Shooting With An Occupied Mind, and Some Good News All Round!

This past Sunday saw the Bracknell Bees come to the Altrincham Ice Dome to play against our Manchester Phoenix, and as is now usual, I met up with fellow snapper Lauren Freeman to shoot the warm-up period before heading up to my seat to shoot the game itself. Where I shoot from depends entirely on whether my better half Yolanda is with me at the game or not - if she's there with me, I shoot from my seat, and if she's not with me then I shoot from on the stairs. There's pros and cons to both, but that's for another blog entry!

Whether Yolanda's there or not, I usually also bring to the game a couple of good friends of mine, Vicki and Helena. Helena is a wheelchair user and therefore both Vicki and Helena will station themselves behind the scoreboard end of the ice pad, giving Vicki (a fellow photographer) a lovely low angle to shoot from. So, this past Sunday, I'm up in my seat, Yolanda is sitting next to me (ready to jump out of the way should a fight on the ice kick off) and Vicki and Helena are in their usual spot.

Towards the end of the first period, I got a message from one of the stewards that I was needed at the scoreboard end. This sounded very ominous, so off I went.

Helena's condition means that every once in a while, her hip will dislocate of its own free will, and during the first period of the game, that's what had happened. She was in a great deal of pain, and needed attention. The Phoenix's medic, Dr Vickers, was on the scene as soon as the call went out, and Jason Moran (who sits near Helena) was quick to offer transportation to hospital. Helena needed to be moved in her wheelchair, and Jason's car was designed for that purpose. So off Helena went, along with Vicki. Yolanda and I were left with instructions to remain at the rink, and send score updates!

After the game Yolanda and I went up to the hospital to find Helena still awaiting treatment. In short, we were there until nearly half past midnight, but the good news is that Helena's hip is back in place and she will be with us next week for the visit of the Milton Keynes Lightning!

What it meant for me personally though, in terms of shooting the Phoenix, is that I spent the second and third periods in a kind of daze, unable to properly concentrate on shooting the game at all. It just passed by in a blur, Phoenix won six one and yet I barely remember anything that happened. Reviewing and processing the shots tonight, I've shot only about 400 images from the entire game - normally I'm well into the 800s! Here's a couple of shots that I got that I particularly liked, and I'm dedicating them to Helena's hip, and to the help that we had from all corners of the rink when one of our own found herself in need of assistance - thank you all, you know who you are!




Anyway, the link to my Flickr album of the game can be found here. Normal service will hopefully be resumed next week!

In other news, this week I'm pleased to be able to tease a couple of pieces of good news! My fellow snapper Lauren has a piece of her own news which I'm absolutely delighted about, it's her news to share so I won't blow it on here but suffice to say that I'm incredibly pleased for her and for what's about to happen with some of her photographic work. The other piece of good news that I can tease is that Richard Murray (the producer of the match night programme) has accepted my proposal for a feature which will appear in a forthcoming issue - watch this space!

Cheers all!

Rev