Football at its best

I shot four different games on Saturday, this image stood out. Even at amateur level winning matters.

Mark McFadden wheels away after putting Rattray into the lead in their Perthshire Amateur Division 3 match against Letham Lads played at the South Inch on Saturday 27th September 2008.

Shooting Perth Races

Thursday saw the last meeting at Perth Racecourse. I first shot at the racecourse at the start of the previous season when I contacted Sam Moreshead, course manager, with a view to producing a book of photos on a season at the races. This lead me to supply images to the Evening Telegraph and over the course of the season provided a batch of images from each meeting. This year I have tried to cover every meet but spend much less time there each visit. Thursday was a typical session arriving in the carpark at 2.30pm and driving out again at 4.10pm. In that short space of time, though, I have a great time shooting a variety of images for use in the next day's paper, future stock or images for individuals. Nothing else I shoot provides so much variety, roll on next season.
Below are some of the images shot on Thursday.

One from today

Went to a local stables to get a picture for the local paper which would feature in their coverage of the two days of racing at Perth Racecourse this week. Tried to use the sunlight coming through the trees to add pockets of light to the people and horses. As flash was out of the question I don't think it came out too badly.

Local trainers Lucy and Alan Normile pictured at their stables on Monday afternoon. They have several entries for the Perth Centenary Glorious Finale Meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. Pictured in the background is stable girl Vicky Stephen with Hurricane Jack, Bobbing Cove and Flaming Heck who Alan and Lucy hope will put on a good show over the two days of racing.

Watch the background

I shoot a lot of Amateur and Junior football for the local paper. One of the considerations I have to take into account for where I shoot from isn't the position of the sun or where the best action is going to be, its the backgrounds. A lot of football is played on local parks within housing schemes so bad backgrounds are a constant problem.

What makes a difference to a shot is a nice clean background, unlike these -

Cars, buildings or just people who happen to be standing in the wrong place.

The next couple of pictures are an example of the difference a clean background makes. The same image with the distracting background removed (NB this is for illustrative purposes only).Note the difference.

Some other images from the last two weekends -

103 years and counting

These are images I shot on a man, Thomas Miller, who had just turned 103 years old. A remarkable person who despite his age still manages to live at home on his own. Add his age to the fact that he is going blind and it makes him even more remarkable.
The photos also marked another milestone, abeit less important, as it was the first time I have felt confident enough to use off camera flash on a image I was shooting for the papers (or any other image I have taken outside the family pics). Although the results are not great I see it as a starting point and plan to practice more to improve and take better images.

These were taken with one strobe gelled with an orange filter (1/4) to give the images more warmth. I also turned down the exposure to -1 on what the ambient was reading. I feel an addition strobe would have helped balance the image better but onwards and upwards.

Rugby woo hoo

I got the chance to shoot some rugby today (a portion of the second half). I have been looking forward to having an opportunity since it has been months since I last ventured near a rugby pitch due to the fact that I spend most Saturday afternoons shooting football for the paper. I was a bit rusty but was pleased with the performance of the 40D. So here are some images from Perthshire v Kirkcaldy plus some football shot over the last two weekends.