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 -