Saturday, October 4, 2008
Late Thursday afternoon a couple of people came by the office and we started up a conversation about a product we're considering developing. Before I knew it the time had drifted to 6:20pm and Maryland had a 7pm start time for the women's soccer match against the Florida State Seminoles. I haven't been carrying my equipment in the car with me lately so I had to head home with a quickness before heading back to Ludwig.
When I approached Ludwig I bumped into about 30 middle schoolers on some sort of field trip. They were all clogging up the will call section, which is the location where my name is typically recorded on a credential. Since we've been approved for all the games and since I've attended most (all?) of the women's soccer games this Fall I just headed inside.
The CSC guard recognized me and waved me through.
Once inside I headed to my normal location and prepared for the shoot. Somehow I made it there on time despite a lot of traffic on the BW Parkway. I looked around and noticed there was a new photographer on the field. He was kinda scruffy looking with a beard and he had either a 400mm f/2.8 lens or a 300mm f/2.8 lens. I never ended up speaking with him so I didn't catch his name or which organization he worked for.
I also bumped into somebody that I suspect is a new photographer at the Diamondback. He had the typical Diamondback equipment - D300 with a 70-200 f/2.8 VR lens.
As usual I cranked the ISO up around 5000 and shot all of the game at f/2.8 and 1/500th of a second shutter. There is easily 2 stops more light in front of each goal and moving between corner kicks and the regular game play is a real challenge. I've become very accustomed to keeping an eye on the built in meter and making adjustments as necessary, and tonight I did pretty well.
It was a fun game to shoot due to the solid defense and attack on both sides. Despite FSU spending most of their time attacking the Terps the Maryland defenders played aggressively and chased down the 'Noles. That makes for good photos.
It was pretty chilly tonight - a solid preview of what future games will be like. Last year's NCAA Tournament game between Maryland and Bradley soccer was frigid and both Greg Fiume and I were shaking by the end of it.
My photos of the Maryland Terrapins women's soccer game against Florida State are posted up on Flickr. You can also read my article on the Terps vs the Seminoles on the DC Sports Box.
