Dragons V Titans. I'd rather not talk about the game ...

July 15, 2016

It was a cold winter's evening. Two teams decided to play a game of rugby league in the suburban ground of Kogarah. One team's jersey colour was predominantly white with a red V, the other was a team in blue with the odd splash of gold.

Anyways the script does not always go to plan. Benji Marshall, had his hamstring issues that left him hamstrung, and well Josh Dugan in maroon eyes, deliberately ran into Greg Inglis' shoulder to break his jaw. I'm not saying those two guys would have made the difference but you need to give some hope they would.

The Dragons tried hard, it has not been a season where they can play a full 80 minutes. Unfortunately tonight they played in patches but their bad patches out lasted their good patches and were comprehensively beaten. Lucky the NSW Blues won on Wednesday or this would be a long depressing weekend in terms of footy luck.

Anyways back to shooting tonight and I'm back to using the 70-200mm, it lacks reach. Need to save for something longer as the 300mm f4 L IS i had last game. Again I'd rather not say anything.

Greg Bird warms up on Northern End of UOW Jubilee Oval

Russell Packer gets ready for the kick off

Luke Douglas charges forward for the TItans in good field position

Frizz is wondering what's happening after the high's of Wednesday night. TItans up 4 nil

Hoffman was a handful all night, playing for a new contract

Euan Aitken juggles and juggles but takes it

Gypsy fires up Packer after the Dragons score to make Titans 8 Dragons 6

Nose repaired after the early hit. Faifai Loa takes it up

DEFUSED! Nightingale soars above the pack

Well that was half time and it was Dragons 6 Titan 14. Hoping for some action on the Northern end so I can see some Dragon tries rather than the TItans barraging their way through our defence.

Some warm and comforting support from the St George Illawarra Flames. Thumbs up for braving the cold

Titans are off to a flying start in the 2nd half.

Widdop attempts another probing kick that comes up tryless. Got to keep persisting

Backing up after only 2 days, Frizell deserves to be allowed to pass

de Belin taken with out the ball? Penalty me thinks? but it was no play on

Kurt Mann can not go any wider, one on one here

Finally some positive action, Mann step back inside and carries a few to score just before full time

That's the wrap, a very unconvincing display by the Red V. Stick solid things will turn around, the question is when. There was a crowd of just over 8000 on this winter evening.

St George Illawarra Dragons 12. Tries: Mann (2). Goals: Widdop (2/2).

Golf Coast Titans 32. Tries: Macdonald (2), McQueen, Don, Peats, Mead. Goals: Tyrone Roberts (4/6), Ash Taylor (0/1).

Back to the Footy with a Canon Extender 1.4X III

August 2, 2015

Back to the beloved Jubilee Oval to watch the Dragons go around against the Newcastle Knights. The Dragons are in a massive form slump and its been a long time between drinks since the last win!

I have not been able to go out to a day game as I missed the last home game against Cronulla which probably was the last time we had won a game! Due to it being a day game, I decided to try my hand and grab (or hire) some equipment to see if it makes a difference before attempting to buy better equipment for my quest to become a sports photographer.

Everyone says you need a 300mm or 400mm so I made the trek out to Sun Studio in Sydney today to hire something to get me the zoom distance. It was a toss up between getting a Canon Extender 1.4X III or 300mm f/2.8 L lens. I played with both and as much as I liked to have taken the 300mm beast I decided that since I only had one camera body with me, the smarter choice was to get the Canon Extender 1.4X III. There are the obvious negatives which meant that my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L MK 1 lens was going to be stopped down to f/4 but the positive was that I was still able to zoom. So today I will be getting a reach of 280mm out of my 70-200mm. The 300mm seemed quick at focusing but the lack of zoom just got me a little worried since I sit next to the fence and will need to zoom to the shorter end from time to time.

I'm not much of a reviewer, the extra zoom did help and I got keepers that way. Apart from the aperture slow down, I did notice and had read about the focus speeds being a little slower. It did feel slower but being a newbie the missed shots may have just been me.

This has got me thinking now, where can I try the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM (Sport). I better save my pennies, I have a sneaking suspicion this may just be the lens to get me further into sports photography. I can take this in to some venues where as a 400mm f/2.8 I am sure I will need a media pass.

For those interested in the statistics, the Dragons came out on top. It was Marvel Super Hero week and the Dragons had their IronMan jersey on and the Knights had their Spiderman jersey's. They had a great start and then fell away and were trailing the Knights at half time. They then kicked in to action. So I thank the Dragons to make it such an eventful day.

OK with out further or do here are the pics. Everything was taken with the extender on the camera and paired to the 70-200mm on my Canon 1Dx.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 46 (J Dugan 2 T Frizell B Marshall W Matthews M Rein G Widdop tries G Widdop 9 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 24 (A Clydsdale K Gidley J Mamo T Randell N Ross tries T Roberts 2 goals) at Jubilee Oval. Referee: Gavin Reynolds, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 10,236.

Big Dell greets Fox presenters Braith Anasta and Jimmy Smith

Former premiership winning Dragon, Jeremy Smith

Opposing captains, Gidley in the No.1 and Jason Nightingale leads the Dragons out

Gagai holds up Dugan whilst Widdop watches on

Try Try Try, Mitch Rein crosses for the 2nd try of the afternoon, why is the Ref going to the video?

Happy Dragon is definitely happy that's 12-0

Ball and All, Peter Mata'utia locks up Clint Newton

Jack de Belin hits it up strong through the middle

Benji does the smart thing and passes before Smith gets a hold of him

Half time interval is almost done and the Flames are warming the crowd up

de Belin and Marshall are arguing who is the real IronMan

Woohhh that's lifting almost above the horizontal

Josh Dugan a 2 try scorer in this game, hits it up.. tatts and all

Duges has played tough all year, probably a bit busted after Origin but going well enough

Joseph Tapine tries to get away from Benji and Dugan

Jake Mamo... close but no cigar... NO TRY

Red and White Army are happy !! It's looking like a good Sunday arvo

Captain Creagh tells the boys, follow me and I'll lead you the way ... to a WIN!

Desperate try line defense is returning Marketo and Creagh are wrapping the Knight up

That's a bit awkward, Thompson, Aitken and Widdop all want a piece of it and Dugan watches on

And that is full time, the good old score board tells the story

Following the action

June 8, 2015

Living the dream is one thing, trying to improve and distinguish my style from others is another thing. I am a beloved rugby league fan, and a Dragon's man at heart.

Today I scored some free tickets to go to watch the Bulldogs v Dragons at ANZ stadium at Homebush. It was a day game so it was going to be fun and not push the Canon 1Dx ISO to 6400 and try and get some clean shots at ISO 800.

The task today was to try and track play as best I could. Follow through and not just shoot a pass and stop the continuous burst. Normally I stop after capturing 3 frames of action. Today I wanted to really follow through, anticipate the action but follow through the scene (or play).

After a few shots I realised that even moving around to near the fence the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS (Mark 1) did not provide me enough reach. Back at the suburban ground of Kogarah Jubilee, the fence was much closer to the pitch.

CANTERBURY 29 (T Browne S Kasiano T Lafai J Morris C Rona tries T Hodkinson 2 M Mbye 2 goals M Mbye field goal) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 16 (G Widdop 2 P Mata’utia tries G Widdop 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton, Chris James. Crowd: 27,291.