Winning or losing? Having fun yet!
Today I'd love to share with the Hive community another collection of pictures I took during a beach volleyball tournament I attended a couple of weeks ago at Ostia beach, near Rome, because my boyfriend was signed up to play.
This was the second time for me at a beach volleyball tournament, and compared to the first time, I had much more fun and enjoyed the sunny weather. Also the light was much brighter and nice to take pictures of the games; indeed, you will see from my pictures the color are much more vivid and lighter than last time.
Riccardo played together with his friend Nicolò at this L1 tournament, which is the highest level of beach volleyball tournaments to play at in Italy. Indeed, Riccardo's expectations on his ranking were not very bright; however, game by game, he and Nicolò, kept going forward and higher in the ranking.
They managed to play many games and won them all! Until they made it to the final, against a very great couple. However, Ric and Nic were both very tired at that point, and couldn't make it to the win the final match. They played very well overall, and got the second place award. They were very happy with their result, because they got better than expected, considered the high level of players competing that day at the tournament.
Speaking of the photos, I took many of them because it is really hard for me to just stop clicking on the camera once I start! Especially because that day was finally sunny, I couldn't but seize the day! I wanted to capture every moment with my lens, to make it last forever. As if a single jump or a spike would literally last hours and years instead of just a few fractions of a second.
I am beginning to love this sport which is completely new to me, and that is because of it's inner quality of creating incredible motion effects. The sand, which is one of the main protagonists of beach volleyball, conveys a special characteristic to the photos when it's moved by the players, the ball or the atmospheric agents. The final result is a unique effect of dynamism which is tough to find elsewhere. Of course, as a sport photographer, I am very used to photographing players in action, but as said before on other posts, generally I take pictures of soccer, basketball, and volleyball, which very rarely involve also the movement of some matters or anything else, different from the players or the ball themselves. The sand provides the photos with a spectacular effect which I'm definitely falling in love with.
Both the will to capture as many moments as possible and the unprecedented occasion of a full sunny day made me take more than 200 pictures, among which I selected 93 which I then edited a little bit, trying to enhance their colors and light. I don't want to become tedious here about the photographic process, also because there will be other occasions to tell you more about it (I already have ready many other pictures I took of other events and places). So for today, I just would like to share those photos and sport moments with you all and may be get some feedback from you. Also, I know beach volleyball is not super popular in Italy, but is it in your own country? I'd like to know more about this sport, so please feel free to share your knowledge about it with me and I'd be more than happy to start a conversation!
Thank you for going through my pictures, I hope you enjoyed!
Equipment:
- Nikon D500
- Nikkon Lens 50mm, 16-85mm
- Post-production: Lightroom, soft enhancement of colors and contrast.
All pics and words are mine. Please, feel free to leave a comment with your feedback. If you need to use one of more of the photos, please, contact me and I'll share with you the original files.
Yours | Flewsplash