I knew sports photography would be difficult and it was. I missed several plays trying to zoom in and out and adjust the lighting which changed depending on whether I faced the baseline or turned toward home plate. I definitely had my aperture too small. With sports shooting you should keep this as wide as possible, which for my Canon camera on full zoom is 5.6. Because I had it up too high, I had to give myself more light by increasing my ISO which increased noise (grain) in the shot and by not taking my shutter speed as quick as it could have been. Now I understand that my ISO should be around 400, my aperture 5.6 and my shutter speed as fast as the light allows, even up to 1/8000.
In the classroom, these relationships make sense, but I did get nervous trying to follow the action quickly and forgot some of the things I had already known! I look forward to the day where I can follow subjects and make adjustments with out thinking about it. Practice. practice, practice. I will say that shooting sports is fun and you do get a sense of satisfaction when you don't miss the action but instead freeze it, capturing history if you will. Lots of shots of WSU catcher/ 1B Justin Kelly because I was also covering a story on him for the WSU South End newspaper. He is creeping up on the all time home run record for the program which has been around fro 79 yeas. The record is currently held by former 1B John Weisman, who broke it in 2007. Good luck Justin Kelly!