A Return to Gauntlet, and three weeks of Phoenix

Earlier this summer, I took Yol to the Gauntlet Birds of Prey centre for a birthday treat, and for my birthday she returned the favour!  Yol had booked me onto a half-day photography workshop, which took place on the morning of Sunday 9th September, and here I am three weeks later still smiling about it!

The course was split into three sections, the first of which was photographing birds on outdoor perches.  There were about seven or eight snappers taking part in the session, under the guidance of a Gauntlet bird photography expert who was giving tips and advice to anyone who wanted it.  The first bird out was, by pure chance, the first bird that Yol had handled on her Owl Experience - Yoda, the Little Owl! 

I was shooting most of the outdoor shots with my 70-300mm lens, at the far end of the scale.  The advantage in using that amount of zoom from a relatively close distance was that the depth of field was pretty shallow, as demonstrated in the shot above.  At first I thought I could shoot with my 18-105 lens, but that didn't give me enough zoom even from that close range, so I went to the 70-300 and got some results that I'm particularly chuffed with!

The second part of the session was indoors, and utilised flash heads and model lights.  Once again, I was 'reunited' with one of our favourites from Yol's Owl Experience - Humph, the White Faced Scops Owl!:

To say that I have a soft spot for Humph is an understatement, he's excellent and so sweet too!  Although he did spend a great deal of time during the photoshoot seemingly fascinated by something on the ceiling...

Humph was under the model lights, which are constant light sources rather than flashes.  The first bird under the flash heads was Roy the Harris Hawk, a rather magnificent bird:

He was followed by Frodo, a baby Malaysian Wood Owl who was taking only his second turn in front of the cameras.  Still with some of his baby feathers, he looked simply adorable!

Slightly less adorable, but just as fascinating, was Frank, the Saker Falcon, who was having his dinner under the model lights:

Shooting the birds under the model lights required the use of a tripod to get the best results, as I didn't want to push the ISO up and lose quality in the images.  So I used a remote trigger to limit camera movement, set up the tripod, and shot that way.

The third part of the session was the trickiest - shooting birds on the wing!  This took place outside, and the photographers were invited to take shots from wherever they wanted between and near the two take-off and landing points, so I shot from a variety of positions to get some alternative shots:

For any photographer with an interest in shooting wildlife, I'd thoroughly recommend Gauntlet.  I had an absolutely thrilling time, and came away with some shots that I am truly proud of!

The full set can be seen on Flickr here: Gauntlet Photo Workshop

That day also marked the start of the Phoenix's home campaign, with a visit from the Steeldogs for the second leg of the War Of The Roses.  Having shot in Sheffield on the Thursday, I'd sort of found my hockey-shooting legs again, albeit from ice level, so this was my first chance to shoot from the stairs and re-find my mojo!

Shooting with the D90 is an absolute blessing!  My trusty D40 got me some very nice results, but having the D90 has given me an extra set on the ISO scale, which in turn means less post-producing and better noise reduction.  Also, I can shoot at a higher shutter speed and get clearer shots.  Plus, having two camera bodies now means that I can be one of those poser pillocks who carries two cameras! But at least I can legitimately do it!

A few weeks back, my photo buddy Lauren Freeman and I shot the portraits for the team, and a couple of weeks ago we shot the volunteers too.  Thanks to Lauren's expert lighting (and Yol's patience) we were able to get some cracking photos of the people who make the match nights work at the Phoenix, and in amongst those shots we naturally had to capture the likenesses of ourselves!

The Phoenix match nght photos can be seen on Flickr here: Manchester Phoenix Flickr feed

Cheers all!

Shooting the Phoenix in the Face, and a Welcome over the Hills

The start of the hockey season is upon us once again, and this Sunday sees the Phoenix taking to home ice for the first time in 2012-2013.  A home match means a home match programme needs to be made, and accordingly I've been chatting with programme producer Richard Murray for a few weeks about getting some content for the first issue of the season.  Getting content is always tricky for the first game of any season, as there are no games from which to get action shots of the new players, so a little creativity is called for!   Having gotten in touch with the Phoenix office, I'd arranged to go and shoot the first training session of the new year, and hopefully get some exclusive content there.  Mission accomplished, and here's a sneak peek of one of the shots submitted for the programme:

The full album of shots will be published after the first home game!

Having all of the Phoenix players in one place at the same time is an opportunity not to be missed, when it comes to getting the pre-season headshots done as well.  Originally, Lauren and myself had planned to do the headshots at the Meet The Players event scheduled for Friday 7th September, an event that both of us would find difficult to get to.  So we decided to see if we could get them done after the training session on Wednesday, and a couple of quick calls to the office in advance meant that the shoot was on!

