Lola has a knack of making me feel guilty. She can get this look on her face that makes me feel like the worst cat-owner in the world, and she does it with expert timing. As Yol and I were spending a few days back in the Homeland over Christmas, we'd got Lucy and Lola booked into a lovely cattery for the festive break. Getting them there is always fun, by which I mean it's a knock-down drag-out brawl to get them into their carry boxes before Lola chirrups her disapproval and Lucy does a protest piddle (if we're lucky that's all she does.) Once they're in their 'hotel', Lola will always fix me with that look. That withering look. The look that says "I know you're abandoning me and going off to have fun without me." Honestly, she can be one of the sulkiest creatures I've ever met. At least with Lucy you know she's upset with you because she's left you physical evidence of it.
But this time, Lola's plans to guilt-trip me came a little unstuck. The cats were being housed in the new block at the cattery, and the pens there are even more luxurious - they even had a little enclosed balcony! So, whilst Lola was sitting in there, trying her best to look as sad as she could at me, I decided to document 'the look'. But just before I took the picture, she spotted the free-range chickens, and that was it, her interest in guilt-tripping me vanished in an instant!:
As usual, I've been shooting away at the Phoenix again, doing my best to capture the spirit of the game. No two games are ever the same, but when it comes to photography, you're reliant on something extra special happening. When I started out with the Phoenix, I shot everything, and uploaded everything! This season, we're limited in our Flickr aalbums to a maximum of 12 shots, and they have to be a mixture of action shots and 'personality' shots, so I'm finding myself being more choosy as to which shots make it into the albums and which ones remain on the harddrive, ne'er to be seen!
Luckily, most of the games recently have given me the opportunity to shoot interesting occurrences, otherwise I'd be pushed to find twelve shots per game!
The Festive Season usually presents the photographer with several opportunities to indulge in some shutter-buggery with friends, and this year was no exception! First up was the Christmas Party for the Uni course that I do most of my teaching on, Media Production. The theme was nice and general, 'fancy dress', and with me being off the drink on that particular night, I'd decided to serve as photographer:
I'm not a fan of using flash when it comes to spontaneous portraits, so the Christmas bash being in a nightspot gave me a chance to experiment with shooting in existing low-light. It's not as easy as it looks, especially when you have to shoot at an ISO of around 3200 and get your subjects to stay still! The above shots were done with a Nikon D90 borrowed from the Uni, so that I could utilise the low ISO. But sometimes, you just have to resort to using the flash, and swallow the pride!
Back at the Phoenix, and the post-Christmas game gave me a chance to get a big hug from my Shutter Buddy Lauren Freeman, as her team the Sheffield Steeldogs were the opposition. Getting a hug from Lauren is always something to look forward to with Steeldogs games, even more so than the potential for bone-crushing hits and explosive violence!
The game itself didn't disappoint (even though nobody left in an ambulance) as it was a real end-to-end physical battle, and with my lovely assistant Yol sidelined with flu, I was shooting from the stairs rather than from my seat for this game:
Shooting from the stairs has its advantages, the main one being an unobstructed view of most of the ice. The only real downside is that when the action is literally right in front of you, if you're using a zoom lens you can't always zoom out enough to get the shot! That and the increased risk of being beaned in the head by a puck or a stick...
Cheers all, and Happy New Year to you!
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