Coyotes Rookies vs Kings Rookies 17 Sept 2014

The Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League are now the Arizona Coyotes along with new ownership.  Mid-September in the NHL means training camp and it was a great excuse to go to the Glendale Arena and see a free scrimmage between the Coyotes rookies and the L.A. Kings rookies.

I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III and today I only brought my Canon 70-300mm lens.  I set to 1/600^th of a second shutter priority (to freeze action) and auto ISO.  I shoot in RAW format, so I knew I could easily change the white balance inside Lightroom, which I ended up doing. 

I stayed through two periods, enough for a hot dog and beer and a few action shots.

Until My Next Adventure, 

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

See all of my photos from this adventure by clicking the Flickr slideshow below!

Created with flickr slideshow.

Coyotes from Row A

I turned 60 on December 15^th.  And I’m feeling pretty good and happy.  I’m a hockey fan and always wanted to sit on the glass, Row “A” as they call it at the Jobing.com arena in Glendale, Arizona, home of the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL. 

So on December 14, I sat in the front row with Marni and Faron along with my Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 24-105mm lens. 

I set my camera to TV mode, or shutter priority.  I set my shutter at 1/500^th of a second.  I also set ISO to auto.  Unless you want blur on purpose, a fast shutter speed is necessary.  I could have set my white balance in camera, but I reset in Lightroom to fluorescent since I was shooting in RAW format.  It takes maybe a second to highlight all the photos and sync the white balance for everything, so I don’t worry about that much. 

You never know what celebrity might be in the audience.  Sitting several rows behind me in section 110 was the coach of the Paradise Valley Community College Puma’s baseball team, Victor Solis.  Dropping the ceremonial puck today was Arizona Diamondbacks slugging first basemen Paul Goldschmidt. 

One little lesson I learned.  As I was moving around in row A, I set my beer on the ledge in front of me, got ready to shoot, and yes some players banged into the glass in front of me.  I thought something felt cold on my feet.  Yup, one beer on the floor in front of me.  Hey, I’m the birthday boy and I’m sittin’ in ROW A baby, so who cares!

In addition to Marni and Faron, a special thanks to Haus Murphy’s of Glendale.  The owner came out and bought me a beer and gave me a free cherry strudel before the game.  And a nice bartender at Westgate’s Saddle Ranch bought me a shot of rum before the game started.  No wonder I was relaxed at the game! 

By the way, the Coyotes lost 3 to 1 to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Keep Shooting,

Jim Patterson

…and all of my photos from Row A at the Coyotes are below.

Phoenix Coyotes Prospects Camp in Scottsdale

You’ve all heard the phrase, “location, location, location.”  That certainly is one of the lessons learned from photographing hockey on 11 July 2013.  I started off taking photos with my Canon 5D Mark III and Canon “L” 24-105mm lens off to the side, but through netting.  Some were good; most I had to toss. 

After 45 minutes of hard practice, the whistle blew and the prospects skated off to let the Zamboni machines re-ice the surface.  Then they ran a full scrimmage and I went over to a new location by the glass. 

The venue was the marvelous Ice Den in north Scottsdale.  It was well over 100 degrees outside, a typical Arizona summer day, but a very very chilly winter-like temperature inside.  Note to self:  bring a jacket next time!

I experimented with ISO during this shoot.  I started at ISO 400 but the shutter speed was far too slow.  I settled on ISO 800, even ISO1600 for a few shots, that allowed me to have a faster shutter speed of around 1/100^th of a second.  My f/stop was wide open.  We had sort of tungsten lighting inside the Ice Den, but the florescent setting gave me a much better result.  The tungsten setting gave too much of a cool blue look to my photos.  The joy of shooting in raw format is I could easily re-set the white balance through Lightroom and sync all of my shots to that setting. 

 

I took close to 300 shots, but only kept 22. 

How would I do it differently?  Putting myself against the glass was about as good as it was going to get.  I couldn’t get much closer.  I could have used my Canon 70-200mm (f/2.8) lens for more reach.  Using a 1.4x extender would have meant I would lose even more light and would have had to used a higher ISO.  When you do that, you run the risk of more noise in the photos. 

For more on the Phoenix Coyotes prospects camp, go HERE. 

Keep Shooting!  One of these days you’ll get it right! 

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com 

Here are all 22 of my shots from my visit to the Ice Den….