Coyote's second tournament game....Thursday night....at Hawthorn field in Bellevue.

This was going to be a tough game on two accounts...first, my son was playing and second, the lighting at the field has horrible.

My plan was use my 80-200 f2.8 and maintain at least a 1/250 shutter speed, higher if possible.  I believe most shots are at 1/320 to 1/500 with IOS kept at 5000.  That's why all the photos are noisy or 'grainy'.

When going through the initial download to Aperture - I was amazed at the amount of photos out of focus and just plain, unusable.  Positioning as always was a challenge as well.  Seemed I was out of position on several photos and I think the low light caused slow auto-focus...so I lost a few good ones there.

Even though the outcome of the game was undesirable - I learned some valuable lessons shooting this game:

1. my equipment is not as good as I thought in low light.  ISO 6400 and f2.8 are not necessarily magic.

2. keep fine tuning the use of the monopod to help with camera shake

3.  Maximize 'head on' shooting versus side/oblique shooting which requires a higher shutter speed.

Look forward to this Sunday's game...daylight.  I will have to fight with high-noon sun, but should be able to sue my light 70-300mm zoom.

JC