I’d sing to the heavens for that kind of keeper rate, especially when inexperienced.

My first time shooting volleyball my keeper rate was just below 8%. Because of my inexperience, I did a lot of shotgun pictures.

My first game, I was taking pics for local small newspaper. I was expected to write an article to accompany the photos. After culling the photos, I fired up my writing brain. Then I released I didn’t know how many games were won (best of 3). I dod r know any players names. I didn’t know the final score of any of the games.

BIG learning curve.

Keep practicing and heed the advice given above. You will mess up sometime, we all have.

Shooting through the glass can be problematic. The glass is DIRTY. smudges, streaks, black marks from pucks. Depending on auto-focus style you may end up with more pics of the glass in focus than players. I shot rink side for 3 or 4 games and never liked it.

You can get reflections of what’s behind the glass in your photos.

I got high enough in stands so the goalies and the far side of the ice were unobstructed. It limits some shots but you can still get plenty of good ones.

The biggest issue is lighting. In older rinks there can be one or two stops difference between the center ice and the corners. My local AHL rink installed LEDs a few years ago and it is nice.

I shot with a Canon 1D MkIV, 300mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 2000, f/3.2 and 1/1000 shutter.

I shot many games at a local AHL affiliate team. I looked through my notes and found this: hockey 1/1000, f/3.2, ISO 2000. This arena was nice as they had installed new LED lights. The entirety of the ice was well lit.

Older arenas with non-LEDS can have crappy lighting, with a step or two difference between center ice and the corners.

Shooting through the glass has its own issues. The glass is DIRTY. Filled with scuffs, scratches, black marks from the hockey puck, etc. Some rinks have holes in the glass for photogs. The arena I went to had one. I was low enough in the hierarchy to never get to use it.

As other poster stated shooting through the glass you will get reflections from what’s behind you.

The arena I went to has two tiers of seating with a walkway between the two circling the ice. I normally shot from there. I was high enough to shoot over the glass and get about half of the width of the rink clear. I did not set custom white balance ahead of time. I knew the color temp of the LEDs and adjusted on the keepers.

My gear: Canon 1D MkIV, 300mm f/2.8.

If there are other photogs there, def ask them about their settings and any tips or advice.