No lights, no problem

"A spectator looks dejected and blue as New Town takes an early commanding lead over Lake Clifton in the second to last game in the 12th annual Basketball Academy at Morgan State, Saturday night, Jan. 12, 2008. Lake Clifton was defeated by New Town 52-39."

Back in the United States and back to my normal shooting assignments. I am happy to be back, I guess. I do miss Japan.

Saturday night I shot two high school games at the 12th annual Basketball Academy at Morgan State.

It was a nice relaxing assignment to get me back into the flow since there was no tight deadline and the images would be used for future articles.

I had a list of 10 players to shoot in two games. Thus means I could show up a little late and part a little early.

Living about 45 minutes away, and a deadline in the morning (I always do them when I get home anyways) it was perfect.

What wasn't perfect was the light in the gymnasium. I say not perfect, because standard high school gyms in the Baltimore region are dungeons and pitch dark. If I shoot at one, I have to use small strobe lights mounted in the bleachers, otherwise my images are beyond grainy and unusable.

My buddy Darnay actually sent me a message earlier relating to this. When he is not the sports anchor, he shoots sports for his television station on weekends:

"Last night I was working the biggest basketball game in the state so far this year, No. 1 Sentinel vs. No. 2 Flathead (from Kalispell)...and I was shooting next to the local paper's photog...he was using strobes, and midway through the second quarter the refs made him turn off his strobes...he was PIISSSEEEEDDD...more pissed than you were when your backboard cam got the axe."

I would have been angry, too. I've only got the "axe" on strobes at a high school once. And yes, I was furious.

However, Morgan State was a middle road complex. Towson University has, by far, has the best lighting in Baltimore for indoor sports.

But my Morgan images were shot around 2500-3200 ISO at 1/500 shutter at f/2.8. Now, I wouldn't normally shoot at such a high ISO, but the D300 makes it easy not to. Such as the this image.

I'd still like to see the D3 at high ISO in a personal test. Has anyone reading had the chance to play with both a D3 and D300 in the same dark, high ISO settings? I'd really like to see the difference.

On the other hand, by the time I see the difference and get hooked on the D3, it will be spring sports season.