Track and Field

356/365 - Almost Cleared a photo by Wayne-K on Flickr.

I was the volunteer photographer for the high school Freshman basketball team this year. I shot the games with my Nikon D80 and 50mm f/1.8 lens. All throughout the season, I was wishing I had a Nikon D700 for its low light, high ISO performance and a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for the flexibility of a zoom lens and its wide maximum aperture. However, I kept reminding myself that I'm not a sports photographer and shooting low light, indoor basketball games was a temporary gig. The rest of the sports were going to be shot outside, so my D80 and 55-200mm f/4-5.6 would be more than adequate.

Guess again! I shot my first high school track meet today....and today turned into tonight! My son's pole vault event was shot after dark, under the lights. I bumped up the ISO as high as it would go and set the aperture as low as it would go....and I still couldn't get enough light through the lens. Boy that D700 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens would have been nice.

Below are a few more photos from the track meet. Kevin was pretty psyched. This is his first year doing the pole vault and he's loving it....and he set a new PR today.