First Images With Canon 5D Mark IV

This weekend I tested out my new Canon 5D Mark IV at a football game between SMU and Baylor in Waco, TX. I've owned a Canon 5D Mark III for several years now so there wasn't too much of an adjustment other than one new toggle switch on the back to change auto-focus settings. It was also fun playing with the new touch screen that allows you to tap to change settings, swipe through photos and pinch to zoom. Pretty cool stuff.

The new 30.4 MP sensor is awesome. For something like football it really allowed me to shoot action across the field and still be able to crop the photo down for a clean shot of the action that was pretty far away. With the new sensor is you really have to the focus properly on your subject. If you miss the focus it's really apparent and you might notice that in some of my photos. But when it hits it is really sharp even with the ancient 100-400L IS lens I was using. The focus was fast and it's just a matter of user error for missed shots.

Now I know the 5D4 isn't exactly made for sports photography but for me it's the perfect compromise. The only options for "sports photography" are the Canon 1DX Mark II (Just too expensive for me), the Canon 1DX (Too old for me -- I like Wifi and touch screen) and the Canon 7D Mark II (Not impressed with the sensor, dynamic range or ISO abilities). The 5D4 comes in right in the middle with a fair price of $3500, similar auto-focusing system to the Canon 1DX Mark II, great sensor and 7 frames per second, which is one more FPS than I was getting on the 5D3. It's an all-around shooter and everything I'm looking for. 

One thing to keep in mind when looking at these photos is most of them are heavily cropped and even at an images size of 2000px these are still pretty damn sharp. I could've used a better lens but I just don't have one right now. (p.s. a couple of these were shot with my old 5D3)

Shooting More and Missing Less

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As I mentioned in my last post, spring games are generally meaningless but for a young sports photographer like me I'll take every opportunity I can get to improve my shooting skills. And because I took the opportunity to shoot North Texas' spring game in Denton I had a huge revelation: I need to shoot more to miss less. 

It seems like a simple and obvious statement but "spraying and praying" isn't how I typically shoot. I'm usually much more calculated and waiting for "the moment." In football, and any other sport, the game just moves too fast and waiting for a moment means you'll usually miss it. That's how it was for me. So many of my sports photos are taken just after the moment I really wanted to shoot. I want the photo of the receiver fully extended in the air catching the football or I want the linebacker right when he's making initial contact with the ball carrier but I always release the shutter just a little too late because I was "waiting" for it. 

This issue has a little to do with the equipment I'm using. Typically I'm shooting with a Canon 5D mark III with a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L so I'm only getting about 6 frames per second compared to the 12 or 13 of the 1DX and my lens doesn't focus as fast as the 400mm f/2.8L. But this time as I saw the ball in the air or I saw the ball carrier getting close to colliding with a defender I shot much earlier than I normally do and let AI Servo do its work and it paid off pretty well. I ended with a few more peak action shots of receivers and defenders than usual but I still need to work on tracking the ball better as it makes its way through the air to a receiver. 

The goal is always to be better than I was last time and shooting this game really helped me. 

Mean Green fans got their first opportunity to see new head coach Seth Litrell's team in action

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The Limitations of a Beginner Sports Photographer

In the next couple of weeks I plan on writing a lengthy post about the economics of sports photography. As exciting and rewarding as it can be, it comes at a high price because there is just so much gear involved. 

Anyway, one of the reasons money and camera gear are always on my mind is because I see the limitations of the gear I own every time I look at the final product of my photos. It's frustrating. These photos here were shot at Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas where I cover the North Texas Mean Green. This game was against conference opponent Florida Atlantic, and unfortunately it was at night. 

I wish I could say I own a Canon 1DX and a 400m F/2.8L lens, but I have to do my best with a Canon 5D Mark III, which is an AMAZING camera (don't get me wrong) but it has its limitations with frames per second and noise reduction compared to the former. The lens I typically use for football games is a Canon 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6L IS USM. Again, it's a fantastic piece of equipment but for football games it'd be nice to work with a lens that has a wider aperture so I could condense the backgrounds more for that bokeh effect, especially at a stadium like Apogee that features off-putting brown concrete walls around the field that can be a little distracting. It's also not an ideal lens for night football games because I have to boost my ISO really high if I want to make sure I freeze the action and remove any chance of motion blur in my photos. 

