Shaun Ward Photography: Speed shooting

Saturday should have been a fairly easy day shooting. I was asked by the paper to cover two Amateur matches both kicking off at 2pm, a Junior match kicking off at 2.30pm, another Junior match kicking off at 3pm and a simple news image about football programmes at the same ground.

The weather forecast said the rain in the morning would clear in the afternoon.Good. I got my equipment together and left the house just after 1.30pm giving plenty time to get to the furthest away amateur ground. Got to the ground to discover the game wouldn't be kicking off at 2pm after all probably closer to 2.30pm. So I decided to go the the second amateur match with a view to covering that first. Same story. Now I was left with 3 games all with a 2.30pm kick-off. Suddenly the day would be a bit more hectic. I headed back to the first game and shot a few images before heading back to the second amateur. The heavens opened at this point. Torrential rain and wind. I shot the second match for just over 5 minutes before heading off to my first junior game. By this time I was drenched. Covered the next two games and news image by 4pm. Wet through but job done. The glamorous life of a bottom rung sports shooter!

Below are the images I will be submitting to the paper with the exact time they were captured. One thing I would say is that there is a real similarity in the images due to the fact that I shot the first three games from a midfield point for safety (making sure I have images to submit). Award winning images they are not.