Some fencing shots (with my new 20D)

Nikolai

for the last few weeks I started to attend local fencing club with my daughters. It a great fun and good exercise.

Below are few shots from today:












The rest of selection (40) is here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/763881

All the shot from this day (about 200:-) are here:
http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/763623

Cheers!

ian408

Nice series. Fencing looks interesting.

What sort of speeds are you shooting?

Ian

Nikolai

Thanks, Ian!

ian408 wrote:

Nice series. Fencing looks interesting.

What sort of speeds are you shooting?

Ian

I think mostly in a range of 1/80..1/120. I had ISO at 800 and kept the aperture at f/6.3 to increase my chances to cover both fencers at a time. Not enough speed for this sport - 500, or even 1000 would be much better, - but at this light you can't do much. Higher ISOs would bring more noise. Although I might try 1600 next time.

Interesting enough, the kit lens (you know, 18-55 f/4-5.6) tuned out to be almost perfect for this kind of environment. I could go up on the aperture anyway because I would lose all the DOF, and since I was shooting mostly from 10-20 ft it could be used in both its wide and sometimes tele ends (if they moved far from me and I was too tired to follow:-).

Cheers!

Kenundrum

can i ask a silly question? why do they have the tether holding them? no one has explained to me what the point of that is, other than to stretch out their back :-)

DavidTO

Nice job under difficult conditions.

Is that the park building at the Dover and Hendrix?

Nikolai

Tethers explained

Kenundrum wrote:

can i ask a silly question? why do they have the tether holding them? no one has explained to me what the point of that is, other than to stretch out their back :-)

Those tethers you see are the parts of electronic touch scoring system.

One of the wires start at the tip of the weapon (foil, epee) or connects to the whole blade (sabre). Then through a detachable cord (which goes along the fencer's arm, body and comes out in the back from under the protective gear) it goes through that "tether" to the scoring box.

This is enough for epee, where the whole fencers body (mask, body, arms, legs, even the soil of his footwear) is a target.

For foil and sabre, where the target area is limited (foil - upper body only, no mask or arms; sabre - everything above the waistline) you need additional gear (foil - lame, sort of conducting apron; sabre - whole conducting set of jacket, mask and glove), which is wired. That second wire goes along the same tether to the same scoring box.

I must also add the scoring box alone does not solve the actual outcome of the fight. In competition mode there could be up to five judges/umpires (main one, called "director", and up to four assistants) to make sure everything goes "by the code" - the actual rules of the sport fencing a rather complicated.
But it definitely helps, especially in a club atmosphere, where the good will and natural sportsmanship replaces the need to the assistants.

HTH

Nikolai

David,

DavidTO wrote:

Nice job under difficult conditions.

Is that the park building at the Dover and Hendrix?

Thanks, man! That was the first experience, I hope I'll do better later. Probably need to open aperture more, DOF should be OK, and that would bring shutter speed to 1/200..1/300 range, at least at ISO800. Maybe also try ISO 1600:-)

And you are totally correct, it this exact spot.

Cheers!

Nir

Nikolai wrote:

for the last few weeks I started to attend local fencing club with my daughters. It a great fun and good exercise.

Nikolai, glad your enjoying the new sport! I hope your shutter release finger doesn't get strained from the exercise

Nikolai

Nir,

Nir wrote:

Nikolai, glad your enjoying the new sport! I hope your shutter release finger doesn't get strained from the exercise

Thanks for the comment!

It's actually a very old sport for me. Probably the oldest I can claim. I fenced for a couple years in my "hish school" (9-10 grade) in USSR... more than 30 years ago. Of course I got rusty, but I seem to recalling the old tricks relatively fast.

The shutter finger - here you almost got me:-). I use the belgian pisto grip, and with it the middle finger (the "flipper":-) carries most of the load, while the shutter/index finger only provides a limited support from time to time.

Cheers!