Two months, two very busy months!

My regular readers (both of you) may have noticed that I've not posted on here since Feb 16th, two months ago.  Well, it's been a busy couple of months, for certain.  The shooting has continued fairly constantly, and I've had a rather significant life event - on March 23rd I married Yolanda!  Getting married was a wonderful experience, one of the happiest days of my life, and certainly a novel one from a photography perspective - I didn't have my camera with me!

Since my last post, the hockey season continued right through to the start of this month, where it culminated in the Play Off Finals weekend in Coventry.  The path to the Play Offs provided me with regular hockey shooting opportunities, which of course I siezed with both hands!

With the Play Off weekend looming large, Yol and myself were all set for a break from shooting the games - our colleague Lauren Freeman was scheduled to represent the Manchester Phoenix as photographer for the weekend.  But a couple of days before the weekend she got ill, and that left myself and Yol to fill the gap and shoot the Phoenix's games from a fairly unique position - the end of the team bench!

Phoenix were up against the Basingstoke Bison in the Semi Final match, and it was a game that went all the way to penalties before the Phoenix took the win!

The Final was between the Phoenix and the favourites, the Guildford Flames.  Again, Yol and myself found ourselves shooting from right in the firing line, or rather the gurning line!

The game was a belter, and the underdog Phoenix absolutely dominated!  The final buzzer went, and I found myself in the wonderful position of being able to go onto the ice, surrounded by celebrating players and in front of screaming fans, and shoot like crazy as the medals were handed out, the trophy lifted and the party started!

More photos from the celebrations can be seen here: Phoenix title celebrations!

Outside of the hockey, my shutterbuggery (still a word) has been indulged on a regular basis, including a trip back Jodrell Bank with Yol.  This time around, Yol was also shooting, getting some cracking shots of her own, and I was on hand to document not only the Bank but also Yol shooting away!

More photos from the visit can be seen here: Jodrell Bank visit




Tutbury Castle was also a venue that had a revisit from us, again shooting with our friends Glyn and Claire, but this time the event was a Medieval Fair.  We had the opportunity to brave the cold and shoot knights in armour, medieval dancing, and some seriously intense hand to hand combat...

A cracking day out, and hopefully some cracking photos from it!  More can be seen here: Tutbury Castle Medieval Fair

Last but certainly not least, I've also had a photo shoot with the very talented Jen Latham, where we tried out several themes including me taking a turn in front of the camera.  How that turned out, well I'll leave that to your imagination, but suffice to say that for one part of the shoot we took inspiration from Monty Python's Lumberjack Song for a costume for me...

Jen herself was, as always, cool as a cucumber in front of the camera, and the results were very pleasing!  Here's a sneak peek of the upcoming photo set!

Thanks for reading!

A busy day in Altrincham, a visit to the Dish, a trip to Bolton, and some monkeys!

It's been just over a fortnight since the last entry on here, but it's been a busy fortnight.  Or more to the point, one particularly busy day and a couple of outings with the camera since then!

Sunday June 10th was the busy day in question, with what turned into three separate photo ops to shoot.  First up was a return to familiar territory, the Altrincham Ice Dome, to shoot my recreational hockey team in action.  Having been off the ice for a few weeks, I wasn't selected to play in the game against the Altrincham Silverblades, and so I took the opportunity to get some photos of the Blackburn Buccaneers in action.

The game was a belter, a 2-9 win to the visiting Buccaneers, and from a photography point of view it was a great chance to not only keep my hand in with the hockey snapping but also a chance to get some action shots for the team.  But, since my style of shooting a hockey match is to capture what's happening away from the action just as much as on the puck, I naturally took the chance to get some 'experimental' shots under my belt as well!

For me, documenting a game is as much about the people involved as it is about the sport.  The people, the participants, the personalities, they add the extra dimension to sport, and documenting those people is something that in my opinion humanises the events, the matches, the games.  Sometimes those shots can be gotten during the play, but sometimes you have to get away from the playing area to get the shots that tell the story of the people:

The full set of photos can be seen here: Silverblades versus Buccaneers photo set.

The second photo op of the day was also hockey related, but this time it was the pro team in the frame.  Manchester Phoenix were hosting a player unveiling event at the Cresta Court hotel, which is happily just around the corner from the Altrincham rink.  The players being unveiled were Scott McKenzie and Jake Nurse, and my job was to get a few shots of the event. 

Sometimes, to get the shots you need, you have to just step up, ask, and take them.  That's my little tip for photographers covering events - don't be afraid to ask.  Before the event started, I followed the team owner Neil Morris and compere Pete Hagan down the corridor to the room that was being used as a staging area, and whilst there I had the chance to take a quick portrait of the two new players.  So I asked the players, and took the chance.  The shot was then used on the web article about their signing:

The event itself was well attended, but luckily I managed to squeeze into a seat right on the front row, directly in front of the main table.  This meant that I was able to document the proceedings from a good vantage point, and get shots of all of the main speakers at the event:

The photo set from the event can be seen on the official Phoenix Flickr page here: Phoenix, So Far event photo set,

Once the event was done and dusted, it was time to jump back into the car and head for home.  As I was pulling out of Altrincham, the sun was starting to set, so I decided to tap a new destination into the SatNav, and take a chance!

The chance to shoot Jodrell Bank's Lovell Telescope at sunset on a relatively clear night was one too good to pass up, and thanks to the passing points on the country lanes I was able to park up the car at several locations to get shots of the Dish from several angles as the sun slowly set.  A great opportunity, happily taken!

