I guess my first excursions into sports photography this year will all be trials-by-fire. Following up my first time shooting soccer last week, I shot my first field hockey game this past weekend, and will be photographing indoor volleyball for the first time later this week!
I won’t lie, field hockey is a strange sport. It’s essentially ice hockey (which is interesting enough by itself), but with shorter sticks, a ball instead of a puck, and it’s played on short grass. Oh, and there’s no real pads or helmets, so players feel every push and shove from their adversaries. It isn’t as fast-paced as soccer, but when the ball gets in-between two players, chaos ensues—what I try to capture, in other words.
Conditions were bright and sunny for this match, helping keep ISOs low and shutter speeds very high. Harsh shadows are no match for Lightroom 4’s excellent shadow recovery tools. All the following taken with the NEX-7 and Nikon 180mm f/2.8 AI-s ED and Nikon 300mm f/2.8 AI-s ED, two lenses I love more and more every day.
Digging Deep
300mm, ISO 200, f/3.5, 1/1250
Charged
180mm, ISO 100, f/3, 1/2500
Chopped
300mm, ISO 200, f/3.5, 1/2000
I had competition of my own…
300mm, ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/500
Trying to Trip
180mm, ISO 100, f/3, 1/3200
Power Shot
180mm, ISO 100, f/3, 1/2500
And my personal favorite of the game:
The Run Down
180mm, ISO 100, f/3, 1/2500
That’s all for this post guys and gals, I’m going to hate having to go into the high ISOs for volleyball this weekend. The NEX-7 handles high sensitivities just fine, but I’ll be losing that pixel-level detail I cherish so much. Oh well, it’s all about getting the shot. And that’s what I’m going to do. 😀 As always, have a great day!
Matthew Durr Photography 
great action pics. It’s funny, here in Australia we consider ‘field hockey’ normal (in fact we just call it hockey) and we consider ice hockey weird :).
I was lucky enough to get to an Australia vs USA women’s ‘field’ hockey international earlier in the year: http://lightswimming.com/2012/04/08/hockeyroos-3-0/
Different hemispheres, I guess everything is bassackwards in Australia. 😉
Awesome post, neat seeing two professional teams duking it out like that. And, it gives me some ideas for future shots. Thanks!
Some nice shots.
My mother played field hockey when she was young, and has always claimed that ice hockey is a strange sport… 😉
Well I guess in most of the world field hockey IS the norm. I’m the odd man out here then.
Thank you eths. 🙂