Roller Derby, I won't lie when I say I had little to no idea what to expect from a roller derby match. It was my first time attending/watching a real match on the fateful Saturday evening, it was a lot more grand then I thought it would be. I attended the match with a couple friends to watch another friend partake in the event, thinking it should be something interesting to photograph I brought my camera long to take a few shots.
The event was held inside a warehouse where there was around 200 spectators getting ready to watch the match go down. I got settled in and sat down on the concrete floor beside a few other people, I noticed a piece of paper stating that was the "suicide zone"... I moved my camera bag closer to myself.
Rockin' the big speakers, a deep voice started chanting tonight's teams and what to expect. I listened with my camera held ready, cheers from the audience filled the large room with energy. The derby girls skated in from the back and began the warm-ups, stretching and skating around the concrete ring.
Each player was called out and cheered for before the game began. I was being informed from my girlfriend on how the game worked, most of it went over my head. My objective was still the same, get action shots. I started out with a few tester shots to see how the images looked. I knew I'd be primarily using my 80-200mm f2.8. I gave the 10-24mm a shot but like I knew it would be useless. I pulled out my 50mm 1.4 at the end to see how it fared, to which it was ok.
I was snapping photos everytime the derby girls came around the corner and were facing towards my camera. After a few rounds I noticed several other photographers on the other side sitting fairly close, the ideal location to photograph with plenty more light then what I was getting. So at half-time I moved over there and started snapping pics. I saw a variety of camera, mostly nikon, some canon, higher-end lenses and lower-end, but everyone seemed determined to get their own photos of the exciting match. I was rather "in the zone" while over there and snapping pics with better anticipation of what was going on.
I didn't realize it at first, but its somewhat easier to photograph the sport once you get a better understanding of it. I was getting the hang of it and knew what or who to expect at certain times. During half-times and between games I talked to my fellow photographers about various topics, enjoyable conversations and one-liners every so often. We kept snarking and glaring at each other whenever the refs got in the way of our ability to photograph, something that happened fairly often.
To sum up, it was a great first roller derby match I attended! I now know better on how to use my camera at such an event, and still anticipate to learn more. I'll be looking forward to more matches in the future, till then, check out the gallery of photos!!!