The full set of Jodrell sunset photos can be seen here: Jodrell Sunset photo set.

Last Thursday was the opening night of Bolton University's annual Degree Show, and one of the exhibitors at this year's Show is my former Phoenix photo buddy and good friend Lauren Freeman.  So Yol and I headed up the motorway to have a look at Lauren's work, and take in the show.  The photography exhibition is, on the whole, pretty good.  Lauren's work is naturally one of the high points!  Whilst there I took a couple of portraits of Lauren and her family in front of her work:

For anyone in the Bolton area, it's worth checking out the Photography exhibition, especially the bit with the hockey players in it!

Today was our work's annual Away Day, and like last year we went to Trentham Monkey Forest, giving me a chance to get the zoom lens out and document the locals!

Monkeys are such unpredictable photo subjects, but sometimes the results are so worth it!

The full set of photos from the visit can be seen here: Trentham Monkey Forest photo set

Thanks for reading!

A Trip to the Bank, Two Tatenhills and a Galione Visit

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned, it has been more than two weeks since my last blog entry....

A few weeks back I took a picture of the Jodrell Bank site at night, after a trip to Congleton, and I was very pleased with the resultant shot. Jodrell Bank has been on my list of places to visit for quite some time now, and frankly it's amazing that I've not been before since it's really not that far away! So on the Sunday before Valentine's Day, Yol and I got into the car and headed to Lower Withington in Cheshire, the site of Jodrell Bank. The weather forecast had said that it would be misty but that it would lift by noon. Apparently forecasters lie...

Let me say this about Jodrell Bank before I say anything else: if you've got even the faintest interest in astronomy, the place is an absolute must. I spent our time there looking in awe at everything, giddy like a child in a sweet shop! Educational, informative and extremely interesting, as well we fun and fascinating, we both hugely enjoyed it.



The 'main attraction' at Jodrell Bank is the Lovell Telescope, a 76 metre diameter dish array that probes the heavens. It's one of the most iconic man-made structures in the country, and even in the mist it's extremely photogenic!




We'd not been there long when a siren sounded, and the whole array began to rotate and realign. To see the dish move is an awe-inspiring experience, a feat of engineering that astounds to witness! As well as the Lovell, there are two buildings containing informational displays and features, as well as a lovely cafe and some scientific installations (check out the Whispering Dishes if you go!)





There's also an astronomy-themed garden area that will be coming into bloom in the next couple of months. All in all a cracking place to visit!



The full album of Jodrell Bank photos can be seen on Flickr here - Jodrell Bank set.

A couple of blog posts back, I wrote about a visit to Tatenhill Airfield with documentary-maker Vicki Smart. Since then we've been back for two more location recces, one last weekend and one this weekend. Last weekend was a little bit of a wash-out, in that it absolutely chucked it down as soon as we'd got there. Nobody was flying, the rain was beating against the windows of the cafe, but that didn't stop the crew from getting some materials in the can. Cameraman Danyl Rathband wrestled the camera into its raincover and shot some cutaways, with Vicki directing:





The rain-soaked visit can be seen on Flickr here - Tatenhill visit, 18-02-12

The second visit was, in terms of climate and shooting opportunity, a much more fruitful experience! This time, Vicki and I were accompanied by cameraman Alex Dean, and no sooner had we arrived on site than we were offered a chance to go up and get some aerial footage, courtesy of pilot Mike Tidmarsh. Mike, and fellow pilot Kevin Arblaster, also allowed us to film and shoot the pre-flight checks and inspections on N84VK, a four seater Piper PA-24-250 aircraft:





Before long it was time for take-off, with Mike as pilot, Alex filming from the front passenger seat, and me shooting stills from the back alongside Vicki:




The flight itself was short and very bumpy, the latter contributing to the former. Soon after take off, all three of us non-pilots were feeling pretty queasy, with Alex being the first to tap out and request that we land. Alex had been filming since before take-off, looking through the camera's eyepiece, and this can't have helped! Hopefully the footage will be good though! The view from up in the air was spectacular, the clearness of the day giving us a tremendous vantage point:




Before long we were back on the ground, and finding our feet again as we filmed and shot the post-flight checks:





The full set from the visit can be seen on Flickr here - Tatenhill visit 250212

At the Uni recently, I've been involved in teaching our Media Production students how to use a piece of kit called a Glidecam (very similar to Steadicam, which is a brand name). I'd posted some pics on Facebook from the teaching sessions, and was soon contacted by former student and current professional Steadicam operator Jon Galione. Jon and I go way back, we worked together on the Manchester Phoenix match night crew - Jon was one of the two original camera operators for the team, spending many hours perched up in a cherrypicker filming games at Deeside and Sheffield during the season that Phoenix played on the road! We've also worked together for Comtec as freelancers, taking a trip to work a conference at EuroDisney. Jon had some ideas on how to better operate the Glidecam using the camera that we were teaching it with, the Sony EX3, and he very graciously accepted our invitation to come in and take a look at it:




We were joined by fellow technical instructor Matt Lewis, and student Ciaron Craig, as Jon fine tuned our Glidecam and showed us all the most effective methods to get the best visual results from it.




Jon also posed for a spontaneous portrait before he left, indulging my passion for trying to capture the essence of people's characters. I think this shot sums up Jon quite well!:



The full set of shots from Jon's visit can be seen on Flickr here - Jon Galione visit.

Thanks for reading!