My son Kyle’s soccer team (Marysville Parks and Recreation League) just wrapped up their spring season. I usually shoot photos of his games and usually learn quite a bit about shooting in less-than-ideal conditions. At a mountain bike race I can find a sweet jump or corner, set up my strobes, lean against a tree and wait for the racers to come down 1 minute apart. boom, boom boom. These soccer games are also rain or shine, out in a big giant field with no cover. And the rain or shine….  and that’s what the weather is minute to minute. Rain, hail, wind, snow, hurricane, sunami…. you name it. Most of these games, I’m juggling camera,  lenses pack, and trying to keep hold of my over-sized spectator umbrella. 

Of course I’m there mainly as a proud parent supporting the boy, but also these games are great for me to work on action shot skills.

One thing I learned early on while shooting these games, is that guessing where the action will be is not easy. With mountain biking is pretty easy to make an educated guess where the racer will be. With youth soccer, is hard to tell where players are going to be, with or without the ball. 

Using my prime lenses is not easy at all with youth soccer. They are great for mountain bike races because I know exactly where a racer will be, and their range works well with my strobe kit. For soccer, the action is 99% too far away for using the 50mm and 105mm. To use my 300mm, I have to stand at the opposite end of the field because it is just too long with the DX camera body.  If I have a nice sunny day, my 70-300mm VR (I dont use the VR for most sports applicaions) is fine, even my 18-135mm is ok, but only if there is enough light. But for a typical cloudy day, my zoom lenses are just too slow. So, I have come to the conclusion that I need to invest in a 70-200mm f2.8.  (Then a new FX body.)

The full gallery for 2010 Marysville Parks and Recreation Boys U-10 “Marysville Sounders” is HERE

The full gallery for 2010 Marysville Parks and Recreation Boys U-10 “Marysville Sounders” is HERE

NWCup#2 / ProGRT#1 Trip report

More photos ….. Finally got all my photos from 2010 NWCup #2 , Port Angeles, WA posted to the Grubworks Photos Gallery. (I need to be quicker on getting photos up….)

It’s funny how increased world geo-seismic activity can lead to me getting some sweet pictures. This race combined the second race of the NW Cup with the first leg of the PRO Gravity Tour national series, which promised to bring national pro racing teams to the area. Funny things happen. The Sea Otter Classic, in Monterey was a week prior which teams from all over the world attend, since it is the unofficial kick-off to the world’s mountain biking season. Then something unique happened. A volcano erupting in Iceland sent an ash plume across Europe and screwed up flights in and out of Europe for the next week following Sea Otter. With flights delayed, canceled, rescheduled, most of the European riders were unable to fly home.  So many riders and teams opted to drive up to the little race in Port Angeles, WA and make the best of their time in the States and get more time on bikes before starting the World Cup circuit.  Bonus

SATURDAY

Early morning, up at 4:00am to get to Edmonds to catch the 5:10 am ferry, another hour of driving and get parked at the race course west of Port Angeles. The parking lot is a tiny strip on the side of the hill. With all the big teams at the race, I thought parking was going to be terrible, but it was surprisingly smooth (RIP dual-slalom course).

Good day of shooting the practice runs, which is always nice to take the pressure off getting the do-or-die shots during the race. Also it’s great to scout out where to set up for the actual race runs the next day, Also with many racers taking multiple practice runs, I am able to get more than one shot of each racer.

#284 Kevin Littlefield

#60 Ryan Stayskal

#125 Chelsey Stevens

#122 Greg Minnaar

#97 Rachel Atherton

Day done. Off to the hotel. (I don’t miss sleeping in the van).

SUNDAY

I woke up from an awesome sleep at the luxurious Port Angeles Super8 motel. I didn’t get the “suite” upgrade I got last visit, but still nice to be indoors and not having to drive home and back for the night. The same weekend was the “Jazz in the Olympics” festival. This is not cool Jazz or even New Orleans Jazz. This is like DixieLand, straw hats, roll out the barrell, with matching jackets, Jazz. Which lead to an interesting mix of people at the Super8 continental breakfast line.

Ok ‘nough of that. Back to the hill.

Shot some good photos. The location were I was going to set up for the Pro race runs was already occupied by Ian Hylands (his shots are nice), so I moved back up the hill to a somewhat less optimum spot. Bigger events also pull bigger name photographers. But it was all good……my results are always improving, so I‘m happy……

#139 Kyle Thomas

#241 Derek Batchelder

#522 Jeremy Soltow

#3 Jill Kintner

#25 Eric Loney

#97 Rachel Atherton

—G

Check out the rest of my 2010 NWCup#2/ProGRT#1  Photos

SATURDAY PHOTOS /     SUNDAY PHOTOS