About an hour ago I got back from Lucas Oil Stadium where I’ve been photogarphing the Bands of America Grand National Championships for the past three days. For those of you who aren’t marching band affacionados, think of it as the super bowl for high school marching bands. More than 90 bands competed over three days with Avon High School — which just happens to be an Indy-area school — being crowned Grand National Champion.
My right index finger is killing me. Over the past three days I took more than 31,000 images. You read that correctly…31 THOUSAND. Heard some great music, actually remember a bit of some of the better shows, but by and large it’s all a blur. I was one of four photographers capturing the action on the field, which means if my take as average, for the four of us we took nearly 120,000 photographs!
Why so many? Great question. To get one of say a guard member who’s tossing a rifle or swinging a flag, you have to let the motor rip and get off more than one exposure to hopefully come away with at least one image of the person facing forward…all the while hoping the photo is also in focus. It’s fast action that requires using top-of-line professional equipmpent. I used a Nikon D3 with either a 300mm f2.8 or 200-400mm f4 lens. This photo of a Vista Murrieta H.S. (Murietta, CA) sax player was shot with the 200-400mm f4.
So if your son or daughter or grandchild is in marching band what can you do to improve your photos? Keep checking back and I’ll share some tips next time around.
