Stuff My Dad REALLY REALLY Wishes I'd Stop Taking Photos of . . . The Captain of Those Dirty Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby During Warm-Ups at Philadelphia Flyers Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA on March 15, 2014...
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Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby During Warm-Ups at Philadelphia Flyers Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA on March 15, 2014
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Nov, 2014Views
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Awards
People's Choice in Worst Photo I Ever Took Photo Challenge
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
![Probably the Strangest Sight [Mostly Due To It's Location] in My City [technically I live in the suburbs - across the river from the city]. It&#](https://cdnpt01.viewbug.com/media/mediafiles/2014/11/11/37477681_widepreview400.webp)
![Columbus Blue Jackets & Philadelphia Flyers Line Up On Opposite Sides of the Red Line For A Face-Off [Puck-Drop] at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadel](https://cdnpt01.viewbug.com/media/mediafiles/2015/05/21/55182155_widepreview400.webp)
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Behind The Lens
Location
The Wells Fargo Center [Philadelphia Flyers Hockey Arena] in Philadelphia, PA.Time
About 30 minutes before puck drop, the teams come out on the ice for a 15 minute warm-up. The arena allows fans down at the glass during that time to watch the warm-ups & take photos.Lighting
The arena is actually very well lit. [Even more so now than it was when I shot this photo].Equipment
I'm only an amateur photographer without press credentials so I shoot hand-held without a flash, strobes or a really large telephoto lens like the professional sports photographers have. My camera is a Canon Rebel T5i with a EF-S 55-250 IS STM Lens.Inspiration
My dad has owned a sports collectible store since before I was born & when I was younger he was really involved with the local teams, attending games, writing columns for local newspapers. In the past few years his health has been declining and he doesn't really do much, so a few years back I started buying him season ticket to our local NHL team [Philadelphia Flyers - Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA]. I fell in love with the sport, especially the histories and stories of the teams & players. While I personally have a deep respect for all of the NHL players, being local to Philadelphia my dad has a long standing loyalty for the Flyers. The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins have a storied rivalry that extends to an extreme dislike amongst Flyers fans for the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins - Sidney Crosby. As you can imagine my dad is not a huge Sid Crosby fan [or his team] so I like to joke around and show him photos I took 'to annoy him' [hence the photo's title]. Most of the photos in my portfolio are of hockey players from NHL games and when thinking about the theme of this challenge, did somewhat of a less than literal play on the theme using most hockey fans' [outside of Pittsburgh] stereotypical dislike for the Pittsburgh Penguins Captain - 'Worst Photo I Ever Took' - A shot of our rival team's not-very-well-liked Captain.Editing
I do a lot of post-processing. Some because I'm still learning the best settings for taking photos in the arena's environment and some because of the limitations due to not have media credentials. I'm still trying to find the perfect balance between the shutter speed and ISO. While the arena lighting is really bright, the fast pace of the sport requires a high shutter speed. Having to shoot hand-held with the lens fully extended [250mm] also increases the potential for blurry photos which can be compensated for with a higher shutter speed. Of coarse increasing the shutter speed reduces the amount of light let in by the lens which means increasing the ISO. The result [usually I'll prefer the higher shutter speed over a lower ISO] is a lot of image noise. I always need to do noise removal in post-production [which often requires compensation by sharpening] as well as adjusting the brightness/contrast levels & brightening the colors. The glass isn't as clear as you'd think - even for a professional NHL arena, and shooting through the glass results in 'scratches' or reflections being cast onto the subject. [There's also the added reflection off of the players' visors]. Over this summer I bought a polarized lens and am going to see if it helps with the reflections when the new season starts in October but in the meantime, I manually touch-up the images in Photoshop to remove obnoxious or distracting reflections / glares caused by the glass. A lot of the professional sports photographs featuring NHL players are shot using a lens with a much lower f-value [I think the pros use a lens with a f/2.8]. The lower f value gives their images a blurrier/softer background and while I don't have the more expensive lens [and would likely incur some difficulty attempting to smuggle one into the arena] I try to emulate the blurry background during post-processing with Photoshop. I don't like the way the filters do the lens emulation and manually select the area[s] of the image to blur / sharpen. This is one of my older photos and I've gotten better at post-processing my photos, but still do the same types of adjustments. Most of my images, including this one also include artistic enhancements, in this case I wanted to create a vintage film look. For this photo I used a an effect emulating the old Kodak Ektachrome Plus [EPP] film. I liked how the Cyan Shadows of the EPP filter contrasted to the yellow accents in the design of the Penguins road sweater [jersey].In my camera bag
I mostly enjoy taking photos during hockey games and not being a professional don't do 'events' or take photos aside from at hockey games. There's also some [conflicting] policies regarding cameras at the arena, so it's not like I can walk in with tripod or overly large lens. My camera bag [a purple Kelly Moore] is usually packed for games. My primary lens [Canon EF-S 55-250] is usually attached to the camera & I keep the kit lens [EF-S 18-55] with me although I don't use it lot. Extra batteries & SD cards. A 64GB card usually hold all the images from warmups and a single game. [Right now I use the largest MP file setting without keeping the RAW files] but I keep extras just in case. Sometimes a single battery will last the whole time, other times I've need a second one. Although I don't use the flash which conserves the battery, I watch a lot of the game through the lens so the constant adjustment of the auto-focus can drain on the battery. Although there's a lot of limitations without having press credentials, I still try to find ways to get better photos. This summer I bought a polarized lens filter and will see if it helps with some of the glare & reflections from the glass and players' visors. Aside from that, there's just some typical 'girlie' purse stuff I keep in my camera bag [in lieu of being able to carry a purse and camera bag discretely into the arena]. My wallet, scrunchies, a compact, game tickets, candy and my phone or tablet.Feedback
The NHL arenas are a very unique setting to shoot photos. Although they're very well lit compared to the arenas kids or beer league skaters would play, there's no perfect program or automated setting on the camera that's ideal for the environment. Some of the arenas [including the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia] have even updated their lighting in the past to be even brighter than before. [Last summer Wells Fargo Center had a Musco 25,000 LED lighting system installed]. The two biggest variables I always struggle to find a balance between are the ISO and Shutter Speed. The lighting allows for a very low ISO setting, but the speed of the game and lack of a tripod when using a fully extended 250mm lens means a high shutter speed to avoid blurry photos. We try to arrive at the arena when the doors open. My dad needs a wheelchair so I'll usually park him at the top of the lower level entrance near where I like to shoot from and will go down to the glass and get a spot before it gets too crowded. I like to shoot next to the entrance where the players come out onto the ice because they'll often stop at the bench for a drink or break and I can get nice portraits of them staying somewhat still. Before each game, manually set the white balance from a few wide shots of the ice. The automated white balance settings are all off for the arena. Take shots of the arena to see how high of a shutter speed you can use with the lowest possible ISO before the images come out noticeably dark. Play around with the other settings on the camera [metering, spot focus etc]. Make sure to completely disable the flash. Aside from the arenas not allowing flash photography, the players are too far away for the distance the built-in flash is designed for. You'll only get glares & reflections off the glass.
