Programme Profiles, Resting Felines, and Pre-Shoot Nerves

This season with the Phoenix I've been more involved in the match night programme than in previous years. In the past I've written the occasional article and provided the odd photo, but this season I've been asked to take a more active role and come up with a broader range of content. One of the outcomes of this was the publication of shots from the photoshoot with Ryan Johnson, as mentioned in the last blog entry, but something that I've been working on more regularly has been a series of profile articles about the people who make the whole Phoenix operation run as smoothly as possible - the staff and the volunteers. Writing these articles has given me a chance to exercise my typing fingers in the form of online interviews with the articles' subjects, but the experience has also given me a reason to get more photos of people fulfilling their roles in their working environment on a match night:





The shots are often taken quickly, with very little set-up time, but personally I think that shooting like that adds to the photos, it shows these people in their 'natural environment' and hopefully they add an extra dimension to the articles!


This time of year is a time of general lethargy for most people. We wake up in the morning and it's dark, we go home in the evening and it's dark. Our beds have never been more comfortable, our duvets inescapable! The central heating goes on, the fire goes on, and the fleeces and snuggies come out of their summer retirement. Finding topics and subjects to photograph becomes harder, as you don't venture far from home. So you turn to familiar subjects who are feeling the same sense of lethargy and love of the warm that you are!:





This coming weekend, I have a shoot set up. It's a big one too, and there's a lot riding on it. I was as nervous as anything before the Ryan Johnson shoot a few weeks back, and that shoot paved the way for the one I'm about to undertake. To say that I'm nervous is an understatement. I won't lie, I'm very much on edge for this one. I've borrowed a nice lens, I've borrowed some lights, and I've tested and planned as much as I can. But there are some elements of the shoot that are totally beyond my control, and that's what's making me so nervous. Time will tell on this one!

However, the elements that I can control, that I can test, I've been controlling and testing. The lens that I've borrowed for this shoot is a rather nice 35mm f2.0 prime lens, and today I did some tests with the lens on a Nikon D90 which I will be shooting with this weekend, and I'm fairly happy with the results:





I think the shots are pretty good, but I'm always open to feedback! The small album of test shots can be seen here on Flickr.

Wish me luck for the shoot this weekend!

Secret Project unveiled, Remember Remember, and catching up with a Shooting Buddy

The secret project that I have been working on is a secret no more, with the publication of the match programme at the game on the 30th of October! Inspired by a concept from Lauren Freeman, the project was to do a profile shoot with Phoenix player Ryan Johnson that was based around his impressive array of tattoos. The shoot took place on the 23rd October in the Phoenix dressing room, within a half hour window, and involved setting up three 300w lights and snapping away like a madman. Ryan himself was an absolute star, willing to try every one of the poses that I suggested, and very welcoming of both myself and my assistant for the day, Yolanda! Yol took this one of the shoot in progress:



The shoot was a nervous experience for me, but it was worth every moment. The results were (in my humble opinion) better than expected, and after a trip through the wonders of Photoshop, I was able to produce a series of six images, four of which were used in the match programme and the other two are being saved for potential future usage. The programme article's headline shot was this one, and it's one that I'm pretty proud of:



The plans for the next themed photo shoot are already underway!....

November the 5th is the night when all across the country, millions of pounds go up in smoke, or go off with a bang. Call it Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night or Guy Fawkes Night, it's the night when the skies are lit up with all manner of exploding rockets, bangers, Chinese Lanterns and other such gunpowder-based entertainment. Yol and I spent our Bonfire Night in the company of Yol's folks over in Hull, and it gave me an opportunity to have a crack at shooting some fireworks.





Shooting a fireworks night is a steep learning curve! I know that if I were shooting an organised display, I'd be shooting with a tripod and shooting from much further away, to get the colour bursts of the rockets in the skies. From the close proximity that I was shooting, none of the rocket shots worked, but it was still a great experience. Spending time with family and friends is always time well spent, especially when it comes with a bowl of lovely veggie chilli!

As per usual, I've been shooting at the Altrincham Ice Dome with the Phoenix, getting a fair few shots uploaded to match reports on the team website and elsewhere, and generally enjoying the challenge of shooting in a place with comparatively low, uneven light. Don't get me wrong, the lighting in there is great compared to some of the rinks I've shot in, but it's still a problem trying to capture fast paced action when you're having to rely on shooting at ISO 1600 and shutter speeds of 1/250th with an F4.5 lens - you have to post-produce the living daylights out of your shots before they are usable. But I've been fairly pleased with the results I've been getting lately:





Shooting the hockey is a vice for me, it's an unashamed pleasure to do, even when the results don't go our way, or when something gets dropped on us at a moment's notice. Personally speaking, I think it's essential to have something in your life that you enjoy, that's a little different, and that you can lose yourself in, even if it's only for a few hours.

Shooting the hockey has also given me a chance to meet and work with some lovely people, and this past week I had the chance to catch up with one of those people whose path has gone a different way to mine. Last season I spent a lot of time on the bench shooting alongside my 'Shooting Buddy' Lauren Freeman, and this season she's signed with the Sheffield Steeldogs to shoot for them instead of the Phoenix (a bit like a player trade, only we didn't get any stick tape in exchange for her!). This past Thursday the Steeldogs were playing the Phoenix in Altrincham, and it gave me a chance to get a hug from Lauren, and spend a warm-up session on the bench shooting beside her again:



She may well be shooting for the 'enemy', but she's still my Shooting Buddy!

My albums can be seen on Flickr here: R.G.Allan Photography

My Phoenix shots can be seen on Flickr here: Official Manchester Phoenix Photography

Thanks for reading!