Lens: 50.0mm, 1/160s, f/2.8, ISO: 800
I took a series of images of Alex Couling performing during the Best of the Best Patterns tournament last Sunday and some of the nicest of these images are featured here.
I tried a few times to capture the movement above but most of the time I was in the wrong position at the wrong time. Looks like it should be easy but when you don't know the patterns well enough it's not. For a change it is a nice sharp image with a little blurred movement showing in the kick.
Lens: 85.0mm, 1/200s, f/1.8, ISO: 250
This was taken from the balcony above with my 85mm prime lens. Because the lens is a fixed telephoto (aka prime lens) and can't be zoomed I have no choice over the crop and this is particularly tight. It's a pity I've cut off her feet but standing on the balcony railing to get further away wasn't an option! However the bonus of this lens is it's speed and quality. I've cranked the ISO down to 250 to give much greater detail and sharpness with little noise. You can see this in the nice skin tones compared with a high ISO image. The top image above is ISO 800 at which point the quality starts going down dramatically. The one below is ISO 1000, even higher.
Lens: 55.0mm, 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO: 1000
Back to my usual lens zoomed in to the maximum and now there's more room in the image. Being a higher ISO it's not a clear as the image above. It's quite a nice stance and the positioning of Alex and the black rectangle in the mats is nice.
Lens: 47.0mm, 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO: 1000
Not sharp - shutter speed too slow, but a nice sense of movement.
Lens: 47.0mm, 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO: 1000
And again.
Lens: 85.0mm, 1/80s, f/1.8, ISO: 250
And finally back down at eye level for this final image with the 85mm fixed lens again. Very slow shutter speed so I was lucky to get it as sharp as it is. The low aperture of f/1.8 combined with the telephoto has thrown the background right out of focus.
Thanks Alex :-)
