No cameras or lenses

Very quiet week - after Monday took the cameras and lenses to be cleaned and checked up. Not wanting to leave smears or other stuff to the sensors, and I wouldn't even know where to start with cleaning the lenses..

Took them in on Tuesday, not trusting the Royal Mail took the train to Stoke-On-Trent about 40 minutes away from home and delivered them to the shop myself.

For the first time having some advantage of the CPS membership, as that provides a quicker turn-around time for the gear to be returned to me. Their aim is to do it three days, although today being Friday and not hearing anything from them yet - and them being closed over the weekend, can't see myself getting them before Monday/Tuesday next week.

Has felt very strange not to have the gear ready to 'go' in the back - so used to the bag being ready and full of camera gear.

This has been the first time in about two years when I am totally without a camera - and it has been refreshing.

Now that the weekend is getting closer - would be nice to have them 'just incase' something would turn-up. Luckily the teams I mostly photograph are playing away this week so I am not missing them.

Few things next week - so hope that there is nothing major wrong with the gear, otherwise I might without it for quite some time to come (not to even mention the cost of things.. :-( )

Birmingham City start the new season with a win!

PHEW !!

What a weekend, it's been non-stop since Friday morning.

Here's a little re-cap of the weekend.

Friday :

Wake-up : 7am

Edit photos : 7.30 - 12.00

Train to London

Check-In at the hotel : 2.45pm

Catch the tube (Euston - North Greenwich) : 3pm

Arrive at O2 : 4.30pm

First game : 6pm

Break between games : 40 mins (editing time)

Second game : 8.30pm

Finishes : 10.30pm

Edit few photos and send them off

Catch the tube : (North Greenwich - Euston) : 11.00pm

Arrive at Euston : 11.45pm

Shower - Editing until :1am

Saturday :

Wake-up : 8am

Edit photos until : 9.30am

Breakfast

Catch train (no tube to O2) : 11am

Arrive at O2 (after 2mile walk from train) : 12.30

First game : 3pm

Break between games : 40 mins

Second game : 5.30pm

Game finishes : 7.45pm

Quick edit

Catch a taxi to Euston (50mins!!!)

Arrive at Euston : 9.05pm

Train to Birmingham (last of the evening) : 9.24pm

Arrive home : 11.45pm

Sleep : 12.20am

Sunday:

Wake-Up : 8.15am

Photo editing until 10.30

Catch a train to Stratford-Upon-Avon : 11.18

Walk 2.5miles to football ground

Game at : 2pm

Leave game two minutes before final whistle

'Run' 2.5miles to train

Train back : 4.28pm

Home : 5.40pm

Cook dinner ( First time I have eaten since Thursday evening!! - proper food)

Edit more photos until : 9pm

Watch crappy TV for an hour..

Write Blog :-)

Now - what did I achieve with all that rushing around :

Please, do make it worth my while and have a look at the photos (and leave a comment while you do).

Links to Game on at O2 : http://googabuphotos.zenfolio.com/f80633119

Links to Birmingham City vs Watford : http://googabuphotos.zenfolio.com/birminghamwatford

So, that is what my weekend was like.. hectic and not much food (lots of Krispy Cream donuts and Lucozade - that's what the press was munching at the O2).

Few thousand photos edited, one very bad migrane.

The glorious life of a Sports Photographer - but as with all the jobs, you only do it if it is something you enjoy! And I would not have changed a single thing from last weekend (maybe the migrane I could have done without).

Now - if you excuse me, I think I might have deserved an hour or two of sleep.

Tomorrow it is still more editing images - and another football match to attend in the evening!

Day 1 - Game On at O2

So - first evening is behind me at the O2 event.

First of all, my little complaint about the lack of desks. There actually are plenty of them, and they are all court-side so photographers don't need to run back and forth - nice -

Lights at the O2 aren't the best I have seen, there is a lot of dark seats and curtains hanging around the Arena. So light gets sucked to them.

Honestly speaking there is more light in some Finnish school auditoriums...

The lights on the ceiling are also not perfectly positioned for basketball court - with the other end suffering from lights right above the rim. And also, not all the available lights were used on Friday's game.

Attendance (both press and spectators) was less than expected by myself. Only about seven photographers turned up for Friday - possibly more coming for today.

Spectators would've fitted into an arena 1/10th the size of O2 - but, with the Olympics coming here in three years it is good for Team GB to get used to the Arena.

Although yesterday evenings game Team GB - Poland felt more like it was being played in Poland. WIth the Poles turning out in force to support their team.

Uploaded photos to the Zenfolio galleries for everybody to see - also, few images on display in various foreign web-sites.

Game on at the O2 - photos/stories

LONDON - O2 Arena

Return to the O2 arena after couple of years - last time here being the opening show of Bon Jovi's Lost Highway one night stand.

This time - Game on at the O2, a four team basketball tournament in preparation for Team GB's travel to EURObasket 2009.

Few initial observations to begin with, London's tube has decided that it would be nice to have engineering work on the 15th and 16th of August - the two weekend dates of the tournament. Which makes is rather difficult to travel to and from the games, but as always in Britain if it is not football - who cares ;-)

Media reception was very swift and easy process - but then again I have photographed Team GB before - and am one of the few who also covers the women's games.

Media room for photographers - even if I arrived about two hours before the first game (which does not even feature Team GB) the SIX tables were already occupied by media. There is room for a total of 10 people at the media room to work on tables. Not really enough considering the venue and amount of media attending.

