This is a great program because it gets kids interested in Engineering, Computers, Math, Designing and Sciences through hands on experience. At the beginning of the season the game is revealed and the kids have to design and build a robot so they can compete against other teams at competitions. The FIRST organization has programs from elementary with Jr. Lego League through High School Robotics. It is also a great way for adults get to involved by helping with a team. You do not have to be an engineer or scientist only be willing to work with the kids. I am also photographer with our local high school teams. To learn more about FIRST you go to their website: FIRST Robotics. For the Iowa FTC you can go to: FTC Iowa. For more about my local high school teams: Linn Mar Robotics. Infomerical over now back to photography.
As a photographer of sports events you often have bad lighting and there is nothing you can do to improve it. If you are inside you usually have to adjust your white balance because of the color of the lights. The lighting may not be one type of lighting but several with areas that may be almost too bright. I have also often found that you often can not use flash or any other added lighting and if they do allow flash you are too far away for it to do any good. So the only thing you can do is to have a lens that can do well in low light and set your camera with a high iso and fast shutter. Even then you might still have problems with pictures being underexposed and lots of noise.
The photos I am going to share are three from this past Saturday. I really likes these because they show the kids intensity and expressions shortly after finding out what this season's game was, "Ring It Up". The kids in the photos are from my high school local teams.
The first photo is of three members of the team looking at the rings that are the playing piece of the game. The challenge of this photo was that the light in the room was very low and there was a light shining off a balcony that caused a bit of lens flare. The photo is a little noisy but still acceptable. I was using my Canon EF-S18-135mm lens. My settings for this photo were: iso 3200, f/3.5, 1/32sec. I wish that I could have used a lower iso, but this was the only way to get the photos.
The second photo is of the young man in the red shirt. He was at a different area of the field looking the rings and the holder there. I love the expression on his face. The photo is a little noisy and my camera almost wasn't fast enough to capture the shot before he moved. I do not ask the kids to be pose for me I work around them getting the shots as they are doing their thing. A challenge on this photo was not just the low lighting in the room but there was a bit of filtered light coming through the glass doors but the lighting that was filtering was not natural light but light from another room that had something else going on. The settings for this photo were: iso3200, f/3.5, 1/32sec.
My last photo is of one of the members measuring the plywood base that is in the center of the field. This area was better lit but as you can see from the shadows it was not centered on the field instead it was off to one side. The team was measuring all the different parts of the field so they when they build their own practice field they will know exactly how the official one was built. I love how intense the young man was he was oblivious to what was around him. My settings for this photo were iso 3200, f/4.0, 1/100sec
The biggest challenge was the lighting and not able to use a flash. I could have used a flash at a small part of this event but unfortunately my flash decided that this was the day to die. Even if I had been able to use a flash I still would have not have been able to at most of the event because of situation. The photos at the field would still had to be without a flash because of the situation. During the competitions I am not able to use a flash at all because it is distracting for the kids and officials during the matches.
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