Like hockey without rules

On Saturday on the way back from shooting the usual Amateur and Junior games for the paper I decided to stop by the North Inch to photograph what I thought, from a distance, was a hockey game. As I got closer I realised it was infact Shinty. This is the first time I have seen shinty first hand and to the untrained eye I spent most of the time trying to figure out what the rules were. To me the best way to describe it would be hockey without rules (I am sure some will shake their heads at this description). A fascinating game which I plan to go back and photograph again. For anyone wanting to find out more heres a link to the main website.
http://www.shinty.org.uk/Default.aspx

South Division 1 action between Tayforth and Kilmory

Back with another post

Its been a few weeks since my last post due to a few issues at home. Anyway here are some images from Saturday. The matches were Scone Thistle v Steelend and Kinnoull v Forfar West End. I also shot a amateur match the same afternoon.
There are some images from both matches. Most are from Scone's game with more from Kinnoull's at my Sportsshooter's page.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=6385

Iain MacIntosh photographer

This is a link to Scottish photographer Iain MacIntosh's blog. I have known of Iain for a couple of years and always knew he was a good photographer, turns out he is a good guy as well. Read his last couple of posts and you will see what I mean.

http://imacx.blogspot.com/

Saturday

I didn't do too much on Saturday. 20 mins of an Amateur game and around half an hour of a Junior game before going back home to watch the six nations rugby. I justified this with the fact that next week I will probably have around 6 or 7 different games to shoot in the afternoon.
Here are some images from the Junior game as Jeanfield Swift took on league leaders St Andrews.




When I come back after an day's shooting I tend to take some images of the kids as they run around the livingroom. So here is Erin which is probably my favourite image from Saturday.

Remote possibilities

I have named this post in this way as I tried a behind the goal remote for the first time on Saturday. I have a few thing to work out but now I have got to grip with the basics is definetly opens up some more possibilities. The remote failed a few times due to the camera shutting down and Jeanfield had an awful second half when the remote was set up. (they went on to win 3-2 - go figure).

The first shot is out of the camera with second cropped as sent to the paper. I would like to have sent the first picture but knew the paper probably wouldn't print it large enough to work.

Mark Caldow scores Jeanfield Swift's second from the penalty spot in their Central league clash against Lochore played at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday.

Action from the Riverside Stadium as Jeanfield took on Lochore in a Central league clash on Saturday.

Some Perthshire Amateur league action - Letham v Alyth and Fairfield v Perth Royale.

And finally action from the European Indoor Hockey Championship as Scotland's representative Menzieshill took on Luzerner of Switzerland.

A few from Saturday

I started off with Perth Phoenix v Arbroath Musketeers Cadet basketball at Perth Academy. I tried out a remote set-up D60 with 18-50 under the basket but as I was needing to use flash for this I ran into problems when the ref refused so I will need to rethink a solution for this. The others were taken with 70-200 on 20D.


Then it was onto four football games with more or less the same kick-off time.
Amateur football - Tay Thistle v Letham Utd

Amateur Football - Fair City v Kettle Utd
Juniors - Jeanfield Swifts v Crossgates Primrose
Juniors - Scone Thistle v Lochee Utd

Things I learnt this weekend

The first thing I learnt this weekend is that it is not easy taking pictures of badminton in low light conditions. I went to Bell's Sports Centre to cover the Scottish Championships. The main problem is the speed in which the shuttlecock moves in combination with the speed the racket hits the shuttlecock. When you have a maximum shutter speed of 1/200 getting a good picture with the shuttlecock in view is difficult. Or do I just need more practice!

The second thing is that it is not easy to make a training session look interesting as a picture. With the frost all football matches were called off so I spent some of Saturday looking for teams training to fill the sports pages.

And lastly ALWAYS check you lense for condensation when coming in from the cold. With the temperture at -2 outside moving into Bells again to photograph some Scottish Indoor hockey, Menziehill v Western Wildcats, proved too much for my 70-200. Unfortunately I didn't notice until I was checking them on the monitor at home.

And here is some Junior Basketball shot at the end of the day. Perth Phoenix took on Boroughmuir Blaze at Perth Academy.