Keeping the theme of shooting new things: Olympic Badminton

In my five Summer Olympics I have never been to photograph Badminton, and when looking at the schedule for yesterday, that sport worked into my schedule, so I thought I would give it a whirl. Even though this sport is not very popular in the US, I knew that it was very popular in
Asia. I also learned that, according to the photographer next to me, it is huge in Denmark. 

This time I used the Canon R5 MKII once again to further test this camera for sports. I took two lenses with me, the RF 24-70mm wide angle (assuming I was going to be court side) and a RF 70-200mm lens for times when I needed a little more reach.

When I walked into the venue, I followed the media signs pointing to an official photo position. I got to the position to find out it was mid level in the arena. I wanted to shoot down on the floor (what they call "Field of Play"), but thought I would grab some frames from up above the court. I used the RF 70-200mm lens, knowing that the other lens would be too wide.

After shooting some regular still images, I thought I would try some multi-exposure shots here. But as you can see, the results were less than ideal.

I asked one of the venue photo staff (and every venue has a photo manager, assistant manager, and staff to assist us) and they told me how to get down to the court side. This match was between Denmark and Chinese Taipei, and I started on the side with the most available photo positions. 

Since I was so close to the court, I switched to the RF 24-70mm lens. I shot in a fast burst mode to try and get the shuttlecock in the frame. For those who have not seen this sport, it is fast!! 

You can see motion in the racquet. That is not caused by rolling shutter of the camera, that is because they are moving so fast that even at 1/1600 sec, it would not freeze the action.

It was a fun challenge to capture the shuttlecock either by the racquet or just over the net.

I looked for different types of action and loved it when they went for the big slams.

I love this shot of this athlete going for the backhand shot. And the Canon R5 MKII did an awesome job of maintaining focus on the faces throughout the game.

As I have said before, I am always looking for action and reaction!

I tried multi-exposure from the lower position and that did not work either. I like the repeated shuttlecock and the repeated racquet, but the rest of his body is a blurry mess. And no, not all of my images look great, but it is worth a try. :)

Another big slam.

Bursting out at 20 frames per second is great for catching the exact moment I want, but shooting this many images means more work to go through all the photos. At some points during these Olympics I have bursted at the full 40fps on the Canon R1. Even though I get cool images, I curse myself when culling through them. 

More action shots.

Look, I got the shuttlecock right on the racquet.

I was intrigued by the serves, which are very different from the way that we do it at home. Actually, everything is different here, and there is no issue with the shuttlecock getting stuck in a tree (like in the backyard).

I was getting the same action shots on the floor and decided to get up to the highest photo position to give that a try. It was OK, but nothing too special.

I took this one last wide shot to show the action on the court, but include the whole arena. Again, this tells a different story than the other images.

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Asia and more. 

* Thank you to Canon, Apple, ProGrade Digital, Crucial, Tiffen, DataColor, ThinkTank, Adobe, and CameraBits  for providing loaner product to me for the Olympic Games!

 _________________________________________________________________