I have a quite a long history with the team – which you can read about in this recent post over at my web development blog – and since I’m on the Board of Directors and was already going to the game anyway, it wasn’t that much effort to pack the gear and bring it with.

Up Closer

Seeing as this was just a JV hockey game in the hockey rink I practically grew up in, it was pretty easy for me to find my way over at the end of the home team bench and getting the most unobstructed view of the action I’ve had so far in any of the hockey shoots I’ve done. The majority of the photos were right from the bench area and not shot through the safety class along the boards.

Shooting with both my Canon 20D and my Rebel XSi at the same time allowed me to shoot telephoto for the far end of the ice and more wide angle for the action up front.  That, and having the extra room not being confined in single seat at the other arenas made this shoot very enjoyable. The low lighting was an issue as always, but I just left the ISO at 800 and ran with it.

Hack Job

When we last chatted, one of the primary reasons I’ve put things on hold was because I didn’t have time for processing in post. That was the case here as well which I spent a few hours on Sunday to process these photos.  Not something I had planned for my weekend, but that’s how it goes.

The saving grace was that the primary purpose of these photos was for the team’s Facebook page, so I knew going in that my post processing workflow wasn’t going to be the same as it is for my vacation and landscape shots. In fact, it was pretty much a hack job flying through about 40 of the best shots using Adobe Photoshop Elements on my Mac. For the intended purpose, it did the job.

More Photos

If you’d like to see the rest of the images, you can view the Nighthawks vs. New Trier photoset on my webnelly Flickr account. Not sure if I’ll take on any more games this spring season, but it would something I’d definitely want to pursue when the Fall season starts depending on where things are by then.

– Kris

Photo: Wolves center Johnny Pohl drives to the net looking for a rebound from Rockford netminder Corey Crawford.

The first of a few photos still be posted from my last game out to see the Chicago Wolves taken on the Rockford Ice Hogs.  Things didn’t go very well for our Ice Hogs, but it was still an entertaining game none-the-less.

Photo: Up close and personal with a body check less than 15 feet from our seats.

Sure, fighting gets a lot of attention in hockey, especially in the AHL, but as a former defenseman, I’d have to say the real action is along the boards when you’re defending your own zone.

Call it chance or just an unspoken rivalry, we experienced quite a few more crashing body checks right in front of us in the 2nd row than the previous games. One woman in front of us even received a little snow shower as a stick blade made it higher than the glass and sprinkled the wet snow down on her. Just a little, though.

The Shot

I’ve been working on a shot like this for a few games now, but this is only as close as I’ve come so far. Having the ability to shoot f/2.8 with my rental lens was a big help, but a minimal focal length on the heavy Canon 70-200mm was a little hard to position with. Plus, I was shooting in Full Manual mode, so my shutter speed was one notch too fast to get enough light here.

Timing is pretty key here, too, since these plays develop rather quickly. I think it will be a matter of time and some more luck to get where I want this to be.

And unlike my playing days, this type of practice I sure don’t mind.

– Kris

More Bonus Links

Well, yesterday I shared the Flickr Group links for both these two teams, so today I thought I’d pass on their respective Facebook pages.  Checkout the Chicago Wolves and the San Antonio Rampage on Facebook for fun and fans of the American Hockey League. And while you’re there, don’t forgot to visit my Facebook Page, too.

Photo: A Rampage defender has a wolf in his sights.

Enough with the cute stuff, let’s get to the action!

With our seats so close to the ice and to the net, I was working on a few shots in the near corner as the puck made its way from behind the cage towards us.

Part of me wishes I had the depth of field wide enough to get both players in focus together, but the other half likes the focus on the “hunter” which slightly de-emphasizes the “prey”. Definitely more intensity in the look of the defender.

Let me know what you think.

– Kris

Bonus Links

If you’re a fan of Flickr and want to see more hockey action, check out the groups for both the Chicago Wolves and the San Antonio Rampage.

