Skate Park
2009 Holiday Special Part 7
Today marks one week of daily posting! I hope that there are still people looking at this blog! We will be looking at a sports that's rather unconventional: extreme skateboarding and biking~!
All these photos are taken at the new skate park at East Coast Park. On a saturday evening, you can see quite a bit of youths hanging around just like you see in the skate park at Youth Park. It seems that quite a lot of youths are in love with this form of sports and you can even see a few serious players who challenge the most dangerous pits around in the park.
One unique thing about these extreme sports is that there is no rules governing it at all! However, the lack of rules does not make the sports unpredictable. Player action is in fact highly predictable perhaps due to the dangerous nature which require constant practice of the same action. The guy above loves to pause on the slope after he does a more dangerous flip (1st photo)
Lastly, if you have not realised, for the last photo of every post, I try to get a "fun/interesting pic". Conclusion: Even seasoned players can get mistakes. Always be careful!
5 Aug 2009
4 Aug 2009
Hockey
2009 Holiday Special Part 6
Here, we look at a field sports, hockey! To me, hockey bears quite some resemblance to soccer. First, the size of the field and number of players. Another thing common in photos of both sports is that you see "things" coming out from the shoes of the players..
In hockey, the "thing" is actually water. I doubt that most people including me knows that water is bring sprayed onto the pitch prior to the game starting, creating this effect. It's somehow similar to soccer when you see those black stuff which is "sand" afrom artificial pitch. You can see quite a bit of water here as the player firms his feet to block a ball.
Another thing worthy to mention is that it really hurts when the ball hits you. Throughout the game, you can hear lound and sharp sounds whenever the ball hits the edges of the field which is being fenced up. And the players really smack the dense ball hard so dodge if the ball comes in your way!
Again, we can see how hard the ball can get when it hits you from the way the goalkeeper is "dressed". The thick knee guard says it all~
We end off with a rather interesting scene here. Conclusion from the photo: It hurts when the ball hits, especially at the wrong spot!
3 Aug 2009
Volleyball
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 5
Today, we look at another ball game, volleyball~! It's another game I am not familiar with but there mainly two types of action you always see in a volleyball game.
First, we have the one of the most signature moves that we see in volleyball matches which is diving to save the ball. During this match i shot, they seldom dive probably cuz it can get quite painful with the wooden floor. It's more common in beach volleyball where the sand floor is kinder.
Another classic manuveur is smacking the ball near the net. As players are in closer proximity, this is the time when emotions run high and you can see a variety of expressions on players faces. 2 Aug 2009
Netball
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 4
In this next part of the sports special, we move away from racket sports and look at netball. Frankly, I know nuts about netball. My first impressions about netball is that it involves a lot of physical contact, somewhat like basketball. In principle, you can shoot netball like you are shooting basketball with the main difference being that you bounce the ball in one and you toss the ball around in the other.
Anw, shooting this netball match was not easy, given the lousy lighting conditions. You have to go up to ISO3200 to only get a decent shutter speed [Note: Decent not equal good=(] I guess that pre-focusing can help quite a bit in such situations as focusing can get a bit haywired in dim conditions like this. There are other ways to work around it too.;)
Lastly, one unique feature about netball is that players have designated positions and they have restrictions due to these position. You don't see cases in soccer where a defender can run all the way to the front to score a goal here. Having some knowledge about the designated positions can help better in shooting the game. This is the same with every sports out there: Learn the game before you shoot it;)1 Aug 2009
Badminton
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 3
Next off, we look at Squash and Tennis' distannnttt cousin: Badminton! (Here we have another girl with fluff up hair again=P) So why the distant? Well, a badminton player told me before that if you observe carefully, the serving style and playing style is totally opposite compared to Tennis~ Dun wish to bore non-sporty readers here so I shall skip the details~ (Can ask me personally if you want tho=))
After shooting quite a bit of sports, I have to say that Sports can get quite Unglam sometimes! Many a times, I see shirts flying off especially when they return with a hard smack. But who cares? As long as you win the point, getting a bit unglam is worth it, I guess~
Talking about glam or unglam actually leads to a very important thing in sports: Style! Most seasoned players, in fact all, play with a certain style, patterns that you can observe over time if you are sharp enough.. Players often move in a similar manner as they execute their moves. For example, our lady above loves to do taiji swordplay when she returns a drop shot~ Knowing these patterns can prove to be useful~ More to be said in later parts!