The Phoenix got off the ice after their training session at 10.45am, and Lauren and I were all set up and good to go.  Needless to say, the first player didn't wander our way until 11.15...

Shooting headshots is always a challenge.  It sounds easy enough:  set up lights, take photos of players in succession, pack up, go home.  The reality of it is that you have to adjust for the height of every player, shoot several photos of each one, and above all else do your best to make the player feel comfortable in front of the camera.  Posing for a corporate headshot is one of the least natural things you can do, and getting a natural looking shot is the ultimate aim, so even a half-decent photographer will try to make some smalltalk and set their subjects at ease.  Which is not as simple as it sounds when your import players don't speak much English.

However, after plenty of waiting, cajoling and adjusting, by 12:00 we'd got our set of headshots, and here's an example of how they turned out - this is the headshot for new signing Timo Kuuluvainen:

The full set of shots can be seen on the Phoenix roster page here: Manchester Phoenix Roster 2012-2013

Merely one day later, it was time to jump in the car and head over to Sheffield to shoot the Phoenix's visit to the Steeldogs for the first leg of the pre-season War Of The Roses tournament. 

As is etiquette for photographers from the visiting team, I'd sent an e-mail to the Steeldogs requesting permission to shoot the game.  I received a reply from Hilary Jones, one of the staffers at the Steeldogs, confirming that I could shoot, and also requesting that I provide the Steeldogs with some shots as they didn't have a photographer available for the game.  Naturally I agreed, and the arrangements were made.

The Steeldogs are arguably the Phoenix's biggest rivals, but it has to be said that the rivalry exists only on the ice.  The welcome that I received when I got to the rink was particularly refreshing, especially after a two-hour drive to get there.  Both Hilary and Steeldogs player coach Andre Payette were happy to assist in any way that I needed, and Andre offered to let me shoot from the Steeldogs bench if I couldn't get onto the Phoenix bench.  As it turned out, I was able to shoot from the Phoenix bench, but it was nice to know the offer was there - cheers Andre!

This was the first EPL game that I'd shot with my lovely new D90, and it was also the first game I'd shot from a position on the end of a team bench.  Luckily, I had a huge netminder-shaped bodyguard to shield me from the stray pucks, sticks and bodies that flew my way at various points from the evening.  Take a bow, Jorge El-Hage!

The game itself was a fiesty affair, despite it being a 'friendly' (I think there's no such thing as a friendly in hockey!)  Five minutes into the first period, our new enforcer Robert Schnabel went for it with Andre Payette, less than ten metres from where I was standing.

The Steeldogs went on to win the game 3-2, and take that lead into the second leg on Sunday.

As the game had faced off later than planned, and there was post-game stuff to attend to as well, I didn't get back home until half past eleven.  Which would have been ok, if I didn't have to get the shots edited!  The Steeldogs needed the Presentation photos doing (as agreed) and I'd also promised Richard Murray some more content for the Phoenix programme, which meant that I was up editing photos until one in the morning!  It's a good job that I don't need much beauty sleep! ;)

The full set of photos that I shot for the Phoenix can be seen here:  Sheffield Steeldogs v Manchester Phoenix 6th September 2012

The set of photos that I shot for the Steeldogs will be linked here when the album goes online!

Cheers all!

Legally Uploaded, and a Nerd Moment in Manchester

A few entries back I mentioned that I'd done a portrait shoot at the offices of Central Chambers, a law firm based in the centre of Manchester, at the behest of my friend Ben Knight.  Ben is one of the barristers who practices out of the Chambers, and he's also the man behind the Manchester Phoenix Podcast, so we often cross paths in buildings where big sweaty men grind against each other and attempt to score.  Thankfully I'm talking about the ice hockey here...

Anyway, the shots that I did for Central Chambers have now gone live!  Here's the shot that I did of Ben, to show the kind of portraits that I was providing:

The shots have been converted into black and white for upload, and I'm very pleased to be able to show you them in all their glory!  Here's a screengrab of Ben's profile page:

Seeing my shots being used on a corporate site is actually quite a nice feeling!  The staff at Central Chambers were very welcoming to me, and took it in their stride when it was their turns in front of the camera.   The results of the shoot can be seen on the Central Chambers website, by clicking the links on the Members drop-down menu: Central Chambers website

Today I was back up in Manchester again, this time in a different part of the city.  Myself and a colleague were at MediaCity in Salford Quays to visit the post-production facilities at Salford University, on a fact-finding mission.  Despite not having my main Nikon cameras with me, my old philosophy of always carrying a camera of some kind with me paid off, when we popped into the BBC's studio reception area and spotted these little beauties!:

You've just got to take your nerd moments where you find them!