Digital Photography Blog

Towards the hoop, camera: Lumix GH1

I do not play basketball as often as this blog suggests and I never really tried to do sports photography, but that’s somehow how this blog is developing. They have this strange basketball court near the place where a friend of mine lives. Rock solid steel grid basketball board. Ball bounces of it like a brick, one just can’t get the right feeling when shooting at such a thing.

Anyway, I have grown so fond of my Panasonic Lumix GH1 that I am carrying it with myself all the time. It is not really a pocket camera, more like rucksack camera, so that is how we now go.

I set the Lumix GH1 into the shutter priority, combined with high speed Burst mode, which is bit more than 3 fps, and fired away, while my friend was shooting. With Lumix GH1 it is important to have Auto-Focus set on continuous when doing moving objects, because it means that it will continue keeping the image sharp even while exposure is taken.

Low angle shot of a basketball player

I have been to my friend’s Paul place so many times, and there was always this basketball, sort off, in the way. You certainly know the feeling, because Paul never talked about the basketball, he was into weight lifting and salsa and that type of stuff. Sporty, but not into any sport, if you know what I mean.

So, since I am into a basketball and shooting at the hoops, I tossed the suggestion that we go out and give old bouncer few spins. Sure enough, Paul liked the idea and we went to the basketball court, that was only 5 minutes on foot anyway. And since I am into making pictures and he is into being photographed I took my new Lumix GH1 with me as well.

I’ve done about 40-50 shots, but this one was standing out. I must admit that I did it why laying down on tarmac, just to get the angle right. I thing this photo brings some of the basketball spirit out. One thing I forgot to try, was Panasonic Lumix GH1’s 3 fps continuous shooting mode, but I’ll save that for the next time.