To end it off, I have another "fun" shot here~ Sometimes, you get a bit excited over getting the ball back and you trip and fall and sometimes the falling pose can get quite awkard. These are rare moments so snap it when you have the chance!
31 Jul 2009
Squash
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 2
In this next part of the sport special, we look at Tennis' cousin: Squash! To some people, Squash sounds like a game that 孤独 (lonely) people play (But I am not one of the some people, k!;)) To me, Squash is a rather unique game, no other game allows you to play alone i guess.
Due to the unique playing style of Squash, wide angle shots are much more favoured over conventional tele shots. It's really rare that a sports allows one to shoot up close as getting close usually means danger. I was practically sticking myself to the glass when I was shooting.. Until the official tell me to back off a little... Haha..
Well, I have to stress again that Squash is unique, seldom does a sport allow you to have a chance to return a ball between your legs~ Looks a bit funny tho~ That's all folks.. Since I dun think everyone wants to see me blabber endlessly everyday, I shall try to keep my posts short~
30 Jul 2009
Tennis
2009 Holiday Special Sports Part 1
Let's start off this section with the sports that has the fastest ball on Earth: Tennis! I remembered that when I first started photography and later got exposed to DSLR, I asked my senior when will we be shooting at 1/8000th of a sec, the fastest setting on the camera? He told me i) You shoot a rocket takeoff (probably not in sg-_-) ii) a flying tennis ball! I was quickly reminded of this as I entered the Tennis court and many ppl tell me not to stand anywhere where the ball has a high chance to hit you~ (And I dun wan to try getting hit either)
Generally, many beginning sports shooter will first try to shoot the players serving as it is highly predictable. For tennis, players tend to stretch high and serve the ball, reason simply is to get maximum reach~ And it seems that players make the most effort (strength-wise and the 'urgh' sound i always hear) during serving as compared to other times where more agility is required. 
Talking about strength, I believe that among racket sports, Tennis players have the most strength as it simply requires quite some effort to drive a ball that's not light at all. So you always see your favourite Tennis players with very toned muscles.. And these muscles simply strain up when they return a ball as we can see above~
A tennis player once told me before that a good player will control his opponent by making him/her run around. I believe that's quite the same for many other racket sports as well. But it's definitely not easy as you need excellent ball control to drive the ball in your desired direction~ I realise that in Tennis, players have a tendency to run left/right rather than front/back. Perhaps it's harder to control the strength (which determines reach) than the direction. But here is one of the few running forward shots~ (I love it when player's hair fluff up!)
Lastly, shooting doubles is always challenging as it's real hard to keep both players in the frame. And sometimes you do see funny scenes like this during doubles~(at last! Quite a long post huh~)
29 Jul 2009
Holiday Special!
The long uni holidays are finally coming to an end! Sobx~ So what have I been doing during this long uni holidays when I only post like one blog post every month?
Of cos, I was shooting! At the start of the hols, I told myself that I shall not waste these precious 3 mths away. Most ppl will naturally think of working next. But thinking that I am going to be working for a few more decades after I graduate, I decided to do the very things that I like! Photography (and some other stuff of cos=p)
During the past 3 mths, I shot quite a variety of things and it's now time to upload them onto my blog! They can be divided into a few categories and we will be starting with sports photos! I hope to update the blog daily until i ran out of "holiday photos" (Pray hard I can commit to this blog!)
SO.. Watch this space daily from today!
Soccer...
29 May 2009
Back from Sibu Island!
It has been some time since I last posted on this blog! Sorry to all viewers! April was busy exam revision while May was... erm slacking away during the holidays~
Anw, I just got back from Sibu Island~! It is a small island getaway in Johor, very near to sg~ The scenery is beauitful and I took some photos there~ Here's one photo for u all~!