Photo: A rather odd illustration made on the side of Drew MacIntyre’s goalie mask.

Okay, just this one last almost hockey photo from Sunday’s game before I get into the action shots.  Something about that potato head guy/girl on Drew’s goalie helmet really creeps me out. Of course, I had to snap a shot of it, otherwise no one would believe me.

Remember, I warned you that goaltenders a not like other hockey players.  This is just more proof of that, I believe.

– Kris

P.S.: Sorry for the bad play on words in the photo’s title. If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, say the title again but slow down for each syllable.

Photo: Chicago Wolves mascot Skates lets off the fireworks during the pre-game festivities.

Man was it a great day to be a hockey fan on Sunday. I shot my first of two Chicago Wolves games for this month, and the new lens I rented was a huge advantage over my previous games. Plus our seats were incredible again, with only 1 row separating me from the glass. It’s going to take a few days to get through most of the keepers, but I’m excited.

Go Team USA!

The other reason it was great day to follow hockey was the result of the much anticipated Olympic showdown between Team USA and Team Canada, with the Americans coming out on top for the first time in the last 50 years of Winter Olympic competition. That gives the good guys a bye in the next round, and they’ll be waiting for the winner of Switzerland and Belarus I believe.

As you can guess, the blog posts this week will be hockey oriented, so stay tuned for more action this week – and likely next week as well.

– Kris

While the pros are over in Vancouver playing for their native lands, the amateur leagues are still going strong, and I have two games lined up for the next coming Sundays. And the good news is, we have the same awesome seats that we had for our last game – 3rd row from the glass!

Coming Prepared

If there was one thing I wasn’t happy about with my shots from the last two games I shot at, it would have to be bumping up the ISO to 400-800 in order to capture the action with my f/4 – f/5.6 telephoto. As a result, I had more noise with my 20D and my Rebel XSi than I would have hoped for.

Well, this time I’m planning on bringing along a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS that I’m renting from CameraLensRentals.com. Having an f/2.8 lens should give me the option to increase the shutter speed from what I’ve been using or bump down that ISO a bit (or both, in some cases).  I’ll lose a little range by going down to a max focal length of 200mm from my 70-300mm lens, but it should be worth it.

The great thing about renting is that instead of shelling out $1,700 for this lens, I get to use it for 2 weeks for only about $150 w/shipping, etc.  The fact that I have 2 games on back-to-back Sundays was a big motivator for going down the rental path rather than just making do with my own gear.

Both games should be a lot of fun, and I hope to add even more intense hockey action to my growing portfolio.

– Kris

Photo: The outreached arm of the Sharks netminder falls short of another Hawks goal.

With hockey probably being the fastest sport that isn’t measured in horsepower, it’s glimpses like this which break the game down into frozen moments that make we want to shoot the sport more often.

Not to mention get back out there myself.

- Kris

Photo: Blackhawks defensemen Duncan Keith releases a blast from far boards.

Thinking of starting another hockey week by going through photos from old games and either retouching them or giving them a little creative adjustment like you see here.

It’s February already, and I have two Wolves games coming up near the end of the month with similar seats to those we had last time – nice and close. More details on that coming soon.

– Kris

Photo: An HDR image of the scoreboard at the Allstate Arena, in Rosemont, IL

Not exactly another hockey image from last week, but something I felt like sharing today. I captured the source images for this at a game in November in between periods. Seeing that there’s not a lot of opportunities to shoot HDR at a sporting event while the action is going on, I looked elsewhere.

Now, some HDR images can be taken handheld, but wasn’t taking any chances with the indoor lighting I was in. Since tripods are frowned upon in sports arenas, I was lucky enough to have seats right between the railing separating our section from the one in front of us. That, and my friend the 2-second delay timer, and I had an instant tripod.

I shot this with my Canon 20D, which its tiny LCD viewer (when compared to my Rebel XSi) didn’t give me too good of an indication whether the frames I took would work. In the end, I think it came out okay.

What do you think?