Sports
Ross County action, Dick Campbell portrait
Thu Jul 12th - 9:23pm
I can't remember a time when I was more exhausted than on Tuesday night. I'd been up since 4pm on Monday, worked through the night, and stayed up to do one of my voluntary days at the village hall. By the time I went home at 4pm on Tuesday I'd been on the go almost non-stop for 24 hours so you can imagine I was looking forward to bed! But no, there was an e-mail waiting for me, asking me to shoot the Ross County vs Clach game in Dingwall that night.
Even if I had my own transport I wouldn't have driven because I could barely stay awake as it was, and it was impossible to get to the match by bus in time. So I had to get a taxi there and back. I'd been told that kick-off was at 7:30pm but when I arrived at 7:10pm the game was already underway. It wasn't a great game for action shots but I got a few that were okay. It's the second one that dominates the back page of this week's North Star.
New manager Dick Campbell was there so I introduced myself and asked if it was okay to take photos of him. Normally I wouldn't ask because any member of the team or management is fair game for photos, but this was a pre-season friendly and Dick had chosen to stay out of the way at one corner of the pitch, so I thought it was polite to ask. He said to go ahead, no problem.
Spotting an exclusive as I was the only photographer there, I asked Dick if we could do a quick portrait at the end of the match. Practically everything that could go wrong did go wrong, right up to the flash batteries dying after one test shot, but Dick was totally cool about it and stood for several different pics. This was one of the first and it's the best. Might be in a future North Star, I won't know until I see it.
When I got home at around 10pm I still had an hour's work to do, sorting through the pics and processing the best ones to send off so the sports editor would get them first thing in the morning. My head was buzzing so I got on with a few other things and eventually got to bed around 1am. I was up again at 11am on Wednesday morning and I'll probably not get to sleep again until midnight tonight, Thursday.
Weeks like this are becoming quite common. I don't have a lot of time for people who say that photography is an easy job! Fun, but not easy.
Low angle football action
Fri Jun 22nd - 10:28pm
I haven't been covering many football matches lately. I've been doing team shots for the North Star but this picture for the Ross-shire Journal was the first action shot in several weeks. I'd been trying another new idea using remote flashes but as the match drew to a close it was obvious that the idea wasn't working so I turned off the remotes and grabbed a few action shots.
If I'd been using my 300mm lens, which I usually use for football, then I would have been standing up and I probably wouldn't have got this shot at all. But I was using a 70-200mm lens so I took the shot from a low angle, and that's why it works. Would have been better if I'd taken it a split second earlier when the goalie's foot was touching the ball but it's not bad as it is.
18 June 2007: A late attack by Balintore's Lewis Ross is shut down by Tain Thistle goalkeeper Steven Martin.
Newspaper feature on football skycam pic
Mon May 28th - 5:31pm
This was a pleasant surprise!
Our local papers don't usually run photos from mid-week football matches because they're on Wednesday evenings, so they're too late for deadline. But last week's match had been moved from Wednesday to Monday so the skycam goal pic made it into the paper, large and in colour on the back page.
However that left the paper with a problem: No match report except the brief details I sent myself. So instead they wrote about the photo itself! Here's the shot again with the paper's write-up…
This is how one of Balintore's five goals scored against Ross-shire Club in the Welfare League might have looked to a passing seagull.
It was captured by photographer Andrew Smith who, in pursuit of something a little different, set up a remote-controlled camera atop a 12-ft monopod. His arresting image shows how Ross-shire Club goalkeeper David Mitchell, unprepared as his sight was blocked by one of his own defenders, could then only watch as a thunderbolt from Balintore's Graeme Davis hit the net during the Welfare League game on Monday this week.
(No I don't really have a "12-ft monopod". it was a 6-ft monopod that I held up in the air, putting the camera about 12-ft off the ground.)
Football skycam
Tue May 22nd - 12:30am
Skycam? Polecam? Feeling like a wally holding a camera up in the air on a monopod? Call it whatever you want but Monday evening was my first attempt at using an elevated camera to shoot football.
The easy bit is that you can reliably shoot in AV mode so you don't need to worry about metering. The difficult bit is that you need to pre-focus the lens which will always be a best-guess because you don't know where the action will be.
I used a Canon 1D fired by Pocket Wizards with 17-40 lens at 17mm f/4.
What do you think? Worth pursuing the idea?
