Last bout of the season

The Hamilton City Roller Girls with dramatic lighting

I woke up pretty late today. Kind of understandable as I really haven't had a lot of sleep these last few days. I managed to get up with just enough time to drive off to Hamilton for the last Hamilton City Roller Girls bout of the season, The Steel Tank Girls versus the Hamilton Harlots.

In past games I' always thought the light levels were too low so this time I brought my studio flash, the Visatek solo 1600 B. I had bought it at downtown camera back when I had money on the advice that it could light an entire dance club if need be. Over the course of owning it I've been using it for studio shoots and have found it has been more than adequate in the lighting department and until today never had to use it on full power.


Miss Carriage of the Steel Tank Girls

I placed it in the media booth next to the videographers above the rink. Wow, what a difference it made in shooting. The flash is color timed at daylight (when used with a nikon camera). The photos turned out great allowing me to freeze the action while using ISO 200 (for past bouts without the flash I'd shoot using 1600, the photos were often grainy).

The main problem was the recycle time was too slow. While great for model shoots for sport type action I couldn't fire off a series of photos in succession. This meant I had to pick the best time to shoot and hope that was the best action shot in that time period. Pretty much what I do anyways but every now and then I'd get lucky with shooting the extra shots. Shooting roller derby is pretty much pot luck as you always hope that the girls will wipe out in front of you and not on the other side of the rink.


B.J. Hooker of the Hamilton Harlots

As with any type of genre in photography I'd like to experiment more. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until next season to do so. Perhaps by then I'll be able to get another studio flash.