Overview

On September 14, 2018 the Director of Therapy Services at the University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute invited me to take photos at the Maryland Crab Pot V wheelchair rugby tournament, which would take place on October 27-28, 2018. I’ve been heavily involved in organized sports my whole life, as a player for nearly 50 years, also as a coach and referee, and now as a photographer. I have seen, and have personally experienced, how participation in sports can help people discover the strengths that they possess. Now as a photographer I get a chance to capture the moments that demonstrate those strengths, and leave players with ongoing reminders of them. Needless to say, I accepted her invitation.

The venue for this two-day tournament was the Harve de Grace Activity Center, in the town of Harve de Grace, Maryland. This was a great place to get away to. Hopefully, we’ll do it again next year.

Results

Maryland Mayhem

Magee Eagles

MedStar NRH Punishers

NoVA Mutiny

Pittsburgh Steelwheelers

Raleigh Sidewinders

Fans, refs, venue, etc.

Lessons Learned

1. Camera settings

I shot all of these photos using my Nikon D850 full-frame Digital SLR, and for most of the shots I was using my NIKKOR 70-200 mm f/2.8 zoom lens (I also shot a few using my NIKKOR 28 mm f/1.4 prime lens.). I set the camera shutter speed to 1/500 seconds for the action shots. This was the minimum shutter speed to make sure that I had minimal motion blur. Using Auto ISO with a maximum limit set to 2500, the ISO for most photos ended up in the range 1600-2500. Although the images may have been sharper if I wasn’t using the zoom lens wide open, that would have forced a higher ISO, which would have resulted in more sensor noise. Limiting the ISO to 2500 made noise reduction in post processing very doable, requiring a Lightroom luminance noise setting of 75/100.

The camera’s automatic color temperature function seemed to do a good job in this environment. I don’t recall having to make any color temperature adjustments in post processing.