Do you shoot?

Like what a lot of people have said, the lighter it is out, the lower you want your ISO. A lot of my bball photos are a little grainy because my particular lends isn't great at shooting in the dark, so the 3200 ISO makes it look kinda crappy.

When I shoot football practices, I like to shoot as low of an ISO as possible with the fastest shutter speed to still capture the action and not make the photo too dark. Also, when it comes to AM practices, I have to adjust it a lot with the sun rapidly changing the lighting.

For instance, I shot all three of these photos the same day, lens in the same direction (east) just at different times of the morning. I'm sure you can tell the difference in the lighting and some of the settings:

 

Also, here's one I really liked that I took on Saturday. Total luck, but I like the way the player's helmet is in the way of Duffie looking at me.

 

Layering a picture - something that can make a boring photo pop.

 

This is quite nice, Matt.

 

Thanks. Just saw you were a UCO grad ... go Bronchos! I'm a 2006 Jenks grad and a lot of my close friends graduated from Edmond North and Santa Fe.

 

Took this on that foggy Monday I mentioned; not a lot of action, but I just liked the way it looked with the kids lined up in the same position.

 

Pilot, I took your recommendations this week and it worked wonders.
Monday was very sunny so I shot with the ISO at 250, the F-stop at 5 and the Shutter speed at 1600. Pictures were very sharp and overall, looked better than my norm.
For the most part I've been shooting with my shutter speed at 800, but I've been trying to move it closer to 1600.
Question though - aperture. Is there a setting for that? Or is it a term?

 

f-stop is the setting for aperture.

 

I was disappointed at the Colorado State spring game. I didn't get a lot of great shots, but here are some of the better ones:

 

The third one in particular is pretty sweet. The first and fourth ones could work great depending on the stories, and the second one is pretty good, though it'd be a little better if the front guy was turned a little more toward you. I'd have been mashing down the shutter button at that point, and wonder one of the two or three shots before or after that might have had their bodies turned a little differently.

The fourth one is neat, but could have been a little neater if you had gotten a little lower. I'd have laid down, maybe, or focused on him, flipped the autofocus off and set the camera on the ground, pointed at him and snapped off a string of photos. So long as he's not moving forward or backward, he'll stay in focus.

Overall, you don't seem to have any problems at all, though.

 

Adog, Pilot, I may need some advice on a new toy.
Mrs. Rhody and I are expecting and she wanted to get a new camera. Since I've been shooting with professional stuff, I told her if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right.
Tomorrow between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., I'm headed down to the photo shop to pick up the D7000 we bought today. It's going to be used mainly for personal use, but I plan on using it at work as well.
How is this going to change my life taking photos?

 

For the better.

Seriously, there'll be a bit of a learning curve, but you will see rapid improvement. Have you had a chance to play with it?