Afternoon All

I had some spare time today just to play with taking photos of archers and arrows. A smattering of the results...

Chris shooting one of his new arrows - first time it had been used.


Phil shooting his Asiatic. I think he smacked himself in the mouth due to a bad release.


Chris again. I am sctually further away to get a better angle. Just wind the zoom up even more.


Chel concentrating on the target.


Meanwhile down the other end of the range. Chris about to get a miserable score.



The next couple are from a few weeks ago but they give an idea how much/little some arrows flex and and how much or how little they yaw in flight.


Another arrow shooting very straight. Benefit of good arrows and a good release.

Grahame,

Well done mate. They are some great photos. I can imagine there was quite a bit of "1, 2, 3... release" to get the moments you have captured.

What is on Chris' shirt. Looks like it might be an interesting logo for a medieval group.

Steve

That high speed camera in your hands sure does the job mate.

Jeff

Evening Steve



Actually easier than you would expect - but I do have some specialist gear. Even so I have a lot of similiar photos taken with my other camera.

The secret of taking photos of Arrow-in-Flight is twofold.

1. Learn to anticpate when the archer will take the shot.
2. Take lots of photos.

In the season I can take photos of Baseball and Softball Batters with the Ball in the shot as they swing in excess of 90% of the time and that is just practice showing through. As for Pitchers it would be 95% of the shots have the Ball in the air. However, I have taken a lot of photos of Baseball and Softball. And I have taken a lot of sports photos over the years and you develop a sense for when to take the shot.

Of you take lots of phots of arrows in flight you do learn a thing or three about how they fly and and the sort of issues that arise.

One of the great things about shooting Digital is there is effectively no cost invloved in taking photos. So there is no excuse for not getting out there and taking them if you want to improve you photography skills

I did spend a bit of time trying to get two arrows in the air at once - I gave up on that after a while.

Even photos like this are just a matter of practice in getting teh timing right.



The logo on Chris's shirt is that of the "Great Northern War". It is a representation of a "Powerful Owl" which is common in the Samford Valley in the greater Brisbane area.


Hi Jeff

It is a great camera and has become my walk-around camera. Some people have a walk-around lens I have a walk-around camera. Very versatile and it is easy to take with me - especially when compared to a backpack full of camera gear. It has had a few thousand shots put through in the last ten months.

Good photos there, i like the one about to hit the target, good timing for that one.

What sort of lens and shutter speed etc were you using Grahame?

Hi Kevin.

The closeups - Zoom probably 90-300mm and would have been shot at 300mm and say 1/500 sec.

The ones with arrow flexing was a 28-80 and around 1/1000 sec.

Fab work Grahame, love shots of archery especially ones just caught after release. I spent some time with a mate over xmas who has a super dooper SLR camera, cant recall the name, but it could take 10 fps. He takes waterski action photos, shot off some superb frames while i was there..erm not of my water ski talents,,that sort of action could be captured with a brownie
As you said above "anticipation and lots of shots" was pretty much what he said too. Of course good gear helps allot too

Hi S&S



There is book and I cannot remember its title on the history of "Sports Photography". After reading it and looking at hundreds of photos that photographers had taken over the years I came to a conclusion that the camera has suprisingly little to do with it.

The real "secret" was being in the right place at the right time. It was interesting reading about photographers taking photos of Soccer games before WWI and they would set their camera before the game based on where they thought some action would occur and wait the whole game for one shot.

At the other end colour shots on 64 ASA Colour film at the Munich Olympics. Amazing photos of the Gymnastics and using the resulting slow shutter speed to just add the appearance of motion to the image.

This is a worthwile article to read about "Sports Photography" just to get a flavour of the work/planning involved:
http://photo.net/learn/sports-photography/bill-frakes/2009/super-bowl/

If you enjoyed that read this on what is happening in the background regarding the production process to get a cover photo for a magazine of the Superbowl.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6453-6821

Very cool pictures, well done!
Tony

great pictures mate, i like the one just about going into the target and you can also see in detail what sort of funny facial expressions you can pull when you release the bow. Only joking, but you must of known someone was going to say something...Roscoe