You know how you have ideas for shoots floating around in your head, but you never quite get around to them? On a rare sunny Saturday in Stoke a couple of weeks ago, I found myself with a spare hour, so I decided to go and shoot a location that I'd been wanting to shoot for a long time, but never got around to. The idea was to shoot something that you wouldn't normally consider to be a photogenic location, something that some people may even consider to be a bit of an eyesore, but something that I feel has a strange kind of beauty to it. The location itself is less than a mile from my house; the Fenton Transmitter.
The Fenton Transmitter is the local signal relay station for television and radio, and in recent years the two masts that stand out on the landscape have been joined by various communication dish arrays. The compound itself is secured, but there's access to the outside of the compound, and a tallish photographer like myself can peek over the perimeter fence!
For me, the shoot is about seeing the beauty in what we see every day, something functional that has an unconventional beauty to it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes!
The set of photos from the Fenton Transmitter can be seen on Flick here: Fenton Transmitter photo set.
The day after shooting the Fenton Transmitter, I took the opportunity to do another shoot that I'd been thinking about for some time but never got around to doing: covering a speedway event. I travelled along to Loomer Road to photograph the race meet between Stoke Potters and Scunthorpe Saints, and with the 'relaxed' approach to photography at Loomer Road I pretty much had the run of the place when it came to choosing shooting positions. The only place I didn't venture into was the pit area, which was out of bounds to everyone except the racers and their crews.
For a first attempt at shooting a motorsport, I was fairly happy with how the shots turned out. Shooting at a higher ISO meant that I was able to use a faster shutter speed but this did give me a noise issue (especially with the laptop being away for repair!) However, for some races we were graced by the presence of the sun, so a lower ISO was possible for some shots.
Shooting a sporting event is always a challenge, especially when you try to get the extra elements which make the shoot more 'human' - shots of the characters and people that take part in the event. When your subjects are all wearing crash helmets it can be hard to get shots which have that little bit of personality in them, so sometimes you have to look away from the action to get the shots that you want:
The full set of shots from the race can be seen on Flickr here: Stoke Potters v Scunthorpe Saints Speedway photo set
This past Sunday saw the Great Manchester Run and the Great City Games both taking place in the heart of Manchester. I was taking part in the Run, but as my group wasn't scheduled to go until lunchtime I was able to get out on the streets and get some photos of the earlier athletes getting ready to run.
The atmosphere of the Run was excellent, and for my own part, I finished the 10k course in 57 minutes and 16 seconds! Yol took this shot back at the hotel afterwards:
The full set from the Great Manchester Run can be seen on Flickr here: Great Manchester Run 2012
After the Run, I went back out onto the streets to photograph the Great Manchester Games, an international athletics event that takes part on Deansgate and in Albert Square. Deansgate was the staging point for the race events, with a custom built four lane running track set up for the day:
The crowds were pretty full, so finding a vantage point to shoot from was very tricky. Shooting over people's heads is always risky, as people tend to move! But I was still able to get a few shots from the earlier and later events:
In between the earlier and later events, I'd decided that I'd try my luck round in Albert Square for the pole vault competition, and found myself definitely in luck with a great vantage point! I was able to get myself onto the end of a bench, a mere few metres away from the landing mat, and was able to shoot the action from fairly close up. Some of the best shots came from the vault-off between Great Britain's Holly Bleasdale and Germany's Lisa Ryzih, with Ryzih claiming the gold.
The full set from the Great City Games can be seen on Flickr here: Great City Games 2012 photo set
At the moment I'm working on three photo shoot ideas that are being devised and developed, and I'm very excited at the prospect of working with one of my favourite photo buddies, Lauren Freeman. Watch this space!
Cheers all!
Great photos as always : )
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