National grade cricket yesterday.
A chance to give the 300 a run and also the handy 75-300 zoom.
The 300 gives me that lovely tight (sometimes too tight) high end tele look. The backgrounds do not blur as much as full frame lenses, because it is still a 300, not a 5-600mm, but that can be handy for story telling and context.
As for story telling images, you do get the odd opportunity.
Shooting sports often means thinking through scenarios, not just getting in the best angle for a single shot. Will you get a story teller? An image with multiple supporting elements in it or will you come away with a bunch of “hero” shots and nothing else.
The image above was taken with my second camera, with the 75-300 mounted. It has layers and relevance. The batsman was a middle order player who had scored the highest score in a low scoring match. The score board in the background could have told the whole story better, but I was caught unprepared with too little depth of field at f8, ironic considering it is a slow M43 lens and thanks to poor timing I slightly obscured the name (a half second before would have had the batsmans name in front and the bowlers behind), but the idea was there.
The more I shoot sport, the more I think about story teller images.
It is basically the same mindset I use for street photography, working from back to front and making sure all the elements are in focus, more or less.