Zooming issues

[Nel2009]

We are having trouble with zooming in on items. We zoom in. When we look at the picture in the view screen. It looks far away. What do we need to do to the camera to get closeups. New to this as you can tell. Lol We take the picture and it looks far away in viewer We Have a Rebel T100 D3000

[wq9nsc]

As KV stated, you need a longer lens (or in some cases you can use your feet to zoom by moving in far closer with the lens you have).

Both of these soccer photos were from nearly identical positions on the sideline.  The first was shot just before the game with a 70-200 f2.8 zoom at the 78mm setting.  The second was using my second camera with a 300mm f2.8 prime.  For football and some soccer fields I go with a 400mm f2.8. 

BUT if you can get proper placement to whatever subject you are photographing, then a wider angle lens can get some great captures.  You can't run closer to the moon but proper positioning, even if it sometimes awkward or inconvenient, will let you get the most from your current camera/lens combination.

Rodger

[kvbarkley]

Actually, I mispoke, it is not a limitaiton of the *camera* but a limitation of the *lens*. (or *Camera+Lens*)

[wq9nsc]

I think your full sentece was very clear:  that the problem could be addressed by adding a telephoto lens. 

It was far more clear than some of the information poorly conveyed in some of the Canon user manuals.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

Rodger that second shot is priceless!

Besides zooming with your feet you can also "zoom" with your computer. Its called cropping.

[wq9nsc]

Thank you Ernie!

That is a local Catholic high school team and I loved shooting that home opener.  It is a great group of kids and a reminder of how much fun sports are when played in the right environment.

I would love to be able to clone their coach.  He coaches both their boys and girls teams and I met him Anna's freshman year when he asked me after the game if Anna and I would join him that summer because he would like Anna to work out with a graduating senior he was prepping for college level soccer.  Anna had been following his forward on social media for several years and she was overjoyed to have a chance to learn alongside her.  We both spent a lot of wonderful evenings at his school that summer and learned an incredible amount and had great fun.  Coach Reza had been on the Iranian junior national team before the revolution and would have been on the national team his next year but he escaped during the revolution and played his college soccer at Iowa before coaching at several universities.  He loves soccer and started coaching high school during his semi-retirement.

The only problem I had with the summer workout program was he absolutely refused to let me pay him for the lessons but I convinced him to let me shoot his boy's home opener in return.  The parents loved having good photos of their players in action for the first time and I got a lot of nice thank you cards and notes.  It probably also smoothed things over with his AD because the parents appreciation for the photos made up for his head coach working with a competing athlete.  In addition to having incredible soccer knowledge, he has a great coaching personality.  The closest he comes to anger during a game is when a player makes a really bad move and you will hear Reza yell, "Are you KIDDING me?".  Late in that game, the opposing keeper slipped and fell but his forward somehow missed an easy shot from maybe 5 yards out.  Coach Reza yells are you kidding me and one of the players on the bench immediately responds, No coach, he wasn't kidding.  He was serious about missing that shot.  Coach Reza and the entire bench collapsed in laughter.  He know how to prep and motivate players and he also understands what is important in life and what isn't.  The students learn a lot more than just soccer from him.

Those summer workouts have now become a regular activity and even during COVID we managed to get together last summer and Anna learned some new offensive moves and helped prepare a new group of keepers for Central.  It is nice having the girls build bonds between schools rather than the animosity that often shows up even at the high school level and Anna has made a lot of new friends.  Sadly some of the parents don't get it, I shot the football game versus Central last year (they won a close match) and after the game several of the Central students stopped us to talk on the way out and we got some really ugly glares from parent's of Anna's classmates for consorting with the enemy.  But the other students were fine proving that about some things teenagers are far more adult and civilized than their parents.

Rodger