Tag Archives: Sports

Cheerleading at the Shockers

wpid13385-AU0E8577.jpgAside from the basketball game at Wichita State, there was plenty of entertainment between the plays, Various competitions were held for people to try and win prizes and the cheering squad were there too. The cheerleaders did their thing and a section of guys spent a lot of time lifting the cheerleaders into the air, throwing them up and (fortunately) catching them again. Fun stuff to watch.

Wichita State Basketball

wpid13373-AU0E8496.jpgA work trip had me in Oklahoma City one week and needing to be back the next. I did have the option to fly home and then come back again. However, the length of the trip meant that I would get back and then quickly be back on my way again. Instead, I decided to stay over for the weekend. This was because I had a Plan B. My good friends Steve and Alysia live in Wichita Kansas which is just over two hours north of Oklahoma City so, after work on Friday, I headed up to see them for the weekend.

We had a fun time for the weekend, parts of which will appear in the blog in due course. One thing they had planned was to go and see a Wichita State basketball game. The Shockers were at home and a packed crowd was there to see them. We had to do some research to find out whether taking a camera in was allowed or not and it was so I dragged the camera along. I wasn’t shooting the game really. I just wanted to get some shots to see how they came out.

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The stadium appeared bright until you looked at a light meter. I needed to ramp the ISO up quite a bit which I did by switching to manual mode and then using Auto ISO. It worked pretty well. A couple of shots were a bit dark but that will be the case with any shooting mode if the metering gets confused. (My bodies are of a previous generation which does not have the ability to input exposure compensation in this mode. The 1DX does allow that. No idea why it took so long to show up but that is a different story.)

I did manage to get a few action shots. There was not a huge amount of dunking going on but I did catch a couple of more dramatic drives to the hoop. More importantly, I had a great time with Steve and Alysia. Thanks guys for setting up a great day out.

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Kiteboarders on the Ocean

wpid12737-AU0E4957.jpgOur run up the Pacific Coast Highway included a brief stop at one of the beaches as we passed by. We had a dinner reservation in Half Moon Bay and had some time in hand so standing on the shore for a little while watching the ocean was going to fit. One of the beaches had a few people kiteboarding just offshore. There was a strong breeze so they were able to get some speed up.

wpid12714-AU0E4867.jpgThere was some surf rolling in but they weren’t getting the big airs you sometime see when the boarders can combine the wind angles with the direction of the surf. Even so, they seemed to be having some fun.

Dublin Gaels Soccer

wpid12918-C59F7413.jpgOur local high school has a strong sports setup and Nancy and I had been to see a football game last year. I blogged about that here if you want to check back. I was recently discussing this with a couple whose son goes to the school and plays football and soccer. The soccer season is underway at the moment and the last game of the regular season was imminent. I decided I would head along and have a go at shooting the game.

wpid12914-C59F6574.jpgIt was played on the same field as the football so we had the same lighting to deal with. While the lights are good, they are not great for photography. I had both cameras ramped well up on the ISO settings. This worked okay in most situations although the noise is still a bit noticeable. More modern bodies seem to have very impressive noise characteristics but my gear seemed to do okay. I hadn’t shot soccer before so it was interesting working out who to follow and what shots to go for.

wpid12916-C59F7062.jpgSome of the shots I envisaged did not look good at all in reality. There are certain aspects of kicking and throwing a ball that look good in motion but make for rather odd poses when stills. A good lesson to learn I guess. Meanwhile, I did manage to get some more action packed elements sometimes. Keeping the ball in shot and showing what is going on was fun to try. It was also fun to see shots that show something you don’t normally notice. The expressions on faces during the game are quite funny and sometimes it looks like the game was far more violent than was the case.

I put together a compilation of some shots for the families to take a look at. They have had some basic editing but not more. If you want to take a look at those, there are at http://robedgcumbe.com/client/gaels/soccer/ so have a peak.

The team are now into the playoffs so hopefully they will have a good run!