2011.10.29 - Tulsa Oilers v Texas Brahmas

Full photo set at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/les_stockton/sets/72157627883695331/

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Full photo set at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/les_stockton/sets/72157627883695331/

Wow this is great-another hockey photographer- Welcome to the boards !

I do other sports too, but hockey is the main one for me.

Rob pix4u2 wrote: Wow this is great-another hockey photographer- Welcome to the boards !

Thanks. I'm glad to be here with others as well.
I've been on another board recently where it didn't feel like there was any appreciation for sports photographers at all. In fact, I had one person say that we're not really needing the skills to be a photographer, and instead are relying on a camera with a quick auto focus.
This person went on to say that sports photography was just snapping a shot that might have some blur in it to show movement, and everyone says "nice shot", but if it weren't sports, the shot would never be acceptable.

And of course, I kept wondering about the blurry photos, because when I get them, I typically throw those shots away.
Am I working too hard?

And it seems to me that a sports photographer (a good one, anyway) is relying on a lot more photography skills, in a way, that a typical studio photographer. We don't have the luxury of being able to control placement of our subjects, or where we get to shoot from (sometimes), and we don't typically control the lighting. Yet a good sports photographer manages light with a good white balance; there aren't typically strobes or speedlights allowed, and so we do our work with ambient light, and still deal with fast movement and quick changes of our subjects.

To me, it would be a lot easier to just be able to tell the guys on the ice to stand still for a minute, let us go set up the tripod and some special lighting equipment on the ice, put up a nice backdrop to remove distracting things in the background, etc, etc, etc.

I told this person on the other board that what they had said was insulting. They said that "this is what forums are about", "it's just a difference of opinion".
What really miffed me though, is that I didn't ask for their opinion. I didn't ask for a critique, and the subject of the thread (someone else's thread) wasn't on that subject. The thread was about post processing and how much is done. I had said that in sports photography, I do very little in post processing, just because of the volume of shots that I take.
That's when this person chimed in with their insult.
To me, if they'd wanted to be constructive, they would've answered the question the original person was asking, rather than attacking/insulting me.
And the thing is, they didn't even contribute to the original question. It was just their chance to put someone down.
So I'm seriously thinking about leaving that board, because it seems like a waste of my time.

Long story short, I'm glad to be here.

I saw Stockton, Tulsa, and went - hey, hockey!! Longtime hockey fan myself. Nice photos; maybe that person should be told that if they took a good picture in the first place there wouldn't be a need for that much processing after.

I got a kick out of a couple of your off ice photos - do we all do the same thing shooting hockey?? - the fans' signs, the wacky on-ice entertainment, the one of the guy w/the TV camera... LOL I have a few shots like that myself, one team in particular would come to town and string cables all over the arena. Don't you love minor league hockey?

I like the access we get. The players are less stuck up; they seem like regular people for the most part.
I enjoy the games, of course, but I also enjoy just being at the arena. I enjoy the fans. I enjoy seeing my friends. It's the whole experience.

And on top of it all we get published regularly so our work gets seen, BTW Les- icepics was an AHL photog for the Ducks organization. WE don't get insults here because we are sports shooters and are accepted as a part of the group with a different skill set

Well said and thanks for the mention Rob, I took my photos off but I may get some more scanned in while I'm on 'hiatus' (my rehab is going about as slow as molasses so I won't be in 'game shape' for some time).

Too bad my Ducks flew the coop! And I don't feel too bad about not using my college season tickets yet this season, they're a top ranked team and are in the bottom of the league - yowza! You're right Les, it is the whole experience that's fun, we all probably have some stories...