Other than that - all well so far, and looking forward to two exciting days of photography at the O2. And if this Arena in England does not have enough light... I dread to think what it will be like at the BBL and EBL during the domestic season. But.. lets not speak too soon.

Photos of the Game on at the O2 will be posted here in the Blog as well as in the galleries at X-it Images and Zenfolio.

Hope you'll enjoy them!

Jussi Jaaskelainen testimonial - Bolton

My first chance to do photography at a Premier League ground - as I photographer the Jussi Jaaskelainen Testimonial for Finnish press. Afternoon game, so didn't get to appreciate the numerous floodlights but very nice stadium and enjoyed a good afternoon.

Photographers press-room wasn't much to write home about, it had the space to work (could've done with chairs though...). No WI-FI access either, which meant editing photos at the press-room and off to McDonald's to send them onwards.

As a Finn it was great to see a Finnish player getting a testimonial in the Premier league - something that I personally doubt that will happen in a long time (if ever again). The fans really did seem to like Jaaskelainen, and I am sure the fact that he has stayed with Bolton - despite rumors linking him to bigger clubs - has something to do with it.
Photography wise it was more chasing images of Jaaskelainen - and less about getting good action images. The best ones (IMHO) were as he entered from the tunnel with his kids - got the full stands nicely framing Jussi in some of them (not displayed here).

The game being still pre-season, it never raised to the level I was expecting it to do. And to be honest, I probably took less images than in a conference game... which tells of the lack of action in the game.

Getting to/from the stadium by public transport was a slight hassle - no extra carriages in the trains from Bolton, so even the train three hours prior to the game was jam-packed with people. Coming back was easier, as it took time to edit some photos and eat a McD's - so most people had already disappeared by then.

Little argy-bargy with the Wanderers and Hibs fans at the game - by the end of it it was more of shouting match between the fans, than watching what was happening on the pitch. Hibs fans acknowledged Jaaskelainen well as he walked to the goal at their end - big plus for them for that!

Not sure what sort of planning it is to put the two opposing sets of fans right next to each other... but it did give something to photograph, so I should be thankful ;-)

Bit of Conference Football, International Basketball and Women's Premier League next week in the calendar..

Night view of Birmingham

With the quiet week - this was something that I captured few nights ago.

After spending some time in the late evening watching boring TV - I was ready to head off to bed around 1am in the morning. As I went to the kitchen to have a last drink before going to sleep, and looked out of the window I thought to myself that the view in front of me just might be worth taking a photo or two of.

So, off to the office and get the camera and lens ready - prop the tri-pod to the window and experiment with the exposures.

Considering that the image was taken through the window - I was quite happy with the image. One of the biggest 'faults' is the double moon - but other than that the image is almost like it was taken without the glass in the way.

I also experimented with some zooming-images, which came out OK - but as it was the first time I experimented with zooming while taking the image. I do know that there is a lot to learn with the technique.

After taking the image above - the moon quickly moved higher and was soon out of the ideal range composition-wise.

Just shows that sometimes it is worth staying up late and you might get something special.

Worcester City - New Kit launch 2009-10

Went to Worcester yesterday evening for the launch of Worcester City's new kit for the 2009-10 Blue Square Conference South season.

A typical rainy British 'summer' evening for the launch - so we photographers went to the stands (to keep our kit dry) to photograph the portraits/face-shots, before heading down to the pitch to snap the team photos.

Female beauty at the launch was represented by Miss Worcester - as is appropriate for a football team's new kit launch event.

Here is a link to the Worcester City Gallery - from where you will find the images of each of Worcester City's players in the new home kit for the 2009-10 Conference South season.

http://googabuphotos.zenfolio.com/f50496839

The season kicks-off on Saturday the 8th of August - and I will be at St George's Lane to photograph the opening match of the new season

During the season - do feel free to visit the Blog or the Photo-Gallery for the (hopefully) most comprehensive photo-coverage of Worcester City's season.

Another weekend of sports

So - another weekend gone-by and more sports photographed.

On a Friday it was the second of the England - India field hockey test series at Birmingham University. At the end of a mainly sunny day - the rains once again seemed to find their way to University by the starting time of 6.30pm.

This gave me no chance to experience this sport at the 'ideal' photographic conditions, luckily though the rain was nowhere as hard as it was two days earlier and the focusing was slightly easier.

Seeing how the winter is shaping up - I do hope that I can plenty of chances to photograph the University's women's team during the 2009-10 season..

There is around 60 images in the www.xit-images.com gallery, as well as at the more popular http://googabuphotos.zenfolio.com/p14140766 gallery. I hope you'll enjoy some of the images over at the Galleries.

Funnily enough I did receive positive comments for my field hockey images while photographing on Sunday.

Sunday - which was the second pre-season match for the Birmingham City Ladies - and another convincing victory for the Blues. The contest was not as physical as the previous game against West Ham United. But there was still plenty of entertainment for the crowd to see.

Photos from the Sunday's football match can be once again viewed at the www.xit-images.com and http://googabuphotos.zenfolio.com/p256834872

Only 50 images from that game posted to the galleries - due to quite a few similar looking images. And for press' sake I always keep few of the 'better' images in private - incase someone wants to come and buy 'exclusive' images in the future.

Next week will be slightly more quiet for me - with only Tuesday's kit-launch of Worcester City and the Conference season opener on Saturday in the calendar (for now). But - will keep eyes open for any other possibilities of photography during the week. Then again - no sports photography will mean that I might get more time to do some other type of photography instead.