In the grand scheme of things, these are really nitpicky criticisms of my work because I walked away with fine photographs, but it's just frustrating to know that the photographers also working the game that night walked away with better photographs because they do have the ideal equipment. And I don't just want to walk away with fine photographs--they should be outstanding. It's just something I have to deal with in the learning stages. What's more important is that I continue to work on my composition, variety and exposure. 

Our Only Pope

Whenever you spend time around a team you start to learn a lot about the players you see on the field. In the last two seasons I've been covering SMU football one of the guys who's stood out to me the most is Kevin Pope (3). He is currently SMU's starting inside linebacker and team captain--he is the leader of team. But what makes his story intriguing is that he is in his fifth season with the Mustangs after being granted an extra year of eligibility due to an injury he suffered earlier in his collegiate career and it just so happens that this is one of SMU's worst seasons on record, who are currently winless. It's such a shame for a player of Pope's caliber, who will do anything for his team and he proved that when he played running back in the beginning of the season because his team needed help at that position. After moving back to linebacker and having a great game, I spoke to his coach about the kind of athlete and man Pope is. 

This is a story I originally wrote for Central Track

The SMU Mustangs lost their seventh game of the season on Saturday to the Memphis Tigers, a conference foe, 10-48. 

Yup, it was bad.

Worse, the loss officially eliminated the team from being bowl-eligible, and insured the Mustangs of finishing with a losing record.

There's no denying this has been a terrible season for the Mustangs all around, and the near-empty Ford Stadium in the second half on Saturday proved that this team has lost what little remained of its support. The product on the field isn't pretty, and, statistically, SMU is the worst team in the FBS. SMU is the only winless team in the country, ranks last in scoring offense and scoring defense, last in total defense and second to last in total offense. 

Yikes.

A season like this was definitely not what senior Kevin Pope envisioned for his team heading into the season. After missing the 2010 and 2011 seasons due to injury and earning a medical waiver, Pope is in his fifth and final year with the Mustangs -- and he undoubtedly didn't want to end his collegiate career this way. 

Last season, Pope led the team with 91 tackles from the linebacker position. After several injuries at running back, Pope then started getting carries at that position as well, while still keeping up his defensive duties on the other side of the ball. Coming into this season, he earned the No. 1 running back position, but with the paralyzing struggles the offense has had thus far -- including a four-way round-robin quarterback shuffle -- interim head coach Tom Mason thought Pope would be more valuable to his team if he returned to his linebacker role for the rest of the season. 

Last week against Cincinnati, in his first action at linebacker this season, Pope stepped in and recorded seven tackles. This weekend against Memphis, he led the team with 12 tackles and also recorded a sack. 

"You gotta love that kid," Interim head coach Tom Mason said. "I wish I had 20 of him. We wouldn't be sitting here talking about problems if I had 20 kids like Kevin Pope."

In the second half of this week's game, after things were already way out of hand, starting running back Prescott Line was on the sideline having an ankle injury attended to. And after backup running back Luke Seeker sustained a huge hit, it appeared as if Pope was lobbying for some carries. Still, Mason stuck to his plan of keeping Pope on defense only. 

"Kevin is one of those kids," Mason said. "He'd go both ways. He'd take 90 snaps on defense and 70 snaps on offense and he'd go down in heat exhaustion. That's the kind of kid he is."

For a senior who was fortunate enough to play college football for one more year, his effort has shown gratitude this season. He's certainly leaving it all on the field. 

"I just want to bring a different mentality toward the defense and go out there and just be a vocal leader and help them play better," Pope said when asked about his efforts this season. "I just want to go out there and play as hard as I can and spark the defense."

To his credit, the losing season hasn't affected Pope or his play on the field. For now, the team's lone bright spot is only concerned with going out every play and giving it his all.