Going through PPG submissions did highlight to me how many people submitted ordinary waterfall scenes and thought water blur would turn it into a classic. My problem is that people seem to sometimes go straight for the cliche and forget the other stuff like lighting, composition, interesting subject etc. and somehow they think the cliche will compensate for other weak elements.

Every so often on PPG I would see a good picture that used a cliche, like blurred water, that subtllely enhanced a good picture and I would actually like that. However, what I really like is when people go out of their way to take a cliched or oft photographed subject and try do something different with it - although Smeggy's link to awkward family pictures in another thread does highlight where that can go spectacularly wrong.

Best wishes Gary. Maybe one day you'll be looking to come back to a Pentax FF, when that eventually happens.

Roy

Number 2 is great Gary.

Sorry, but for me I'd have to put the last shot in the category of "the one that got away" because of the focus.

Brian - regardless of the relative AF performance of the 50-135 compared to the Sigma 70-200 I would still generally prefer the latter because the shallower DOF at f2.8 helps blur a distracting background when the action is further away and I can zoom out to 135mm if the players get close. This isn't a problem in Gary's pictures here because the (mostly) empty stands are much better than the messy backgrounds at the tiny grounds I go to - the downside of 200mm wide open is a greater likelihood of the "one that got away"

One advantage of going to match a good few tiers down is that you can choose where you take your photographs. Given that the most desperate actions goes on in the pentalty area and generally the main protagonists are facing the goal then I sit halfway between the goal and the corner flag. This the best place for intense action but generally no good for images of the manager, coaches etc

With regard to the slight blurring - in images 8 and 10 the players are slightly blurred but at 1/800 or 1/1000 there should not be any motion blurring so it is either the focus is slightly off or the NR is softening things. I think the former is most likely - it was why I was asking about the camera settings and NR applied in an earlier post. Do you have focus priority or release priority set for the first shot in the custom menu? If not this might explain the shutter being released before the focus is completely locked on. In these two images there isn't anything else that I can see in the plane of focus that could be confusing the AF. Most of my OOF images now are because the lens has focused on a player, spectator, floodliight pole - anything other than the player I wanted!

I generally try to keep to f2.8 because although it gives less margin for focus error isolating the background is more desirable and under floodlights it means even higher ISOs at f4.

As I've stated before I'm still learning as well so forgive me if my theoretical knowledge is some way ahead of my practical capabilities.

Roy

This is an interesting debate. For example I think the picture in your second link is completely boring unless you happen to know the context. It is interesting choosing photographs from the press because editors will pass over better technical and artistic photographs in favour of those that support the story they are after. Ultimately I think a picture editor would prefer a peak of action shot of Suarez, say, scoring the winning goal rather than just him celebrating but even the massed ranks of sports photographers at a Premiership game may not capture that image but someone will get the celebration.

I think you are right though getting the complete story in a set of images or, even better, summed up in one image would be ideal.

Here is one of my favourite football images - no ball in this one.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2478781/John-Terry-kicked-head...

The original D-BG4 battery grip comes with two trays - one for AA and one for Li-ion. The grip I acquired only had the AA tray so I want to acquire the Li-ion tray, if that's possible.

I have a D-BG4 battery grip for my K-5 but I only have the AA battery tray. I would prefer to use a spare Li-ion battery in the grip rather than AAs so does anyone know where I can obtain this tray?

Roy.

I think these definitely improve on your previous set. What shutter speed, aperture and ISO combination did you use? Any noise reduction applied?

The second last is the pick for me.

Roy

Just an update - the first of the two pictures in this thread was published on the back page of the local paper (Knaresborough Post) today so I'm pleased.

Roy

What kind of sports? I have a 300mm f4 and a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 and use the latter mostly for football because of the zoom flexibily, faster aperture and faster focusing but I doubt the Sigma is long enough for a lot of wildlife shots. Motorsports, cricket, indoor sports etc. may bring different ideal lens recommendations.

Roy