Euro Cup 2018

Another weekend full of roller derby! This time, it was Euro Cup, hosted again by Rainy City Roller Derby. I only shot five games this time, with not taking my camera for the first night, and spending half the tournament in the penalty box – however, I did get a selection of great photos.

This weekend’s challenge was to brave using flash. I did take my speedlite along to the Roller Derby World Cup, but whilst I lucked out and had a trigger that didn’t clash with anyone else’s, it quickly became apparent that the number of photographers using flash was impacting on the officials running the games, and I opted to shoot ambient instead of adding to the chaos (for a change).

The venue for the Euro Cup was actually very well lit; however, my lenses aren’t as fast as I’d like – the Sigma 18-50mm that I acquired with my previous camera instead of a kit lens can be speedy, but doesn’t get me close enough to the action; I found myself using my 100-300mm whenever shooting trackside at RDWC, as it allows me to capture people’s expressions (“derby face”) from a distance…

…but it only opens up to f/5.6, which isn’t ideal. However, combined with a speedlite, it was perfectly usable in this weekend’s venue… although having remembered to pack my softbox would have been useful, as with just a cheap plastic diffuser, I couldn’t take the power beyond 1/8 without affecting the officials running the game. It’s definitely given me more confidence to shoot with flash in future, though. At least until my disposable income stretches to the 200mm prime Jason was working with!

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