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Blog will return on the 26th. Merry Christmas!
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To keep up on my current work follow me on:
Instagram: http://instagram.com/dcanavanphoto/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DCanavanPhoto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DCanavanPhoto
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Today is the Football Recap. I am the photographer for the Indiana State University Athletics Department, and followed the football team this year. In 2014 the team racked up a record breaking season, finishing the year with the best Division I Football record in the state and the 2nd best record in school history, numerous individual records were broken, the team reached the sweet sixteen round of the FCS football playoffs, beat and FBS football program, Ball State, reclaiming the Victory Bell for the first time since 1987 and had several games where the deciding scoring was happening within the last minute of the game.
To keep up on my current work follow me on:
Instagram: http://instagram.com/dcanavanphoto/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DCanavanPhoto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DCanavanPhoto
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The weekend kicked off with a block party to support the Women's Basketball Team. The spirit squad and Marching band preformed, the crowd got to meet the team, then an open to the public practice followed.
Gallery:
Then Saturday it was off to football.
Quarterback "bubble gum card" has become a staple of covering every game.
This was the return of an interception that ended up in the endzone.
Planning creates opportunities for the action to take place right in front of you.
NDSU is the current top team in the MVFC (tied in conference with Youngstown State), and won 56-10.
Gallery:
Sunday offered a complete change of pace. I was assigned to cover the Miss ISU pageant. 11 contestants competed for honor, scholarships and an opportunity to represent the university in community service and the Miss Indiana Competition. Photographically this was also a different set of challenges, the extreme difference from dark background and bright subjects in the the spot lights even in the spot metering mode, gives fits to the camera's metering system.
The afternoon had a lively MC.
A group dance.
Miss ISU 2013 Kyla Eubank, made several appearances on stage throughout the event.
Healthy in a Swimsuit.
Talent performance.
Evening Gown
Question and Answer
Musical performance from the school's acapella
Miss ISU 2014 Jessica Weesner posing with President Bradley after being announced as the competition winner.
Gallery:
I know this was a long one, but if you've made it this far, leave a comment, let me know what you'd like to see here, or how you came across the blog.
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Lots of effort put on exposing for the faces and letting the rest fall where it may.
Was trying for a Quarterback "Bubble Gum Card" shot here, but the defender got in the way.
Lots of running game from Illinois State today after the gap in scores started growing.
Heisman pose.
This was almost an interception for Indiana, but Illinois managed to knock it away for an incomplete.
Indiana's first of two touchdowns on the day a Quarterback keeper and dive into the endzone.
And a slideshow of the full gallery:
Here are a few looks from the Match:
One of the more fun parts of covering volleyball is the emotion the players have to the progression of the set.
For the photographers reading this, here's a photo of my reference card on the floor next to the net, I take a few reference photos around the room in situations like this, as I mentioned earlier each light is at a different color temperature, so depending upon where the athlete is some adjustments may need to be made to match that particular light at that moment.
That's right, Soccer. At the begining of the season the games were sunlight for the whole first half and then some.
By this weekend the sun was there for warmups creating beautiful warm side lighting, but by kick off we were in total shade of twilight and by half time the only light left was from the stadium lights.
That doesn't make it impossible to get good shots, it just means there is very little room for error. To help over come this, I shoot in RAW with fast lenses at high ISO to maintain high shutter speeds. Shooting in RAW saves more information with each image and allows noise reduction software to produce better results. This ability to shoot at high ISO keeps the shutter speed up and the blur out of the images.
Making those well timed shots as crisp as possible, which allows me as a the photographer, to provide the best representation of the athletes efforts.
Crisp eyes on the defense
and the offense
Capturing the battle on the ground
Touchdown! But not ours. This was one of those (rare) times that being tight, then getting tighter would lose the sense of location on the field and make this just another catch.
Did I mention it rained?
Then the lightning kicked in and the stadium had to clear out until it was safe again...
But the dedicated returned in good spirits
I finally nailed the timing on these, however, they lack the faces. Notes made for positioning during the next game.
There was a 4th quarter rally, but time was out before the Sycamores could come back.
Full gallery can be found here: http://www.dcanavanphoto.com/p875650606
All in all shooting football in the rain was a fun experience, the clouds when the sun was up helped diffuse the light so the helmets did not create harsh shadows, making it much easier to get the eyes, and when it was pouring the rain helped add another dimension to both the game and the photos. Next time though, proper rain gear; not the last minute DIY stuff.
]]>Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L
Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 SP Di VC USD
Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX DG APO OS HSM
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II
They are all sized and weigh in at approximately the same specifications. The Canon IS II and the Sigma offer 2 modes of Image Stabilization, one axis for panning and two axis for holding the camera still, the Tamron allows IS to be ON or OFF. The AF of the Tamron felt the quickest, the AF of the Sigma felt the slowest when manually pulled to infinity, then set focused on an object about 2M from the camera. All have full time manual focus override. All come with a tripod collar, the Canon's and the Sigma come with a nylon and foam padded case, the Tamron does not. All felt like they had a solid build, however the Tamron had a slightly less refined cut on the zoom and focus rings. The Tamron had a Nikon layout for rotation of the zoom ring, the rest felt at home to this Canon user, though both the Sigma and Tamron have the fat zoom ring at the far end of the barrel, where the Canon's have their focus ring and the non-Canon lenses had narrow focus rings. As expected at this level, all have solid metal mounting points for the camera connection.
Now for the test images from inside the camera store, and I remind you the 70-200 f4L is being used to set this as a baseline for the images.
70mm @ f4
200mm @ f4
Now the Sigma 70-200 EX DG APO OS HSM:
70mm @ f 2.8
200mm @ 2.8
Now the Tamron 70-200 2.8 SP Di VC USD:
70mm @ 2.8
200mm @ 2.8
Canon 70-200mm 2.8L
70mm @ 2.8
200mm @ 2.8
And lastly the Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II
70mm @ 2.8
200mm @ 2.8
Now at this point, the images do not appear to be drastically different, and the price difference of nearly $700 across the range seems odd. On the back of the 7D there was very little difference amongst the images.
So I also decided to compare the 100% crop images, as I do make large prints often and want my work to be of the quality that a large print can come under close inspection and still perform.
In Order the 70-200 f4, Sigma, Tamron, 2.8L, 2.8L IS II 100% cops of the 70mm images
Here I think the Canon selections really start to show the quality of the glass as they produce a sharper image across the frame.
Here's a gallery with all of the images included so you can "pixel peep" and get a closer look at the images. I did include a few to help show the Bokeh quality of the lenses. http://drewcanavanphotography.zenfolio.com/p282445426
The Sigma and Tamrons are quality lenses for most applications, however if you're going to go into larger prints I see the Canon lenses really paying off. I could tell when the image stabilization was on vs off, and it seemed to have the most effect with the Canon. At such a price gap between the non-IS and IS II models....I'm not sure that the price gap is justified between the lenses.
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