Pentax K3 w/ 50-135/2.8 snaps a NHL hockey game from ....

John_A_G wrote:

Hi Jack.

Hi John,

Nice exposures on these shots. Hockey is a blessing/curse situation for a fan photographer. The blessing is you're very close to the action. The curse is the glass in the way. Part of the challenge in shooting any sports is you want to capture everything going on. In this case the shots where you're shooting closer to 90 degrees to the glass the clearer the photo is (and no support bars in the way) - the more you deviate, the more reflections ruin your shots.

I know what you mean about the glass and I realised that there was going to be reflection so I just took that as a given and c'est la vie.

The other thing to consider is: faces matter. So, you want the subject of a given photo to be the player facing you, not away. So, a couple of the saves are better shots because the viewer can see a more interesting subject than the back of a jersey.

Exactly, John, which is why I concentrated more on the goalie saves a tad more than the shots on goal because it's always great to get an excited goal scorer and the only really decent shot of net was this one -- albeit a huge crop -- where you can see the concentration of the goalie

So, think about the type of action occurring within an unobstructed view with a better angle and wait for the action to enter that area. Enjoy watching the rest of the game and just bide your time for action to happen in your area. In the case of the goalie - attackers will never make a good shot because their back is to you - so, focus on the goalie - this is where back button focus works - focus, lift the thumb to stop continuous focus and wait for the shot

And, I always forget about the back button focussing ...

Thanks for looking and your great comments, John

Cheers,

Jack