21 May 2007: After having his line of sight blocked by his own defenders, Ross-shire Club goalkeeper David Mitchell is unprepared for a strike by Balintore's Graeme Davis. Balintore won 5-1 in Monday night's welfare league game, which was brought forward due to the UEFA Champions League final on Wednesday.
Balintore vs Maitlands Bar
Wed May 9th - 11:58pm
Congratulations to Balintore who beat Maitlands Bar from Tain tonight in what could be described as a decisive 15-0 victory. I sorted out a few pics in the hope that they'll make it into the Ross-shire Journal but I suspect they'll be too late for this week's issue. Here they are anyway…
Balintore vs Ross-shire Club
Mon May 7th - 11:35pm
Here are some action photos from Saturday's game between Balintore and Ross-shire Club. I'll hold off on posting the team photos until the paper's had chance to use them. (North Star if you're looking out for them.)
For this game, and the Ross County vs Gretna game, I used a 1.4x teleconverter on my 300mm lens to get a total of 420mm, and I'm finding that I get better pictures at this focal length. It does mean that I have to work at f/4 which is fine for the daytime summer games, but once winter rolls around again I'm going to finally want that 400mm f/2.8 lens that I've been telling myself I don't need. Cringe.
By the way there's a bigger version of the netcam shot on my Sports Shooter page if you want to see it. (Click here!) Hopefully it will be in this week's Ross-shire Journal but I won't know until I see it myself on Friday.
In-the-goal netcam shot
Sun May 6th - 1:17am
I've mentioned before that the one killer football shot I'm still waiting to get is a netcam shot of a goal with the camera actually inside the goal. I don't think I'm ready to cross it off the list just yet, but I got close today.
This isn't a brilliant shot but it does have a few things going for it, especially the way the penalty-taker is framed by the goalie. Hopefully, if nothing else, it will help to raise the bar of what the local papers demand of their sports shooters. Nobody else around here is trying anything like this, and they really should be.
After considering the various clamps and protective case options, I'd decided that the only safe way to do this shot was to lie down at the side of the goal and poke the lens through the net, then get the hell out of the way if either the ball or the goalie came in my direction. So that's exactly what I did. Got the shot, nobody got hurt, no gear broken. Result!
Gretna up, County down
Sat Apr 28th - 11:48pm
Commiserations to Ross County on dropping to the Second Division, but congratulations to Gretna on promotion to the Scottish Premier League after a nail-biting 3-2 victory at Victoria Park.
The company I was doing the photos for today was only interested in Ross County players so I mostly stayed out of the way after the match. The other photographers needed the Gretna celebration pics for whatever papers or agencies they were working for, so I didn't want to make their jobs any more difficult by diving into the scrum. Instead I took the opportunity to see if I could get any decent pics by shooting from off to one side, or from down low, up high, etc. I really like the one shown above. Don't know why, it just works for me.
Dingwall vs Alness under-17s football
Mon Apr 23rd - 2:01am
The second youth league football cup final of last week, between the Dingwall and Alness under-17 teams, proved to be another entertaining match. Like the under-15 match this one was also played on the Ross County pitch at Victoria Park and it was as good as any professional game I've seen there.
The large turnout of spectators was treated to a very balanced and skillful game that went to extra time and looked set to go to penalties, but Dingwall clinched it. And what a happy bunch they were!
The team photo should be in next week's Ross-shire Journal.
Here's man-of-the-match Gary Urquhart with proud mum Irene.
I've sent the man-of-the-match pic to the North Star but I expect they'll use one of the action photos instead. Note in the last photo that the ball and the players' feet are motion blurred, but their faces are tack sharp. Now THAT is a football action shot! Well it's what I like to see anyway.
Tain vs Invergordon under-15s football
Wed Apr 18th - 12:50pm
I think I've said this before but I'll say it again: Photographing youth football is more fun than doing the adult games. It's skill, skill, skill all the way. Lots of passing, working together as a team, clever tackles and artful dodging!
The last two adult games I photographed were the Inverness vs Golspie cup final in the North Caley league and Saturday's Ross County vs Airdrie game. Last night I did a Ross-shire Youth League under-15s cup final between Tain and Invergordon. Of those three recent matches, last night's match was the best by far.
The game was played on Ross County's pitch at Victoria Park.
Congratulations to Tain for their 3-0 victory. Andrew Bell scored two goals and was named Man of the Match. Nicholas Mein put the third one away. The team photo should be in this week's Ross-shire Journal.
And one of these action shots should be in this week's North Star.
