mistake.. I had no prior experience with the camera and lens combination.  The combination proved to be a bit unmanageable due to the weight and balance issue when struggling with the manual zoom. I selected the Sony A770 primarily for the top 1/250sec flash sync speed where my other two DSLR cameras had top flash sync speed of 1/125 & 1/160 respectively.

Sidebar.. I am thinking of picking up an used Nikon D70s for the high sync speed of 1/500sec for indoor sports where flash is allowed and high speed action and reasonable bokeh can be had.

From a knee-ling position to clear the top fence barrier from the first row spectator seating, I had nothing to rest the camera on.  I don't know what body parts I had stressed more.. my knees or my arms.  Knee pad definitely is a must have piece of equipment.

Then again.. I spotted a Reno Gazette Journal photographer sitting down on the edge of the mat, in a position where he could pan two championship matches going on at the same time.  I could be him right there.  I should be him.

Sidebar.. There were three matches going on at the same time.  Div 1, Div 1-A, and Div 2-3.  This I will say --it is a great venue for $7.  Then again, I spotted a Sparks, NV newspaper sports photographer with his "all access" pass taking pictures with is Canon MD3. and guess what.. not one of his pictures were attached to the web version of the newspaper article even after the page was already viewed over 200 times so far.

Enough of the rant.. here are my two pictures.

Pic #1  Reno HS Joey LaVallee (different wrestling publications have spelled it with one "E" and two "E".  Ranked #64 Senior Div 1 College Recruit and now 4 times Nevada State Champion -- Signed to wrestling at Missouri.

Pic #2..Reed HS Spencer Empey -- Winner of 136 straight and now two times Nevada State Champion and ranked #61 of 100 College Wrestling recruit -- signed with Cal Poly.  Oversight -- there is no 225 weight class -- only 200#.. I'm bad.



Notations are added primarily for my benefit -- to help me remember what events I've attended. Also.. iI don't know about you.. but I've seen my pictures on Google specific topics search where someone else has picked it up with no accompanying courtesy credits.  No harm no foul.

NOTE:  It appears that pictures loaded to dpreview.com gallery are linked to Google Search results via your picture description.

Oh.. almost forgot.. how do one make wrestling pictures interesting?.. for me.. it is primarily the marquee names.  #61 and #64 Top 100 College Div-1 2013 recruits.  I'm satisfied starting with that.