Choosing the Gold

I have already shown JJ's rush and goal in a previous post, but I have been trying to select just one photo for my Game Shot on Flickr. In this case, Jonathan's photos (of the previous post), as much as I love them, didn't make the cut.

Ideally one looks for a peak action moment that tells a story.

Narrowing my selection down to three photos, this one of the goalie swimming (the technical term lol) to corral the puck won the bronze.

I like the fact that the goalie is way out of his net and that the puck is lying tantalizingly in front of him. The problem is focus. I have to open the aperture so wide in the arena to get enough light onto the sensor that not everything can be in focus. While that can be good in the sense that it may help to focus the viewer's attention, generally speaking we want the closest object to be in focus. It usually just doesn't feel right if that is not the case. In this photo, the goalie is pretty well in focus but not the other players and, most importantly, not the nearest players.

For the gold, I hummed and hawed between two photos. I love the intensity in this image. You can see it on their faces although it would be good to see a little more of the puck carrier's face. There is also both the near pursuit plus the more distant pursuit in the background. I really don't mind that the background heads get chopped. Some might, but I don't.

That vied with this one, another goalie pic, for my choice of Game Photo. This captures a great moment with good separation between the elements and not the same congestion as the first goalie photo. Even the referee adds to the story in my opinion; his skate is in the air, and he is about to blow the whistle to stop play with the goalie about to cover the puck.

I did choose the goalie photo for the gold, as it were, but I am still mildly torn. You are welcome to chime in.