Pre-Season: Vancouver Canucks vs. Ottawa Senators @ Abbotsford Centre – September 23rd 2019

The Vancouver Canucks took on the Ottawa Senators for a little pre-season action at the Abbotsford Centre in Abbotsford, BC on Monday night.

It was quite a humbling experience being allowed out to photograph an NHL game. Something I have been dying to do since I started enjoying photography.

In the first period, I found myself trying to adapt to the new subjects. As someone who usually shoots concerts, this was a little bit of a different beast. The subjects are moving a lot faster and you are trying to anticipate a specific moment to show the action; a goal, a hit, a save, or maybe even a fight.

By the time the second period came rolling around, I was comfortable with the tracking and anticipation but I then needed to properly adjust my camera settings. I opted for a deeper depth of field up at f6.3, which caused my ISO to shoot up to 4,000. In retrospect, I should have shot at f4, ISO 2,000, and a shutter speed of about 400-800.

I was right in front of the glass when Ottawa’s Chris Tierney crashed Vancouver’s Brock Boeser into the boards. It was a questionable hit, which forced Boeser to take pause for several seconds before slowly rising to his feet. Out of guttural reaction, I smacked the glass with the palm of my hand at Tierney with a scowl on my face as the hit unfolded. I quickly realized that this was not appropriate and pulled away to keep shooting the action.

The Canucks celebrated a well deserved pre-season win at the end of the battle, defeating the visitors 6 – 4.

I hope this night of shooting a Canucks game is no a solo event. I would love another chance to hone my skills and catch some great action from our boys in blue.

Photos © Jamie Taylor // Cryptic Photography