My Ice Hockey Photography Season Has Officially Started!
A week and a half ago, my ice hockey photography season officially started at the August Ice Series which were held in Tilburg.
The first weekend was packed with two Tilburg Trappers games against Düsseldorfer EG and the Kölner Haie. On Thursday, it was time for the team photo and player portraits for the Utrecht Dragons, and the following Saturday, the Utrecht Dragons hosted their first home game of the season against the Ratinger Ice Aliens.
© Daan Kalksma Photography
August Ice Series in Tilburg
The first game of the season that I attended as a photographer was on Friday, the 28th of August 2026. The Tilburg Trappers organised the August Ice Series, hosting Düsseldorfer EG and the Kölner Haie as part of their preparations for the new Oberliga season, Germany’s third tier.
I was really excited about these games because both visiting teams from Germany are teams I have been following for several years.
The first game was against Düsseldorfer EG, a team playing in the German second league, DEL2. The club has a long history of playing in Germany’s highest league but was unfortunately relegated to DEL 2 in 2025. After a difficult season last year, they are very eager to get back to the highest level of German ice hockey.
They brought almost all their top players to the game against the Tilburg Trappers. Düsseldorfer EG managed to win 7–1, but the game was still really exciting to watch. Their new away jersey has very bold colours, which also makes the players very easy to spot through the camera.
© Daan Kalksma Photography
More photos of the game between Tilburg Trappers and Düsseldorfer EG can be found here
Testing the Sony A7 V
For this opening weekend, I was able to bring a new Sony A7 V with me to compare it with my own Sony A7 IV. I put a 70–200mm f/2.8 lens on the Sony A7 V and used it as my main camera for both games that weekend. On my A7 IV, I switched between an 85mm f/1.4 and a 24–70mm f/2.8 lens.
When photographing ice hockey, you must work with the artificial LED lighting inside an arena, usually without any natural light. Some arenas have much better and brighter lighting than others, more on that later.
Luckily, the arena in Tilburg has enough light to keep the ISO relatively low while still being able to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. The 85mm f/1.4 came in particularly handy when I wanted to use an even lower ISO and create a shallower depth of field. The other two f/2.8 lenses also gathered enough light to use the fast shutter speeds needed for ice hockey.
Kölner Haie Come to Tilburg
On Sunday, the 30th of August, the Kölner Haie came to Tilburg for another preseason game.
The Kölner Haie are one of the best-known teams in Germany and compete in the highest German ice hockey league, the PENNY DEL. This season they are also competing in the Champions Hockey League (CHL), which is a European international ice hockey competition.
For the game against the Tilburg Trappers, who play in the Oberliga, the Kölner Haie put together a team consisting of youth players as well as several senior players, including their captain, Moritz Müller.
This game turned out to be a very exciting one. The Tilburg Trappers played really well and seemed to have learned a lot from their first game against Düsseldorfer EG.
After regulation time, the score was tied at 3–3, so the game had to be decided in overtime. In the end, the Kölner Haie managed to score the winning goal and take the victory.
© Daan Kalksma Photography
More photos of the game between Tilburg Trappers and the Kölner Haie can be found here
After this weekend, I felt that I had also had my first real test of the season. I really enjoyed watching and photographing three ice hockey teams playing at such a high level.
I also enjoyed using the Sony A7 V and think it is a very nice upgrade over the Sony A7 IV, especially for sports photographers. The autofocus is very fast, and the increase in frames per second for still photography is also very welcome.
Unfortunately, I had to return the Sony A7 V after the weekend, but who knows, maybe there will be more to come.
Utrecht Dragons Team and Player Photos
On Thursday, the 3rd of September, it was time to create the new team and player photos for my home team, the Utrecht Dragons.
The team from Utrecht has several new players for the upcoming season, as well as a completely new kit. During this photography session, I was responsible for taking the official player and staff portraits. These photos are used by the Dutch Ice Hockey Association as well as on the team’s website.
Alongside the official portraits, I also took some more casual photos that could be used by the Dragons’ social media team. In addition, I created several “hero” shots of the players for use on social media and other promotional material.
For this photo session, we built a studio setup inside the arena. This year, we brought better lighting equipment and thought carefully about how we could improve on last year’s photos. We also improved the overall process to make the session a little less chaotic than last season.
For the portraits, I brought my Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens because I absolutely love the way it renders an image. The transition into the out-of-focus areas is very smooth, and the lens gives the images a slight vintage look while still being incredibly sharp.
For the portraits, I used an aperture of f/2.0 to get a little more of each player’s face in focus.
The evening was also reserved for taking the official team photo. I was responsible for arranging all the players in the correct positions on the benches and making sure everything looked as clean and organised as possible.
In my experience, it is always difficult to find a good background for a team photo inside an ice arena. This year, we tried to incorporate the team logo into the background. The downside was that the overall background was not quite as clean as the one we had last year.
© Daan Kalksma Photography
Utrecht Dragons vs. Ratinger Ice Aliens
My first week of the new season ended with a preseason game between the Utrecht Dragons and the German Ratinger Ice Aliens.
This was the first international test for the Utrecht Dragons in several years. The Dragons play their regular season in the Eredivisie, which is currently the highest league in the Netherlands. The Ratinger Ice Aliens play in Germany’s fourth tier and came very close to promotion to the third-tier last season.
On Friday, Utrecht had lost 8–1 away from home in Essen, with the Ratinger Ice Aliens clearly looking like the stronger team. In Utrecht, however, the Germans faced a much better and much more determined Utrecht Dragons.
The game turned out to be incredibly exciting. After 60 minutes, the score was tied at 5–5. The Utrecht Dragons scored two shorthanded goals, one of them coming in the final ten seconds of regulation time.
The Dragons started overtime a player down because of a penalty but managed to survive two very long minutes. Later in overtime, the Ratinger Ice Aliens received a penalty of their own. The Utrecht Dragons took full advantage of the opportunity and scored the winning goal.
© Daan Kalksma Photography
More photos of the game between the Utrecht Dragons and Ratinger Ice Aliens can be found here
The Challenge of Arena Lighting
As I mentioned earlier, the lighting in the ice arena in Tilburg is pretty good for photography. Unfortunately, there is much less light available in Utrecht.
Even though it looks fairly bright from a spectator’s point of view, my camera and lenses have a much harder time gathering enough light.
I really like using my 85mm f/1.4 in Utrecht because it allows me to keep my ISO relatively low, usually around ISO 1000–1250. When using my 70–200mm f/2.8 or 24–70mm f/2.8, however, I often have to increase the ISO to around 4000.
The modern full-frame sensor in my Sony A7 IV still produces very good and sharp images at ISO 4000, but I prefer to keep the ISO lower whenever possible to retain as much image quality and detail as I can.
For the next game in Utrecht, I think the 85mm f/1.4 will be my lens of choice again.
A New Season Begins
I am really looking forward to seeing what this ice hockey season is going to bring, and I hope to photograph plenty of new teams and visit lots of new places along the way!