I didn't get anything spectacular, or even print worthey, but I did learn some lessons about hockey. Even things I supposedly already knew.
#1, dont dont dont dont try and follow the puck! I can't be done, especially through that little window they give you. Follow the star players (they're the ones you want pictures of anyway), or sit and watch the goalie.
#2, when watching the goalie, don't wait for the goalie to dive. Start shooting the instant he twitches. You'll waste lots of frames, but you're much more likely to catch a good moment.
#3, w/ a 1.6x crop, a 70-200mm lense is great. Except... it doesn't go wide enough for when they're in your face and it doesn't go tight enough for the other end of the rink.
#4, there is little point in bringing two camera bodies if you leave on in the bag the whole game. Wear both! Put the long lense on the good camera and a wide one on your backup.
#5, ALWAYS use manual exposure!!! With the horrible lighting and tonnes of background light-noise, you will wind up with lots of variety in your exposures... i.e. junking some otherwise good shots.
#6, expose for the ice, not the players. Expose to get good detail in the ice. If you expose for the players the ice will blow out. pure white ice = ugly & distracting
that's all I can think of right now, but I'll upload some pics after class.
Pics: (2nd to last one made it into the school paper)
