Photographing in Mackey Arena Again

After a few games away it was nice to shoot in my ‘home’ arena again. Making the short drive to Mackey today was nice after a few road trips up north and down south this past week. I love shooting in a new arena, but it was also nice to set my cameras to the Mackey custom settings on my cameras. There were some familiar faces on the floor yesterday along with a few new faces. This seems like a much different team than the one that I saw play last season. They have already cracked the top 25 although I think they may drop back out again. A good showing in the Bahamas could put them right back in it though. When time allows I plan to photograph quite a few of the games this season. I love the college game, and it is a lot of fun to photograph it.

Back to the Basics

After shooting three cameras the last week I decided to keep it simple yesterday. I took two bodies, but knew that I would just be using my 70-200mm lens on them. During the first half I sat out near the sideline with my Canon 7D Mark II on the lens. This pulled me in a bit closer to the action from out there. During the second half I put the 5D Mark III on the lens as I was sitting under the basket, and I needed to pull back a bit more. This seemed to work really well for me, and I was happy with my take on the day. Both cameras performed well, although I am liking the 7DII more and more. I need to get a grip for it to make it a good camera for basketball though. The 7D just seems to make much better photos for me. It may be all in my head, but I think that it focuses faster than the 5DIII. I have always had some trouble with the 5DIII grabbing focus initially as I pan the camera to catch something. The 7D has no such problem even with the same autofocus settings. So far though I have been very pleased with the 7D, and it has paid for itself with the work that it has gotten me.

Bonus Photos

Here are a few bonus photos from the game yesterday. I have a full gallery up on my website here if you want to see more from the game.

Congratulations LaPorte Slicer Football and New Prairie Cougar Football

Both of the local teams from my hometown are going to the state finals in Indy next weekend. This is a great time to be from LaPorte County. Hopefully both teams can bring home the state title. Hopefully I will have some photos from the state title game for you next weekend.