gdickert

Hey Wes57 ... With your lens, the aperture ranges from 3.5 to 5.6 That means that when you are zoomed all the way out to 18 mm, it allows more light into the lens, meaning your lens will go as low as 3.5. Now, when you zoom all the way in, it takes away the lens' ability to take in as much light and your lens only goes down as far as 5.6. Unless you're in a stadium with great lights, like PNG, you're going to have a hard time getting really sharp photos. Here's why. If you shoot at night, you'll have to push the ISO to at least 1600, and if you're in a dark stadium, you'll need to push that to 3200, if your camera will do that. The ISO represents the light sensitivity of the "film" in a camera. The sensor in the camera acts as film. Ordinarily in the "AUTO" mode, the camera sets the ISO between 100 and 400. What you'll need to do is change your ISO to 1600. With the Canon, there is a custom function that has to be reset in order to push it to 3200. ... that might also be the case for the Nikon. The higher the ISO, the more grain you'll see in the finished photograph. Because you're shooting auto during the daylight part of your games, you're getting an automatically set ISO, which is probably 100 or 200, based on how sunny it is outside at the time. As the sun goes down, your camera starts to adjust itself by moving the ISO to about 400, then adjusting the shutter speed to allow more light in. As it gets darker, do you notice that the sound of the shutter seems slower and more sluggish? That's because your camera is now shooting at somewhere below 1/500th of a second. If you're having success shooting automatic during the day, then keep doing that, why stress your brain if the camera is getting it right for you. But as it gets dark, here's what I would do ... --- Set your ISO to 1600 if you have decent lights, 3200 if you're in a dark stadium --- Set your lens aperture as absolutely wide open as possible, which would be 5.6 if you're zoomed all the way in ... --- And set your shutter speed to no less than 1/500th of a second. Any slower and you'll get blurred arms and legs. The lens I shoot is a 200mm fixed lens that opens to 2.8. The smaller the number, the more light you'll get into a lens. That's why when you go shopping for a lens, if you get a 300 f2.8, you're going to pay a load for it. The same 300 that's an f5.6 is going to go for a lot less money ... but you're going to be limited to shooting during the daylight hours or with a powerful flash unit. Here is a photo I shot in Lumberton at about 6 p.m. The sun had started to go down, so I didn't have a lot of direct sunlight, which can cause some nasty shadows. I shot this with a Canon 20D, 200mm lens set at f8.0, 400 ISO with the shutter set at 1/1000th of a second. You can see that there is minimal grain and the action is sharp and clear. Now this image is one from Silsbee's stadium recently. It was about 8:30 p.m. and cloudy, so there was no ambient light from the moon at all. I shot this with the same camera, same lens but the settings were different because it was much darker. The ISO was 3200 The shutter was set at 1/800th of a second The lens was opened up to f2.8 You can see how much more evident the grain is in the photo, which gives it a softer edge throughout the image. It is said that the best camera in the world is only as good as the lens it has on it. If you really want much better pictures, you're going to have to invest in some glass ... consider a used 200mm fixed lens with at least a 2.8 minimum aperture setting. If you can afford the f1.8 lens, all the better ...

I know from my time at The Enterprise that Spurger and Brookeland always celebrate homecoming during basketball season. ... Kind of an oddity around here. My wife, who is from up north, says her high school celebrated homecoming during soccer season.

I'm standing with my toes on the sidelines as long as the refs let me ... and shooting to about mid-field. A tripod is too cumbersome ... you have to move with the game, so I'm able to grab the monopod and head downfield as soon as I need to. I'm not sure if a tripod would make the photos better. I use a tripod in my studio setup. It allows me to set the camera, set the lights and then trigger the camera from my laptop ... so i never have to touch the camera after everything is set to my specifications ... Now if I had better lights in Kountze .... THAT would make my pictures better! ;D

I use a monopod ... it's like a tripod, only just a single pole ... it helps steady the camera and, honestly, after four quarters, even the lightest camera gets heavy. I use a 200 f2.8 Canon lens with a Canon 20D body. I set the ISO at 3200, the lens at 2.8 and try to shoot at no less than a 500 shutter speed. In Kountze, the lights are awful ... and with the rain Friday night, there wasn't even any ambient light. You'd be surprised at what a difference a full moon makes when taking photos at night. My pics in Kountze tend to be a bit grainy only because I'm shooting as such a high ISO speed and with the lens wide open ... You can't shoot football with a flash because the camera syncs with the flash at either 1/60th of a second or 1/125th ... neither are fast enough to catch the action ... Blurry photos are MUCH worse than grainy photos ...

