Baldwinsville goalie Nick Leader (30) stops West Genesee's Adam King's (4) shot on goal. Baldwinsville's defensemen Mark Bellucci (4) gets there a little late to help during the New York State Section III Boys Ice Hockey Championship game. West Genesee won 3-2.
Within 2 hours of returning from Orlando, Florida, last weekend, I was photographing the New York State Section III Boys Ice Hockey Championship game between the Baldwinsville Bees, my high school Alma Mater, and historical hockey power, the West Genesee Wildcats. Though Baldwinsville scored first and held a slim 1-0 lead after the first period, West Genesee pressured Baldwinsville’s Senior goaltender Nick Leader until they built up a 3-1 lead in the third period. Baldwinsville did score late in the third period to make it close but never got another good chance to tie it.
I enjoyed following the Baldwinsville team during the last part of their season. I learned a lot about shooting sports along the way, too. Baldwinsville will lose a very talented Senior class this year. I look forward to next season to see how the team’s underclassmen grow into new roles as starters.
Click here for more photos from this game and others: Baldwinsville Bees Ice Hockey 2008/2009 Season
Views Infinitum 
Good shooting of amateur hockey rather than glamming it up with the professional version.
LikeLike
Bob,
The championship game was held in the same arena as the AHL Syracuse Crunch so the lighting was much better than the local high school rinks.
I still like the AHL, too. I just ignore the staged fights and focue on the guys I think could make it to the next level.
LikeLike
This is a wonderful action shot! You caught the shooter and defenseman is almost perfect symmetry!
LikeLike
They did hit the brakes at the same time, didn’t they?
I try very hard to get the puck in the photos as much as possible since it is the focus of the players. Having enough light to get action stopping shutter speeds helped a lot there. Even the flying ice. 🙂
LikeLike
You’re sports pics are awesome!! That’s where my heart is, you’re such an inspiration!
LikeLike
Thanks! Your basketball photos of your sons are pretty good, too.
LikeLike
what a great shot!! love the ice being kicked up from the skates!
LikeLike
The ice is a fun detail to capture. Haven’t gotten one where the goalie is fully sprayed, yet. They don’t like that at all!
LikeLike
Realy excellent sports photography. It is not easy this I know. I am terrible at sports photography. I know a lot of it has to do with understanding the game and trying to anticipate what is going to happen but even given that knowledge sports photography to me is the most challenging. I can’t do it well at all.
LikeLike
Until I got a lens capable of fast focusing, I would get very few keepers. I agree you must have knowledge of the sport but you need the right tool for the job, too. I wrote about that here:
https://stphoto.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/view-54-right-tool-for-the-job/
Thanks for stopping by!
LikeLike
What a well composed action shot! I also like the ice shavings propelled into the air by the skate. I’m curious, what shutter speed did you use? Did you use flash?
LikeLike
No flash was used as there was enough light for the 70-200 lens at an aperture of f/2.8, shutter speed of 1/1000s, ISO of 1600 and EV +1.3. In processing, I used Noise Ninja to clean up the noise.
The fast shutter speed really froze the action if you’d pardon the pun. 🙂
LikeLike
Crisp action shot.
LikeLike
Scott, Do you find that your 70-200 focuses faster than the 18-200?
LikeLike
That depends. Under the conditions of this arena, the 70-200 brings in a lot more light at 200mm (f/2.8 versus f/5.6) so it has no trouble at all focusing. The 18-200 would have a lot of trouble.
Under bright mid-day sun, they would focus at about the same speed as they are both AF-S lenses.
LikeLike