For those with no idea what you are looking at, this is Australia’s winter obsession, Australian Rules Football or “Footy”. It is an interesting sport to shoot. It moves faster than most, with long range, any direction kicking and fast hand work, criss-crossing the large field almost continuously, so long, then quickly not so long lenses are a must.
“The Ruck”, starting a play sequence after a goal or time period end.
I was lucky, having the boys and girls senior teams playing at the same time.
Faster glass is good. This shot was taken late in the afternoon in mid Autumn gloom (f4, 1/500, 3200). You need decent shutter speeds and reach, which can be expensive (yay for M43).
Solid wins to both teams have cemented them in as early contenders (the boys made the state final last year and I swear they are even taller this year!).
A “hand ball”, designed to stop rampant “chucking”. Getting lower increases drama.
Truly a game for anyone, the tall, the fast, the tough and the tenacious all get a go.
On the technical side, I use a 300 f4 on the EM1x for as much as I can, the EM1 mk2 and 40-150 for closer, both on straps, ready to go. Even at this level, the game can move too quickly for camera changes, so I have some very tight 300 (600mm eq) shots that I like, but fail to tell the story.