PHIDONG.COM . 5.0

Loc invited me to go shoot the VSA Basketball Tournement with him in Santa Ana, so I drove over there 2 hours late and arrived at the gym. It was air conditioned in there, but not enough to keep the blistering sun from affecting my sweat glands. I was dying :o It was one of the most sticky experiences of my whole life. I think I got more excercise holding up the big lenses than the guys playing in the tourney!!

It was my first time shooting basketball though. ISO 800-1600 is f'ing noisy. We had a moment where we were using each other's Sigma EF500-DG's as master/slaves and setting the flashes off. At that point I was able to shoot 200-400 ISO no problems. My rotational CF card method still works, suprisingly, with RAW .. so I have no problems there. I got to try out some of Loc's equipment.. HOLY SHIT! 70-200 f/2.8L is fast compared to my first gen Sigma 70-210mm.. :o While I'm not going to upgrade to the L anytime soon, I've decided to get a 28-75mm f/2.8 Tamron instead of the Canon 28-105mm IS lens (which Loc has both of :o) Most of the shots in the gallery are taken with his Tamron lens. Its a little faster than my Sigma and its a f/2.8. Speed >> all.

So I learned a bit about sports photography and I made my mind up about some equipment I'm going to get. Definitely going to get another Sigma EF500 Super flash.. and I'm definitely going to get the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8. Its only a matter of time now.

As for the tourney.. it got pretty competitive. I'm pretty much set on only taking sports pictures of competitive events. Pussy trial runs aren't so fun because people don't go all out. UCI ended up winning the damn thing, which was pretty fun to watch. So, so far.. DRIFT + BASKETBALL (competitive sports) = the win.

[ view my pictures from the tourney ]
[ view loc's pictures from the tourney ]