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Greetings! Just took my first DSLR pics since shooting 35mm back in the 80's. Picked up a D5000 *and* a Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor. I shot this past weekend at my sons lacrosse game. Felt rusty but I think I'll get it back after a few thousand more clicks!

Anyways, shot the whole game with the 300, loving the color and sharpness. I stayed with the 'Sports' setting on the dial until I get the confidence to venture with manual settings.
Note the out of focus background (which I like!) but wondering if by dfault the programmed settings for the sports setting keeps a wide aperture setting?

Another thing, I am noticing an annoying bad habit - I have a tenancy to cut people off at the ankles or shins in the frame. Fine if that is what you are going for, but some shots I wanted full body view but kept cutting it short. Not sure if it is an issue with the viewfinder vs. what the lens sees or if it is the 'nut behind the wheel' - I vote the latter.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Congrats on your new gear! I like the shots, great colour. I wouldnt worry about the ankle cutting off the shot still looks good.

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Canon 1D Classic
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Nice Shots. But, if you really don't want to cut off peoples ankles, try shooting more Vertical, and staying more zoomed out, as you can always crop later, and that 70-300 is relatively sharp. I'm sure it's probably pretty difficult shooting that way for long without a vertical shutter.

Almost all of my shots from lacrosse games are vertical, with the exception of face-offs.

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Nikon D300+MB-D10 | Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 | Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro | Sigma 10-20mm
18-200mm VR | 85mm f/1.8 | 50mm f/1.8 | SB-600 | Manfrotto 681B & 3232 Monopod--190XPROB & 488RC2 Tripod
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I'm pretty sure that 'Sports' mode is programmed to maintain a fast shutter speed, so you could have used S in that case, for future reference. Just dial in something like 1/2000 or 1/4000 and then let the camera figure everything else out.

Good shots though! Colour is great considering it was broad daylight! I should probably echo what was said before about shooting vertically... If you're seriously going to be spending a significant amount of time shooting stuff like this then dropping a few hundred more dollars to pick up a vertical grip will save you a lot of frustration.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII | Canon EOS 7D | Canon Digital Rebel XSi | EF 35mm f/1.4L | EF 50mm f/1.8 II | EF 85mm f/1.8 | EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM | EF 135mm f/2L | EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS | 580EX II | LumoPro LP-120

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Thanks for the input/comments.

I have been considering the vertical grip so good suggestion.

Also will be experimenting with the dial settings. With digital, sure why not! Just select "delete" if no good

(I'm old school, shot 35mm all my life and had to selectively shoot as every shot cost $$$, especially color processing charges back then - shot a lot of transparencies too)