Netball

[Bill44]

In a netball game of 1 hour I usually shoot between 300-400 shots, because of the speed of the action they are shot in bursts of 4-6. I savagely cull them down and usually end up with anywhere from 20-50 suitable for the end of season slideshow DVD which gets presented to the parents of the players. This usually produces requests for prints, money money money, because they have realised that the DVD is low res not suitable for printing.

To keep their appetites whetted during the season I usually spread a few A4 prints to the appropriate parents, the following is an example.

[Roxy]

G'day Bill.. I'm wrapt in the colour and life of this image and no doubt this'll be one of those $$$$ shots at season end! The little goal defender is making a mighty effort to interrupt the shot!
I'd like to know a little about your technique e.g. shooting details on this very sharp image. I don't know how to find exif in this forum as some folk do?
This was a super sunny day and you chose a good POV for this action.
The other issue (recurring); do you have difficulty with crotchetty parents opposing your right to take photos at the game? (I suspect you may now have an "official" status, but perhaps had probs in the past?)
I've an enthusiastic grand daughter netballer and occasionally take my camera to her games, so far without hassles but your story here prompts me to take the opportunity a bit further.

Roxy

[Bill44]

G'day Bill.. I'm wrapt in the colour and life of this image and no doubt this'll be one of those $$$$ shots at season end! The little goal defender is making a mighty effort to interrupt the shot!
I'd like to know a little about your technique e.g. shooting details on this very sharp image. I don't know how to find exif in this forum as some folk do?
This was a super sunny day and you chose a good POV for this action.
The other issue (recurring); do you have difficulty with crotchetty parents opposing your right to take photos at the game? (I suspect you may now have an "official" status, but perhaps had probs in the past?)
I've an enthusiastic grand daughter netballer and occasionally take my camera to her games, so far without hassles but your story here prompts me to take the opportunity a bit further.

Roxy

I use a Nikon D90 with a Nikon 70-300 f4.5-5.6 VR lens. I shoot in shutter priority at between 1/800 and 1/1250 depending on the light and turn the VR stabilisation OFF, you don't need it at those speeds and it keeps the frame rate high. Autofocus is set on Continuous and the frame rate is on high, shoot in bursts and cull the unwanted ones during PP.

POV is dependant on the changing sun position, and the lens has enough range to cover the whole court from one end to the other. It's a busy time as the action is fast and furious, the bulk of the shooting is done in portrait mode and thank Dog my vertical grip is arriving tomorrow after a six week wait for stock, my wrist will be very grateful.

To avoid any hassles with parents I have permission from:-
Netball NSW.
The Wyong Netball Association. (Home Association for our area)
Working with children check done through the Child Safety Officer of the Association.
Also my Daughter in Law's mother just happens to be the Secretary of the Association.

By Law I didn't have to go through all of this, but if anyone fronts me I can officially tell them to go and................ Let me rephrase that, I can refer them to the Association Child Safety Officer and she will tell them for me.

As stated in my original post, I distribute a few shots amongst the parents of my Grand daughter's team, and this keeps me sweet with them apart from the fact that they've seen me at every event for the past four years, and with some of them I photograph their sons playing cricket in the summer.

[Roxy]

Thanks for all that, Bill; you've got the right gear and right authority for the task; we also know you've the right technique as well!
I need to decide if I'm prepared for the commitment you've applied before I go the whole hog, meanwhile will continue to tinker 'round the edges for a while.
Do you concentrate on one team/grade (an hour at a time, as you 've implied) or spend the day roaming around the courts for more action?
roxy

[Bill44]

An hour of almost continuous shooting is enough for me so I just follow one team right through the season. The PP work takes a while too.

BTW the young lass with the sunglasses is vision impaired, but is still a very valuable player.

[Donald]

I know people on here have been round the houses before on the issue of taking images of children and young people. And I know attitudes and values differ from country to country. But I think most of the people I see posting on here come from countries with broadly similar policies and legislation re child protection.

As I said in my introductory post way back when, I work in child protection. I am also involved in sport (having recently stood down as a director of a national governing body of sport in Scotland). These two things got me involved in child protection in sport.

I suspect the rest of the world is similar to Scotland in terms of a significant number of sports clubs/organisations not seeing child protection as being at the top of their agenda- it's usually a case of one person in the club expressing a mild interest and everyone else happy to leave it all to them. Coaches, etc then ignore the subject, thinking it has little or nothing to do with them.

So far as taking images is concerned, most governing bodies have a policy/procedure in place. If anyone ever finds they'd like some sort of reference material I'd be happy to send a copy of the procedural notes I wrote for the governing body with which I was involved. Send me a PM.