Photo Stories

Time for the next instalment of the football grant photo story.

A dark, cold and rainy Tuesday night saw four of us make our way up to the pitch to take measurements of the changing rooms and showers. (I was only taking photos, the other three did all the work.)

For this part of the story I wanted two photos:

Firstly, a basic shot of the showers as an illustration of why the facilities need upgrading, ie: There are only seven showers for two football teams. I did find a few angles that allowed me to get all seven showers in frame, but I've settled on this shot that shows most of the showers plus the door into one of the changing rooms.

Secondly I wanted a shot of Gordy, Ross and Jean all hard at work. I've got a few to choose from but each photo has strengths and weaknesses so I'm not going to make a final decision just yet. Here are the ones I'm considering.

These shots of Ross measuring the showers and a changing room are my favourites due to strong compositions and good light, but obviously they only show one person so I think that will rule them out.

These shots of Gordy and Ross would be the best candidates if it wasn't for the fact that the next part of the project is to have a professional architect do a scale drawing, and I'm intending to get a shot of her doing that. If I used one of these photos then the final set would have two photos with a similar theme.

So I'll probably have to go with one of these last two. The first one clearly illustrates people taking measurements, and the second one shows all three people. Technically and artistically these are my least favourite shots but they are the best illustrations of what I was trying to show.

Last night I began a personal project that is likely to continue for the next year or so. When I say personal project I mean that I'm just doing it because I want to do it, not for a publication, although if it goes well then I will pitch it somewhere. I doubt it will go further than the village newsletter though.
The idea is to document a grant-funded project from beginning to end. I'm on my local football club committee and we're applying for money to improve the facilities at our ground. Last night we met with the person who is advising us and helping to put the wheels in motion. I'm planning to document every step of the process, from the meetings to the drawing-up of plans, from the first bit of work done at the ground to the improvements being finalised.

For most people the first they'll know of this project will be when they arrive at the ground sometime next year and see the new facilities. My photo project, which should produce a finished story of 12-15 images, will document all the time and effort that goes into actually getting the work done.

The point isn't to produce stunning photos. Nothing arty. This is meant to be purely documentary, illustrated with fly-on-the-wall style images.

Here's the photo I've chosen to represent tonight's meeting:

Here are some that I considered as alternatives. (Is it just me or do these unprocessed jpegs look better than the processed raw conversion above?! Can't make up my mind.)

All taken with the 1D and 17-40 f/4L at 1/40s, f/4, ISO 3200.