Thanks! I have a lot of fun with the photography part of my job ... Plus, my son is a senior at Kountze this year, so I'm able to document his final year of high school ...

Hey guys, Here's the cover of our Fall Sports Special ... it will be out on the stands on Wednesday. Whew! I'm glad THAT's done ... :-)

I now also have Kountze pep rally photos before the Tenaha game Friday ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com

It's difficult to tell, isn't it?

Here are the photos from the Kountze-Tenaha game, the Silsbee-Kountze volleyball match and the pep rally at Kountze High School before the Tenaha game... Go to ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com

Photos of Friday's match between Silsbee and Kountze are now online at www.gld-designs.smugmug.com

The Bee is sold in stores in Silsbee, Lumberton, Kountze, Evadale and some of the smaller surrounding communities. ... Much of the section will be online later this week. We hit the streets on Wednesday afternoons ... If you're out of our circulation area and want to see the section, email me at [email protected] and I'll set you up ...

Hey guys, Here's the cover of our Fall Sports Special ... it will be out on the stands on Wednesday. Whew! I'm glad THAT's done ... :-)

Small enrollment or not ... Tenaha had four guys on the field who had huge numbers last year ... QB had 1,180 yards, 12 TDs passing; 934 yards rushing WR had 372 receiving, 934 rushing, 225 passing RB 1,174 rushing, 17 TDs LB had 97 tackles The enrollments might be different by quite a bit, but there were 11 men on each side of the ball Friday night. Tenaha came loaded and Kountze took care of business. I'm not saying (like our pal LumbertonBalla) that Kountze is going to win the 2A championship. All I'm saying is that they won a good game and they have a chance to really do something this year. (Yes ... my son is a senior guard, so I'm a touch bit biased ... but realistic nonetheless.)

Kountze has been fighting the "basketball school" thing for forever ... the kids are sick of hearing it. The Lions have some kids out with injuries, but some are expected back for HD ... it's going to be a close game and just like Kountze proved against a VERY fast, VERY quick Tenaha team Friday night, their defense is much better than any is willing to admit. Plus, these kids proved with their overtime win that they're just not willing to give up until the game's over.

Kountze: Jarod Howard, freshman, running back, ran for a touchdown that brought the Lions to within 3 points against Tenaha. After a successful onside kick recovery by Kountze and a field goal to tie the game, Howard scored the winning touchdown from 25 yards out in OT. Howard had not played in the game until he stepped in during the fourth quarter.

The score is incorrect ... Kountze won this one in overtime 24-18 ... freshman running back came in late in the game to score two touchdowns, including the one in overtime from about 30 yards out. GLD

Kountze beats Tenaha 24-18 in OT ... freshman back scores the last two touchdowns to put the Lions in the win column. GLD

Mom won! Coach Thornton's Silsbee Lady Tigers defeated the Kountze Lionettes in three games 25-17, 25-15, 25-11 in an impromptu meeting of the two teams in Kountze today. That moves their record to 8-9 on the season, while Kountze's loss drops them to 11-3. When I left, Kountze was taking a short breather before they played regularly-scheduled Ozen in a second match ...

Just spoke with Coach Thornton ... Silsbee cancelled its trip to the Santa Fe tournament, but will play the Kountze varsity at 4 p.m. today in Kountze. That's mom vs. daughter ... :-)

Go to the Web site below for photos from last night's scrimmage between Silsbee and Lumberton. Click on the featured gallery at the top of the page. Thanks, Gerry Dickert www.gld-designs.smugmug.com

Evadale's Candice Frizzell

Check out a cool team poster of the Silsbee Lady Tigers at ... [Hidden Content]

New scrimmage photos this week: Lumberton vs. Barbers Hill scrimmage: [Hidden Content] and, Kountze vs. Woodville scrimmage: [Hidden Content]

You can find scrimmage photos from this season, as well as football, basketball, baseball, softball and track photos from last year, for Silsbee, Kountze, Lumberton and Evadale at ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com New this week: Lumberton vs. Barbers Hill scrimmage: [Hidden Content] and, Kountze vs. Woodville scrimmage: [Hidden Content]

Find Lumberton-Barbers Hill scrimmage photos here ... [Hidden Content]