The Pen's are NHL. I watch most every Pen's game via the NHL on line app. The Flint Firebirds are OHL, Ontario Hockey League. The Firebirds play in an arena that can accommodate just over 4k people, plus a few extra SRO if necessary. The Flint rink is 15 feet shy of a NHL size rink, and just as wide. There are rinks in the league that are the NHL size.
The OHL is a league of twenty teams, mostly for ages 16 to 21. Seventeen teams are Canadian, three teams are south of the northern border. I thought last night's game was fun to watch. The players can play.
That was from the hockey fan in me. Now the photographer take.
Back to an indoor arena. Crappy light (no offense, pretty good for watching, not so good for photography.), high ISO and speed. Stuff I live for.
I only shot about 300 images. For ISO I stayed mostly at 800. I did a few at 1000 and 640. For speed I used 1/1000 of a second. I could live with 1/800 sec, but not 1/640 sec. I was also at f/5.6 for all shots, as open as the lens would go. There were very few DOF issues, I was far from the action. Most of this I learned from shooting the indoor horse photographs.
On the D500, it works. On the D7200, to keep 1/1000 sec, I'd probably have to bump up the ISO to 1000 or slightly higher.
For frame speed, I used 7 FPS. Shooting only 300 for the night would indicate I had much better control of the shutter. Yes, I did miss a few shots by not keeping the sequence going. I will learn from this.
As far as the missed shots for the night, there were a few. I seem to have a consistent issue with trying to get the shot so tight that I 'miss' the top of the head of the subject. The action is fast. It's a learning thing. The other 'misses' were focus issues, but not what you would think. My seat was center ice for most shots. At some point during the game, I moved to one end of the ice, behind the goalie to get another perspective. Good idea, bad move. There is protective netting that sort of gets in the way of the auto-focus. In hind sight, I could have altered the AF settings to play around and the might be the next project. But what I did try was turning off the AF, and going manual. Action is way too fast for that. The best way to get those shots would be front row seating, just past the goals. And hope the Plexiglas in front isn't too scarred up. Again, another reason to go to another game. In a different seat.
Other techniques used that I learned elsewhere. The action was fast enough I couldn't follow the puck through the viewfinder. So I would watch the goalie - and press the trigger when I expected something to happen. That is taken from air shows following one subject (jet) until you think something is going to happen (crossing opposing jet). Sometimes it worked. The other technique was to shoot with both eyes open. I have the right eye in the viewfinder, but if I can keep the left eye open I can still see a bigger picture. After a while, it is not that difficult to see a larger environment.
And to the game:
Within the first few minutes of the game start, there was a group photo meeting behind the London goal. The team introductions could have been at that point, everyone but the Flint goalie was there. Refs as well.
Post Scuffle
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
262 mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6. ISO 1000
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
In most of the shots, I tried to crop out the fans in the seats as much as possible.
Net Front Traffic
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
270 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
It always amazes me how goalies can track the puck with all that is going on front of them. This just happened to line up with my seat.
Locked In
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
270 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
For as much as I tried, I have very few shots with shots. It was usually because I didn't keep the shutter button pressed long enough. I'll go with rookie mistake on this one. Room for improvement. The puck can be seen in this shot however, just to the right of the goalie's mask on on the shoulder. Yep, I planned it that way.
High Blocked Shot
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
232 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
Again back to the goalies. A position not for the faint of heart.
Traffic
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
262 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
Yep I followed the puck all night and planned this shot. But when you think about it, the puck has to be somewhere.
Busy Front
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
247 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
Of all my shots for the night, my favorite is not actually a hockey shot. It involves players, but the puck is long gone from these two. There is a lot going on with this shot. First, I would like to get a shot of the Flint player on the giving side of this disagreement, not the receiver but you have to take what you can get. Next, it is a lousy place to take a hit, the bench door is slightly ajar. Lots of times this scenario does not end well. Next, two of the bench players with completely different looks. #28 has the grimace and #74 has the another day at the office look. And the non-player just turning away. And yep, both feet are off the ice. Just great.
Flint Firebird Hit
NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6
277 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800
EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX
It was a fun night. Happy you can take a camera in for this.
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