Northeast Regionals, Day Two

[A bit of a lag time between my Day One and Day Two posts here--though I assure you, the entire tournament was played on consecutive days!]

Shooting an ultimate tourney is always fun on the first day. Possibilities abound, rented lenses/bodies have that "new gear" feel, and you feel like a total pro walking around with a giant lens attached to an expensive body. You find your exposure, get in position, and then just shoot until you get an image you actually like...and then you start to get more and more of those. You feel great. Yes, you have to put up with a lot of dumb jokes like "wow! you must be compensating for something" but I've developed a few good rejoinders for those comedians.

Day two (and beyond) is always more difficult. You've probably got some great images from day one, but after looking at them a few times throughout the day (reviewing, editing, uploading), you begin to realize that maybe you do not like them as much as you THOUGHT you did when they first appeared on your LCD screen. In fact, a lot of them look the same...and all of a sudden you realize that you only have one more day to get the images--or just The Image--that you are looking for. And while you still feel like a pro walking around with a giant lens, the novelty has worn off after you've put 1500 frames through it already. Fewer people make comments, and your back starts to hurt, and you realize that 7 pounds of glass and metal around your neck is pretty tough to haul around all weekend. So day one is fun, and day two is work.

On Sunday, I soldiered on. I switched up my camera and lens more on Sunday than I had on Saturday, sometimes pairing my 30D with the 300 mm--meaning that I was effectively shooting a 480 mm lens. The upside: I was able to zoom in real close. The downside: my beloved 30D does not track motion very well, so I missed some shots.

I still used the 5D Mark II as my primary body, and came away with some photos I was happy with--though I had to shoot in JPEG mode because my version of Aperture did not recognize the RAW files that the camera was producing. So that was a bit of an unexpected roadbump, and (unfortunately) a sign that I need to upgrade my computer, storage, and digital darkroom systems pretty quickly. Sigh. Money diverted from my future camera (sexy!) to pay for infrastructure and storage (not sexy!).

Enough talk--some of my favorites from Sunday:

Inches from greatness

My disc!

Almost, but not quite

I think I got most of my best shots on Saturday. Looking over everything (all uploaded and edited here) I think I got some good action shots, but I still can't quite figure out how to capture the emotion and conflict of ultimate. It is easy to get drawn into waiting for the big layouts, high jumps, and (increasingly) fouls, but those images only tell one side of the story...there are certainly other sides too. More to work on next year, I guess.

This coming weekend marks the end of my own ultimate season (BUDA Fall Club tourney). I'm not entirely sad to see it go. However, I am jealous of ultimate photographers--including Philly friend Brian Canniff--who are heading to Sarasota, Florida to shoot USA Ultimate Club Nationals in a couple weeks. While my knees and ankles could use a break from playing, I'm always up for hauling expensive gear around for a few days of pretending that I'm a sports shooter.