Shooting the Phoenix in the Face, and a Welcome over the Hills

The start of the hockey season is upon us once again, and this Sunday sees the Phoenix taking to home ice for the first time in 2012-2013.  A home match means a home match programme needs to be made, and accordingly I've been chatting with programme producer Richard Murray for a few weeks about getting some content for the first issue of the season.  Getting content is always tricky for the first game of any season, as there are no games from which to get action shots of the new players, so a little creativity is called for!   Having gotten in touch with the Phoenix office, I'd arranged to go and shoot the first training session of the new year, and hopefully get some exclusive content there.  Mission accomplished, and here's a sneak peek of one of the shots submitted for the programme:

The full album of shots will be published after the first home game!

Having all of the Phoenix players in one place at the same time is an opportunity not to be missed, when it comes to getting the pre-season headshots done as well.  Originally, Lauren and myself had planned to do the headshots at the Meet The Players event scheduled for Friday 7th September, an event that both of us would find difficult to get to.  So we decided to see if we could get them done after the training session on Wednesday, and a couple of quick calls to the office in advance meant that the shoot was on!

The Phoenix got off the ice after their training session at 10.45am, and Lauren and I were all set up and good to go.  Needless to say, the first player didn't wander our way until 11.15...

Shooting headshots is always a challenge.  It sounds easy enough:  set up lights, take photos of players in succession, pack up, go home.  The reality of it is that you have to adjust for the height of every player, shoot several photos of each one, and above all else do your best to make the player feel comfortable in front of the camera.  Posing for a corporate headshot is one of the least natural things you can do, and getting a natural looking shot is the ultimate aim, so even a half-decent photographer will try to make some smalltalk and set their subjects at ease.  Which is not as simple as it sounds when your import players don't speak much English.

However, after plenty of waiting, cajoling and adjusting, by 12:00 we'd got our set of headshots, and here's an example of how they turned out - this is the headshot for new signing Timo Kuuluvainen:

The full set of shots can be seen on the Phoenix roster page here: Manchester Phoenix Roster 2012-2013

Merely one day later, it was time to jump in the car and head over to Sheffield to shoot the Phoenix's visit to the Steeldogs for the first leg of the pre-season War Of The Roses tournament. 

As is etiquette for photographers from the visiting team, I'd sent an e-mail to the Steeldogs requesting permission to shoot the game.  I received a reply from Hilary Jones, one of the staffers at the Steeldogs, confirming that I could shoot, and also requesting that I provide the Steeldogs with some shots as they didn't have a photographer available for the game.  Naturally I agreed, and the arrangements were made.

The Steeldogs are arguably the Phoenix's biggest rivals, but it has to be said that the rivalry exists only on the ice.  The welcome that I received when I got to the rink was particularly refreshing, especially after a two-hour drive to get there.  Both Hilary and Steeldogs player coach Andre Payette were happy to assist in any way that I needed, and Andre offered to let me shoot from the Steeldogs bench if I couldn't get onto the Phoenix bench.  As it turned out, I was able to shoot from the Phoenix bench, but it was nice to know the offer was there - cheers Andre!

This was the first EPL game that I'd shot with my lovely new D90, and it was also the first game I'd shot from a position on the end of a team bench.  Luckily, I had a huge netminder-shaped bodyguard to shield me from the stray pucks, sticks and bodies that flew my way at various points from the evening.  Take a bow, Jorge El-Hage!

The game itself was a fiesty affair, despite it being a 'friendly' (I think there's no such thing as a friendly in hockey!)  Five minutes into the first period, our new enforcer Robert Schnabel went for it with Andre Payette, less than ten metres from where I was standing.

The Steeldogs went on to win the game 3-2, and take that lead into the second leg on Sunday.

As the game had faced off later than planned, and there was post-game stuff to attend to as well, I didn't get back home until half past eleven.  Which would have been ok, if I didn't have to get the shots edited!  The Steeldogs needed the Presentation photos doing (as agreed) and I'd also promised Richard Murray some more content for the Phoenix programme, which meant that I was up editing photos until one in the morning!  It's a good job that I don't need much beauty sleep! ;)

The full set of photos that I shot for the Phoenix can be seen here:  Sheffield Steeldogs v Manchester Phoenix 6th September 2012

The set of photos that I shot for the Steeldogs will be linked here when the album goes online!

Cheers all!