I only took a few pictures at today’s game as I was occupied most of the first half tending to Ben, who took a hard push, fell on his head, and twisted his shoulder completely under him shortly after the game started. No foul called, even though Ben ended up sitting out the rest of the half feeling dizzy and nauseous.
A small number of pictures are below:
Somehow while taking pictures at today’s game I switched focus modes from AI Servo to AI Focus. I didn’t realize it until I was reviewing the pics and so many of them were out of focus. Now I always expect some of them to be OOF but this was nearly half of them! Imagine my chagrin when I checked the EXIF data and saw that I had the camera on AI Focus. Well, there’s always next week!
Ben had his first basketball game of the year yesterday, and I was looking forward to shooting basketball with the 20D for the first time. Last year I had the 300D which doesn’t have AI Servo except when in the preprogrammed sports mode (the little “running man” icon) and it would be silly to use sports mode for indoor basketball because the ISO would then be stuck at 400. If memory serves me correctly last year I shot mostly AV mode with my 50 1.8 set at 1.8 or 2.2 and 800 ISO. It was really hard without AI Servo and I’d get maybe 1 or 2 ok shots a game and certainly nothing spectacular.
Well, I’m still not getting anything spectacular but that’s user error! I can crank the 20D up to 1600 ISO without worrying about noise and I have full time AI Servo so more shots are in focus. These were all taken with the 85 1.8 set at 2.2. Next week I’ll try shooting with the 50 1.8 also, and maybe see how both lenses do opened all the way up to 1.8. With AI Servo full time I might be able to get more shots in focus even with 1.8.
Lighting will of course always be an issue in a gym and the gym Ben is playing in this year gets absolutely no outside light. Last year’s gym had two doors to the outside with windows so I shot the action mostly in the area near the windows so I could get a little help on the light. Given all that, I’m reasonably pleased with the result. Hopefully with practice I’ll get more exciting shots as the season progresses.
And I just noticed from the pictures that Ben dribbles with his right hand. He’s left-handed.
Click the picture below for the full gallery.
