Photographing Ice-hockey

Photographing Ice-hockey... for the first time.

This past sunday (March 30th) I had the opportunity to photograph the Belfast Giants and it was a great thing. I really enjoyed the day and managed to get some of my favourite images to date from it.

I took quite a few images before the game began, while the players warmed up and during this time I noticed that each player was having a personal experience. Some were joking and laughing, feeling relaxed while other looked more serious and anxious. Here are the images from training:

These practice shots allowed me to get comfortable with shooting positions and adjust my white balance to suit the lighting. It also gave me the opportunity to identify any major issues I would have (and there were a lot.) One was shutter speed which would have to be above 1/500th the entire match, which meant I had to push my ISO to 4000. I'm really pleased that the 5D MKII can handle 4000 without any issues (as you can see from the images above.) I was also glad that I had the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. Getting right down to 2.8 allowed me to use the faster shutter speed that I needed while keeping my ISO at 4000. I also noticed that there were poles all around the glass which got in the way and obstructed my view for a lot of the practice.

Now on with the game...