Lemonade

I have enjoyed photographing all kinds of volleyball ever since my daughter began playing more than 10 years ago. I have developed a pretty good eye for the action, know where to position myself for the best shots, and pride myself on capturing sharp, close-up photos showing emotion and action (especially during the week South of the Border Volleyball Vacations is in Ixtapa - examples).

It should, therefore, come as no surprise that we were once again at the Unidad Deportiva to watch matches, tonight the finals of the Women's Master Division. Unfortunately, the action didn't start until after the sun went down. The lighting is terrible for the type of shot I usually strive for, so I decided to try something completely different, something a little more artsy, photos that showed the flow of the game.

I shot over 100 images, at different shutter speeds and at different points in the action, and deleted more than 90% of the results. What looked good on the LCD turned out to look like blurry versions of what I usually took, but the images shot at 1/4 and 1/6 of a second had some promise. I think I will be trying this again, with my camera on a tripod to really emphasize the difference between sharp background and blurred motion, now that I have a better idea of what to expect after seeing these initial results.