"Bowling Warner"

[Reschsmooth]

As you may have heard, Shane Warne has taken a couple of wickets in his time, and had amassed 700 at the current Boxing Day Test.

Despite a handful of hassles taking my camera in, I managed to get a couple of shots, including the famous 700th.

C&C welcome

This is the general info of the shots

Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV





And the wicket!



To give you an idea of how far away we were (about 6 rows from the back in the Great Southern Stand), and therefore the amount I needed to crop the photos, here is the original version of the 3rd shot.



Cheers

P

[Glen]

Great effort Patrick, you have steady hands

[Reschsmooth]

Great effort Patrick, you have steady hands

Thanks Glen - two words "mid strength"

In actual fact, I had the lowepro on my lap which provided pretty good support.

P

[Oz_Beachside]

Great captures. 6 rows from the back of the southern stand, thats very impressive!!! You have 3 frames there of a "never to be repeated" moment! PS: did this momoent occur on the "greatest cricket stadium" in the world?

Back on topic, very well done.

Looking back to your previous thread, did you have any hassles getting in with gear?

regards,
Oz

[the foto fanatic]

Congrats - well done, especially with a 200mm lens.

This is a great memento for you.

[stetner]

Despite a handful of hassles taking my camera in

Care to elaborate on the hassle? You said it was at 200mm, so the security guys must have let you in with that 'Professional' gear....

[shaunus]

great capture and dont worry they had to be cropped, you were there and got the shots, awesome

[Big V]

Well done on capturing a significant moment in sporting history, would make a good tri series in a frame..

[Killakoala]

Fantastic and well done getting the money shot too.

I'm glad you got your camera in..

[Reschsmooth]

Thanks for the feedback guys - it was pretty special being there for all three days of what was apparently going to be a 5 day test (perhaps they didn't realise who we were playing).

In terms of hassles:

I took the printout of the email I received from the MCC (as per the other thread).
I showed my lowepro which had the gear in it to security.
Security said that I shouldn't take it out because it will get confiscated by security.
I mentioned and showed the email, which referenced that I couldn't use it for "commercial purposes".
Sit down for this: The security lady said that the reference to "commercial" was to "commercial lenses" or similar.
I was getting pretty miffed at this stage (given the effort I had gone to at that point).
I walked through and eventually took it out and took the shots.

The funny thing was that there was a guy there today with a Canon SLR and what looked like a 300 or 400 mm 2.8 on a monopod in the upper reaches of the top level of the Great Southern Stand taking shots all day - security didn't even approach him!

Oh, and Oz, the moment occured at the 2nd best cricket ground in the world - the MCG.

Seriously, it is a great ground - the last time I was there was for the Aus/India Boxing Day Test 7 years ago, and it was very different then.

I will look to print off a 3 shot series including a shot of the team congratulating Warney.

Cheers

P

[Oscar]

Great work Patrick. Memories for a lifetime. Well done.

Lucky you only got tickets for the first three days

Cheers, Mick

[Geoff]

Great stuff Patrick!

[Reschsmooth]

Thanks Mick & Geoff,

Mick - I have already been accused of match-fixing given I had arranged a whole bunch of meetings for today, and therefore must have known the test would only go for 3 days.

I know nothing!

[ozimax]

PS: did this momoent occur on the "greatest cricket stadium" in the world?

No, it was in Melbourne...

EDIT: Sorry, just read the other posts...derrrr

[ozimax]

These are some amazing shots considering the subject matter. Surely they will be in big demand? I would pursue it further, that is if you are allowed to do so???

Cheers,

Ozi.

[Reschsmooth]

Thanks Ozi, at the very least, I will get a series of shots framed, together with my 3 day tickets. I have to play with a couple of the shots first.

When I think about it, and given the fact that I didn't take photos of every ball he bowled, I was pretty lucky to get THAT ball/wicket.

P

[ozimax]

Mate, that was incredible. How many shots of the day's play did you take?

[Reschsmooth]

Ozi, from the start of play, I took about 210 photos, at an average of about 5 shots per ball bowled, and 15 shots of the group hug of Warne when he took his 700th wicket. So, I figure I captured less than 40 balls bowled over the course of the day.

P

[Reschsmooth]

So, back in sunny Sydney, I have put together a series of shots of that famous wicket (obviously the shots of Warne bowling were of a previous delivery).

For my framed version, I will print off each shot separately and have them mounted with my match tickets.

C&C welcome - including the questions:

1. Should I try harder to get the light and saturation the same for each shot?
2. Do these 4 shots work well? (The shots of the team congratulating Warne were not in focus (a problem I have had with the 80-200).



[Mods: if I need to post a smaller pic with a link to the larger version, let me know and I will try to do that].

Cheers

P

[ozimax]

Hi P,

I wouldn't be concerned about the saturation etc, they look great, maybe shot #2 is unnecessary, and a 4th shot of the team congratulating Warnie (uncropped to balance out of focus?) could be included.

Any way you do it, should be a good series and a great momento.

Ozi.

[Reschsmooth]

Ozi, the reason I would want to keep shot 2 in is to balance the two shots of Strauss getting bowled. Unfortunately, the shots of the team congratulating Warne didn't come out good.

Thanks for the feedback - it is appreciated.

Patrick

[ozimax]

Point taken Patrick, again, a great series for us cricket lovers.