After watching the France vs. Brazil (France won 1:0) 2006 Worldcup soccer match in Ashdown, some folks decided to go out and play some soccer of their own...

Thanks to Daniel Nagaj for letting me use his new Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens! The body was the old Canon 1D. I never tried such a fast action sport on a nice day, so I got to try a few things, like the typical stop-action high speed shutter, a slower shutter to blur the motion, and wide aperture to pick a person out of the crowd. I also tried one-shot focus versus servo focus. Both have their advantages.

Daniel kicks one...

Here's a slow speed shutter at about 1/60 sec. It took a lot of tries to get the panning speed right, plus you don't know when the ball's going to go flying the other direction, hence a lot of missed shots...

I kind of like this one.

Here's what happens when you pan on the ball instead of a person!

"Simon says, stand on your right foot like a flamingo!!!"