Tonight's League 2 Soccer

Thought I would pop some soccer up rather than the usual rugby or hockey.

League 2 football, Chester City vs Boston United.

Thoroughly drenched for the first 15 mins of the game (although a great test of my homemade rain covers....take 2 old waterproof jackets, a sewing machine and some waterproof tape!!). However once the rain cleared and the 2 teams decided/remembered to play some football (the 1st 45 minutes was woeful!) it was quite an entertaining evening.

Techy stuff - 1d, Canon 300 2.8L, 1/250 @ f2.8 in Manual. ISO 1600. Quickly passed through Noise Ninja as well.

Thanks for looking!! C&C certainly welcome!

1.

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Looking good Paul. Hows the tired eyes? 2:19am!!

How many went to print? What is your keeper rate from a night game. Mine drops by about 40% over day games. The AF sticks sometimes at night.

Darren

Thanks Darren!

Tired and Grumpy is the best description of me this morning!! I could 2 of the 7 dwarves rolled up into one!

Not sure about what will be going to print as yet, City normally get about 4 pics in the paper on Friday (Tuesday night games miss the midweek edition) so fingers crossed on that front. Although fairly sure that the celebration pic might get a showing since Blundell scored 2 and was pretty impressive all evening.

Shooting stats from last night - 213 shots taken, 117 that could be used either for editorial or stock and 18 of that were submitted to the paper. Which, using my ropy maths, is 54.9% keeper rate. My timing was woeful though for the first 15 minutes (of no consequence as the football was even worse!) so that rate will probably be a little higher next time.

I find that shooting under lights makes me shoot a little more selectively and as a result the keeper rate is higher. Under daylight I shoot almost always with the 1.4x attached and find that the keeper rate decreases a little - I am unsure whether this is a product of me being less selective with shooting, or not being used to working at an effective 420mm focal length. So this weekend's task is to shoot for a bit with no TC, lens wide open and see where I end up.

AF seemed to be ok last night - very little hunting indeed - but then again the lens camera combo I was using last night is very quick as it is, so unless light is shocking then it always tends to do a good job.

I have a question for other sports shooter which is probably not soccer specific, however I have soccer in mind when I ask it.......if shooting for a paper/agency where coverage of both teams is needed, where do you sit in either half and how do you ensure both sides get an appropriate amount of coverage?

Paul,

I've never covered both sides on any sport other than basketball where the court is much smaller so I can sit on the baseline when both sides are attacking and I can cover one side attacking and one side defending. If you put in the work to contact editors, etc. it can pay off. I had 2 images published in daily paper in Plymouth on Monday who were the away side from a game I covered on saturday (https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=247706).

I am alot more selective at night as well as only shot when the action is close enough. In day I shoot lose sometimes and then crop tight but at night, I'd had bad results cropping as my image is FULL of noise already.

Darren

Nice stuff Paul in tough conditions!

You're certainly getting plenty of work in Chester... have you dabbled with the Jets basketball yet?

---- Gavin

Thanks Gavin

Certainly being kept busy - which is good and more than I expected by this stage of things. Doesn't seem like 4/5 weeks since I started shooting for the paper.

The Basketball up here is pretty much a closed shop, there is a chap who already covers it on a freelance basis for all the local papers (and to be fair to him does a hell of a good job of it). So have pretty much decided not to waste time trying to crack that one.

Currently looking towards next summer and trying to get involved with the two Polo clubs up here as well as the cricket - although need to have a think about the whole lens side of things to cover those 2 effectively!

I have a couple of questions that I will email across to you later today too, if that is ok?

Thanks

Paul

Tall_Paul_2000 wrote in post #2365905
I have a couple of questions that I will email across to you later today too, if that is ok?

Thanks

Paul

No problem Paul...

---- Gavin

Paul, do you know the guy's name that covers the basketball? Is it Karl Southern? He is the BBL Official Photographer according to the bbl.org.uk website. Here are his images - http://imageexcellence​.thirdlight.com/.

Darren

DarrenL wrote in post #2366193
Paul, do you know the guy's name that covers the basketball? Is it Karl Southern? He is the BBL Official Photographer according to the bbl.org.uk website. Here are his images - http://imageexcellence​.thirdlight.com/.

Darren

I've certainly come across that name before as he has supplied one of my local papers with images from time to time.

Interesting galleries.

---- Gavin

Gavin you might be able to help me.

I have a BB game on Saturday, Worthing Thunder are playing London Capitals. Do you know if any of the London papers print match reports/photos from the EBL teams or do they just cover the London United the only London BBL team.

I've got newspaper contacts for all the teams in the EBL and the BBL except the London teams as I can't seem to find any.

Darren

DarrenL wrote in post #2366241
Gavin you might be able to help me.

I have a BB game on Saturday, Worthing Thunder are playing London Capitals. Do you know if any of the London papers print match reports/photos from the EBL teams or do they just cover the London United the only London BBL team.

I've got newspaper contacts for all the teams in the EBL and the BBL except the London teams as I can't seem to find any.

Darren

I have to admit that I've seen very little from the EBL in the London locals. I used to cover the Essex & Herts Leopards but, following a venue change, I was moved over to cover London United in the BBL. Since that point I've not seen any Leopards pics in print except the odd 'contributed' image.

The Capitals play in the Wembley/Willesden area I think... so might be worth trying the Willesden & Brent Times (an Archant paper).

Sorry I can't offer any more help.

---- Gavin

Thanks for the info Gavin

Darren

DarrenL wrote in post #2366193
Paul, do you know the guy's name that covers the basketball? Is it Karl Southern? He is the BBL Official Photographer according to the bbl.org.uk website. Here are his images - http://imageexcellence​.thirdlight.com/.

Darren

Darren,

Its a chap called Mike Arnfield - have a feeling that he is the club photographer for Chester Jets.

Haven't managed to find a website for him though.

Interesting site that you linked to before though.

Paul, great captures. The timing on these is excellent. The guy in # 2 looks like he could be a stunt double for Peter Crouch ;~).

Regards,
Jeff

Big Hands wrote in post #2366922
Paul, great captures. The timing on these is excellent. The guy in # 2 looks like he could be a stunt double for Peter Crouch ;~).

Regards,
Jeff

Thanks Jeff - I see what you mean about the Peter Crouch lookalike....although he is possibly still about a metre shorter than Crouch!!!