Shooting Through Nets, and Filling The Page

This past Sunday the Phoenix had no home game, but instead were on the road against the Sheffield Steeldogs at Ice Sheffield. For those who have never been, Ice Sheffield is a dual-pad ice rink especially designed to cater for hockey at all levels. As facilities go, it's a cracker. So Yolanda, Vicki, Helena and myself jumped into the car and off we went!

There is, however, one big drawback to photographing hockey there. The lighting isn't as bright as at the Altrincham rink, but that's not the main issue for a budding lensman (or lenswoman!) The main issue is the mesh netting that surrounds the ice pad. Now, it's not uncommon to have safety nets in place at a rink, our own Ice Dome has nets up at both ends to stop stray shots from injuring spectators, but the hockey pad at Ice Sheffield has netting along both sides. I appreciate that pucks can do serious damage to the unwary spectator, and nobody in their right mind wants to see a fan hurt, but the inclusion of netting along the full sides is overkill in my opinion, especially as it means shooting through a mesh screen.

So, as a result of this netting, all of my shots from the game have a mesh pattern on them. In some shots it's more noticeable than others, and in some less, but it's there in all of them.

Anyway, the game itself was an absolute belter. Andre Payette of the Steeldogs had been stirring the hype machine in the run-up to the game, hinting at 'settling a score' against his old club which many people interpreted as him wanting to take on our own enforcer Andrew Sharp. In the warm-up, Andre and Andrew had words, and both then went to talk to Tony Hand (Phoenix's player-coach) who appeared to be giving his blessing. It looked like it was on.

At the end of the warm-up I took the chance to pop up to the Phoenix TV crew on the balcony above me, to give them a heads up about the possibility of a fight at the first face off. Whilst up there I bumped into Neil Morris (Phoenix team owner) and mentioned what I'd seen. Flash forward to just before the players come out, and my phone starts ringing - it's Neil, he's in the players tunnel and he's just confirmed with Andrew that the fight is on. So I'm straight on the phone to get a message to my 'Phoenix Photo Buddy' Lauren Freeman, who's shooting from down by the plexiglass. So, when the puck dropped, we were ready:



The game then started 'properly' and we had some real end to end hockey, with the Steeldogs taking a lead into the second period and then extending that lead to 2-0.

The Phoenix got off the mark less than a minute later, and then sure enough, it was time for Round Two. I'd spotted Andre and Andrew lining up next to each other again at the face off, both talking, and then as soon as the puck dropped we watched as Andrew waited to get the nod from Tony Hand on the bench before dropping the gloves and going with Andre again. Naturally, I was clicking away like a man possessed!:



Shooting fights is arguably the hardest kind of shot to get, save for the puck hitting the twine. The fight is breaking out, you can't anticipate what's going to happen, the fists are flying unpredictably and you snap away over and over again, in the hope of getting a shot of a punch landing or a facial expression that tells the whole story. So after the second fight, I'd had more experience of shooting fights in one night than I'd had for the rest of the season! Imagine our collective surprise when after the Phoenix tied the game at two apiece, the gloves went flying for the third time:



In previous blog entries I've mentioned the notion that sometimes the chance for a shot will present itself so long as you don't mind going looking for it, and the third fight gave me a chance to go look for a shot that I wouldn't normally get. Our seats were up behind the penalty boxes, so whilst the referee was sorting out the calls, I popped down the stairs and got this shot:

That particular shot made it into this week's Phoenix news letter, which was a pleasant surprise! Something that was less of a surprise but made me smile nontheless was this week's match report. After each game I spend a chunk of time getting the photos prepped and mailed in for use in the match report, and Sunday night was no exception. By Tuesday morning, nothing had appeared on the Phoenix website, so I checked with Mags and Neil, and as it turns out the Phoenix didn't have a reporter at the game. The net result is that I ended up putting together a match report, and this afternoon it was uploaded onto the Phoenix site along with some of my photos! The article can be read here.

All in all, shooting the game in Sheffield was a great experience for someone looking to get some fight shots, and I'd like to personally thank Andrew Sharp and Andre Payette for belting the living daylights out of each other three times! Cheers, gentlemen!

The full set of game photos can be seen on Flickr: Sheffield Steeldogs v Manchester Phoenix