Italia Men’s Beach Volleyball

In my early photography career, I shot a lot of sports for our college magazine and newspaper.  With only 36 exposures and the clock ticking, one had to be aware of the remaining number of exposures, what play was next, or who was up at bat.  Sometimes we shot in the stadium at night, with Tri-X film pushed to 1600 or more, hoping to get at least one good shot per roll…that was worth publishing.  Basketball was exciting, and track was a little more predictable and nice to shoot in the daylight.

Shooting sports with a digital camera is like a kid having a motorcycle to ride while working his paper route.  It’s much better once you get the hang of it.  How nice it is not to have to change film, which eliminates the old fear of missing a shot.  Zoom lens can produce excellent pictures, and with high ISOs, there’s no excuses.  I’ve often thought it would be nice to have one of those fancy, expensive, humongous, fast, 500 mm lens, but I don’t think I’d want to carry it around.

Today I decided to have a little fun shooting the Italia Men’s Beach Volleyball Team.  They practice every day in Manhattan Beach.  What a great group of nice men.  Willing to work hard during their practices are going to give them the edge during their next tournament with whatever teams dare to challenge them. You can see more pictures on www.JoanDayImages.com.

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~ by joandayimages on March 30, 2011.