Finally got a decent goalkeeper shot!

It's a good one John...

very nice

Decent isn't the adjective I would use . . . more like excellent! GREAT shot

This is a very good shot. There is no EXIF information, but I can make some guesses. The only real question I have (and I think I already know the answer) but was this taken during warmups? It is EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to get a shot like this during a game. One in a million really. But that's ok. I tend to shoot a lot of action for sports in pre-game when you can actually be on the field of play and capture images.

Color is great, light is great, focus is spot on, background is quite soft Looks like something at 130-200mm maybe F4 or 5.6.

I show the Exif at 1/3200, F4, ISO800, and focal length at 92mm

Oh, and stick around a while and you will see a lot of EXCEPTIONAL images on this site. I am surprised this wasn't at 500mm or 600mm

Originally Posted by JSPhotography I show the Exif at 1/3200, F4, ISO800, and focal length at 92mm

Ah ok, I didn't download it to see.

at 92mm this image was likely shot from about the 18yd box or closer (or cropped). Which means the photographer was on the field of play.

At 500 or 600mm, the shooter would have been off the other side of the field. Compression would have made it look like they were nearly touching the net, and the background would likely be a soft blur. I got the F-stop right but they were a bit closer than I had projected.

Yes. This was shot during warmups. 99 times out of a hundred if you're on the touchline with a big lens there's always a field player in the way. The main difficulty though is that the goalkeeper (unless the team sucks) only gets 30 seconds of action in the whole game, so unless you are prepared to ignore the rest of the game and sit through the whole contest in just the right spot with your big lens trained on the keeper, you just can't get anything worth a darn. And even then, the corner kicks all end up coming from the other side of the field. This is the junk I usually end up with:



Since we're getting toward the end of the regular high school season and I didn't have much for the keepers, I prevailed on the coach to let me sit on the field during warmups. The girls shooting were quite kind. Not once did I get nailed from behind. I'm a bit of a team mascot. They all know my kids had graduated from their high school before any of them were ever born. Here's a less interesting capture of the other keeper:

Oh, how well do I know. Soccer is one of the primary sports I shoot, and I've coached it for nearly 20 years now. I am able to get on the field with all the teams I work with, so that makes things a lot easier. I will be doing a lot more remote work this year and if I can make my remote work on the big glass, I should be able to get at least a few good keeper shots. I am hoping that with 420mm of lens, a 1.5 crop factor, and 16MP, I should be able to get in there somewhat decently. I am also going to do goal remotes this year. That should help quite a bit.

Good on you getting in there and getting your shots though. Soccer is a fall sport down here in FL as it's just too hot most other times of the year.

Originally Posted by Icebear Finally got a decent goalkeeper shot!

Awesome!

My jaw dropped when I opened the post ... Wow!! Hope she buys a BIG print from you.
A shot to be very, very pleased with.

Thanks everybody! I appreciate your kind comments. Ace, no sale. Her father is an ex-newspaper photojournalist and sports photographer. I gave him the image after he told me how much he liked it. Professional courtesy and all. He said he'd never been able to get as good a shot of his own daughter.

Very Nice capture John!, colours are fantastic :). Kind regards Graham.

Thanks Graham. How 'bout City, eh? Go Chelsea!