The number one team in 5A High School Football in Colorado hosted the number two team in the state Friday night. Undefeated #1 Pomona was picked to beat #2 Chaparral at the North Area Athletic Complex, and after scoring the first touchdown, looked like they would be well on their way to a victory at their homecoming game.
I was trying something new for this game. Instead of using a flash connected by Pocket Wizard wireless flash triggers, I used a off camera flash cord. This allowed me to us Canon’s E-TTL II exposure metering instead of a manual setting. In theory, it should allow my flash to give good flash exposure at a greater distance. When shooting with a manual flash, you have a limited range the flash will be good in. Too close and the subject will get too much flash, too far away and they will not get enough flash. Now with the E-TTL II, they could get closer to me, and still me exposed correctly, and as long as they were within range of my flash, they should still get decent exposure further away.
The drawback is, unless you use an external power pack, your flash recycle can be very slow.
Besides using the off camera cord, I gridded my flash. This gave off a narrower throw that should reduce the amount of red eye from the flash.
So, after going up 7-0 in the first quarter, Pomona could not do anything in the second quarter. 2 interceptions by Chaparral lead to two of their three 2nd quarter touchdowns. The starting Pomona quarterback was forced out of the game in the second quarter after suffering a hard hit on a QB sneak, that lead to him being taken off the sidelines by a motorized cart with a neck brace on. The #2 Chaparral Wolverines would go into the locker room at half time leading 21-7 over the #1 Pomona Panthers.
During halftime, while the Pomona Band was on the field, the Panthers fans were worried. Down 2 touchdowns and minus their starting quarterback, things looked grim.
As you can see from the images, the subjects are isolated, the background is dark, and other players have a little motion blur to them. I feel this gives the images a sort of punch that you do not normally see from flashed football images.
In the 3rd quarter, Pomona was able to score another touchdown, but the visiting Wolverines also scored in the third. After 3 quarters of play, Chaparral lead Pomona 28 to 14.
The 4th quarter would be all Pomona’s as the held Chaparral scoreless, but the Wolverines would hold the Pomona Panthers to only 9 points, and topple the #1 team 28-23.
I was pretty happy with the results from the 7D, 580 EX II and off camera cord. I may not use the grid again, but the combo did give me the most usable flash images I have gotten at a football game. There were some misses, a lot less focus issues, and it was a fun game to shoot.
The photos should be up on MaxPreps soon, so check and do not forget to sign up to Quixcore your next game.
