It's November and in Junior Hockey circles, that means the SUBWAY Super Series - the annual pre-World Junior series between teams from the three leagues in the CHL and a touring team of Russians.
This series is used by Hockey Canada scouts and coaches to get a final read on which players they would like to invite to the final selection camp before the World Juniors next month in Saskatoon.
I'm not planning on shooting the World Juniors this year so this is as close as I am likely to get to international competition this season.
The SSS offers some unique challenges for me. I need to get the regular assortment of action shots from the game and profile shots of each player but I also have to keep an eye on what is happening with sponsor elements during the games and make sure I can get some interesting shots that will help tell the story of the vent to the people that help finance it.
I recently picked up the gear that I needed to run a remote camera so I was anxious to use that as well.
Game 3 of the SSS was in Barrie on Thursday Nov. 19. There isn't a catwalk at the Barrie Molson Centre so an overhead remote was a no-go. Terry Wilson, my other shooter for OHL Images, is the regular Colts photographer so I knew that I had lots of back-up for that game.
I shot the first period on the seating level and the second between the benches and then wondered around during the third period looking for other interesting angles.
Four days and three regular league games later I was in Windsor for Game 4 of the series. The new WFCU Centre is a marvelous place to shoot in and has a catwalk so I was able to put in an overhead remote. I ended up with a few good frames from that camera.
Most of my best images from that game came from shooting on the end of the Team OHL bench.
This is the first of the CHL/OHL special events for this year. We're back in Windsor in January for the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game and then a little closer to home for the OHL All-Star Classic in Kingston in February.
For this event, I used a Nikon D700 and D300s with a 200mm 2.0 and 24-70 2.8. For the overhead in Windsor, I used a D300 with a 70-200 2.8.
For more images from the SUBWAY Super Series, please visit www.ohlimages.ca
