# Most difficult high school sport to photograph



## justawriter (Sep 27, 2016)

My own opinion for tiny North Dakota schools that have pitiful gym lighting: #1 is volleyball. Even 500 exposure can't freeze action of the ball most of the time and ISO 3200 is barely fast enough. Basketball and football are easy by comparison. What's your toughest small town sports challenge?


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## unfocused (Sep 27, 2016)

I shoot for a small college. I agree that volleyball is the hardest. To get faces you have to shoot through the net which makes autofocus next to impossible. It's hard to get shots of the players that are in the middle and if shooting from the side, the crowd can create a very distracting background. Plus the ball moves very fast, making it hard to get the ball in the shot. 

I also find swimming difficult because so much of the action occurs underwater, so it can be challenging to get an interesting shot. Backstroke, breastroke and butterfly are not too bad, but with any sidestroke it is difficult to get a face shot.


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## TexPhoto (Sep 28, 2016)

Volleyball is tough! I shoot semi-pro and international events. My best advise is the same as it was in Highschool. Get high! (Altitude that is) Hopefully your bleachers can get you hight up in the air. I find I can shoot from several positions up high and get great photos. From the top of the bleachers, a great place is looking straight across the net, on the opposite side of the ref. Or at a diagonal, or directly behind a team. A long lens 300mm is great. i use a Sigma 120-300 f2.8.
If you can get there, straight down is awesome too.
You can't let ISO scare you off. Though obviously the newer the camera the better they do with high ISO. 

You can see some of my Photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157668578925016

I'd love to see some of yours.


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## Besisika (Sep 30, 2016)

Nice TexPhoto, thanks for sharing the technique.
My biggest challenge actually is totally different. It is a wheelchair basketball and a goalball.
For the first, it is because the light in the gym is flickering like crazy and I think by a whole stop and at least 500K. The green is constant but the orange is all over the place. Only one out of 4 or 5 shots are good, and always the non-interesting ones. I got my 1DX II, I can't wait for the tournament to start again.
As far as goalball goes, it is always shot in very dim light (sport for the blind) and you are not authorized to make noise. I am thinking of the 4K grab (quiet and has 1.4 crop.) and anxious to see the result. Have to wait for the tournament to come to my city though.


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