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Went out to the AFL practice game at North Sydney Oval, as I do, to catch the annual pre-season circus act between Sydney and Essendon. First priority was to rejoice in the return of the new footy season and see the reigning premiers for the first time since the Grand Final... But also important was the chance to take more photos!

The weapon of choice was my faithful D70s, with the oft-maligned 70-300G as my principal lens (only one of the shots below was with my kit 18-70).

Those of you familiar with North Sydney Oval will know that in the evenings, the low grandstand means a great deal of squinting into the sun, plenty of deep shadows. After the sun goes down, you also have to deal with the glorified floodlights on sticks that try to pass off as stadium lighting. Most of these shots have been post-processed to within an inch of their metaphorical lives.

am 80-200/2.8 would have been extremely useful but still I reckon I got a couple of decent shots during the match... at least at the size they are presented here - obscuring the ISO 1600 noise and general softness of the 70-300G shot wide open.

I still have a lot to learn - how do those pro sports photographers do it? I took 250 photos, with the 12 on this post being reasonable, and maybe one or two of them an outside chance of being considered adequate fora low res local paper website article

Photos below - click on thumbnail to pop up a new window with a bigger, shinier version.

<a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_01.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_02.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_02.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_03.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_03.jpg" border="0"></a>


<a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_04.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_04.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_05.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_05.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_06.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_06.jpg" border="0"></a>


<a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_07.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_07.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_08.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_08.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_09.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_09.jpg" border="0"></a>


<a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_10.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_10.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_11.jpg" border="0"></a><a href="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/SydEssNSO06_12.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://thesystemisdown.com/gallery/albums/userpics/SydEssNSO06/tn_SydEssNSO06_12.jpg" border="0"></a>

Practise is the answer. Faster lens is another. Add the two together and you will have a winner.

Not a bad effort, all things considered and with the 70-300G you will do reasonably well. For fast action sport, it's hit and miss with this lens but as you have about 10% images good, i would say well done.