Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens Sample Pictures

The Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS II USM Lens is an excellent choice for soccer photography with a full frame DSLR. Aside from having spectacular image quality, this lens' AF system has no trouble keeping up with the fast-moving action of this sport.
 
Unfortunately, sporting events are not usually scheduled around a photographer's time-of-the-day lighting preferences. I strongly prefer bright cloudy days to direct sunlight when shooting action in the middle of the afternoon - as exampled in this picture.

You will probably not spend the money needed to acquire this incredible lens to shoot pictures of a horse maine, but ... if you have the lens, opportunities such as this one cost you nothing additional.

A strutting gobbler fills the frame in this 500mm picture. Symmetrically filling a 500mm frame with a constantly moving turkey is not easy (without cropping), but I got close on this one.

Kilauea Volcano, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, is currently the only active volcano in Hawaii.
 
I had only one day allocated to Hawaii Volcanoes NP and unfortunately, the day was nearly completely a rainout. The rain was heavy, the fog was thick and the wind was very strong. I didn't even attempt to photograph with the rain protection I had along for both myself and the camera gear.
 
The plan was to end the day at the Jaggar Museum on Crater Rim Drive. This location provides the best view of the Kilauea Caldera and the glow that rises from it after the sun sets. Actually, I contemplated ending the day completely and heading back to the hotel as my AM flight was a very early one.
 
While the rain did not end, it did slow down and perhaps more important, the fog lifted. The glow became apparent - and I felt the calling. I put the camera and large lens in a large garbage bag (small hole stretched over the lens hood) and began photographing. I lost a lot of images to blur caused by the wind, but have a very solid collection of "keepers". It was very worth staying for this show.
 
Note that I would rather have had my Wimberley Tripod Head for this shoot, but I couldn't keep my checked luggage under weight with this piece of kit included. The Arca-Swiss Z1 worked superbly as always. I just had to make sure that I had a good grip on the lens when the head was not locked.

The Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS II USM Lens is an excellent outdoor equine photography lens. I was testing this lens' autofocus capabilities when this picture was taken. I used a low-to-the-ground shooting position to keep the rider's head above the skyline. I will note that I was not completely comfortable (psychologically) shooting close to the ground with a 1,000 lb animal bearing down on me at high speed.

While this looks like a simple picture to take, horses off-reign and in a pasture do not often stand still. The composition is indeed simple - which is what I was looking for.

Part of the challenge of shooting soccer (and many other sports) is how the natural lighting is falling on the field. In this situation, my player was moving toward a late day sun (my favorite situation). Unfortunately, the sun was setting behind a woods near the field. This meant that a solid shadow was encroaching onto the field.
 
Because I had a long focal length lens, I could move forward with the shadow until the ideal focus distance would have put me onto the field.
 
In this frame, the soccer player is moving into the shadow. The direct sunlight is still hitting her face, drawing the viewers eye to her eyes – and that flying hair.
 
This photo also benefits from the ball in the frame, an opponent chasing and a coach standing in the background.

A few heads and bodies along with a lot of legs form this layered feeding deer picture. I was flat on the ground for this shot with the lens tripod ring resting only on my hand.

Stealing the ball during a soccer game of course. I like sports shots that are tightly framed. I like them even better when I don't have the choice to crop as was the case in this picture. The distance to the action was as close as I could capture reasonably-composed shots at.

A horse and rider canter through tall grasses over a hill. I like to work skylined shots into my collection. The sharp contrast between the subject and the sky makes the subject stand out.

Banzai Beach on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, in the winter, is the best wave photography beach I have been to.
 
The beach is beautiful and the waves are huge with great shape (perfect for surfing). Like clouds, no two waves are the same. The challenge to capture just the right wave framed perfectly under the right light (many clouds this day) could content me for days.
 
The orientation of the waves to the beach (and the wind on this day) is great, but to get deep into the waves, I used a 700mm focal length. Taking advantage of the lighter weight of the 500 L II Lens, I was shooting handheld and rested on my knees - for hours. A drop-in circular polarizer filter was used.

While the rack does not have much calcium in it, this was the biggest buck in Big Meadows this afternoon. One of my goals for the trip was to capture the late fall colors of the meadow with deer as the primary subjects, so ... I made this little guy work for my goal.

I spend a lot of time near soccer goals and am often looking for creative ways to portray the game. The strong white lines of a soccer net against a strongly-blurred background clearly says soccer to me.

That she loves horses is not hard to figure out. Capturing a display of that love that will last a lifetime? Priceless.

I watched and photographed a lot of huge Banzai Pipeline waves on this afternoon in Oahu, but I especially liked what I saw as this one was setting up.
 
Each of the three waves in the frame has a noticeably different color and only the backmost wave is breaking. A strong wind put a lot of the breaking wave's spray into the air. Of course, that strong wind made 700mm handheld framing a challenge.

I take a huge number of soccer photos, but of course share the only ones I like best or think have a good teaching point.
 
Here I have captured the entire primary subject in action (hair flying) and moving into the frame (slightly). The ball is there. A pair of white-shirt defenders, at different distances, frame the primary subject and her teammate in the background. There is enough of the frame filled with players to knock down the obnoxious white building roof background. And the white actually adds contrast to the primary subject's shirt.
 
When you need to reach out into the big field action with a full frame camera body, the EF 500 L II and EF 600 L II lenses are the best choice.

Autofocus testing on the kids riding their horses fast is always a good time for all - and the memories captured will last a lifetime. They are priceless.

No two waves are the same and those at Banzai Pipline are definitely superior in both size and shape. These two qualities raise the bar on what qualifies as a keeper during post processing.

The full frame format sensor paired with a 500mm f/4 lens melts the background away from this relatively close horse.