Let the camera do the work

Last Saturday saw another rain related postponement for Prescot Cables, with our chairman reporting the surface water was the worst in 15 years with other games having similar problems. By lunchtime the choice was down to football at Burscough or rugby union at Waterloo. I chose the rugby, as it was easier to get to, the game was less likely to be abandoned, and Birkenhead Park, who have used my pictures, were the visitors. There had been no games for a couple of weeks, so the grass looked rested.

I have posted before about saving files in jpeg and raw. The difference is camera dependent, particularly in the internal processing to create a jpeg. Despite having new kit, I will not revisit the question for non sports photography, the advantages of raw outweigh the disadvantages. However for sports work, it is more finely balanced. The extra processing for raw files on the computer takes time - about 45 seconds per photo, an hour and a half for 120. The D5300 introduces a new issue: even with a high speed SDHC card (80MB/s), the size of the file, about 25MB, is enough to cause an issue with buffering with exposures in quick succession, enough to get a run, but not the goal at the end of it.

"Test the application" is a watchword of these pages, so I decided to shoot entirely in jpeg, to compare results from previous games. I started with the sports mode, on the auto ISO setting. The colours lacked saturation, which had as much to do with the teams' colours as anything else, and was easily sorted with a tweak in Photoshop.

The home side made a strong start.

The auto ISO setting, with its maximum of 3200 lasted me for most of the first half, after which I worked up the scale, to 6400...

... to 12800.

Noise levels were better than the equivalent on the D5000 (where such existed), on a par with what I could obtain on the computer. For the last few minutes, as floodlights were unavailable, I went to 25600, where the full range of noise reduction is not available. There was a lot of grain, which I would have been able to reduce on a raw image.

Switching sports has moments when you forget what is going on - at one point I was thinking, "He's just run the full width of the pitch to join in that pushing and shoving", before remembering it was a maul, and joining it was the idea.

The visitors played more strongly in the second half, clawing back some points, but not enough to prevent a home win.

The game finished just before the next wave of rain arrived, an advantage on this occasion of the kick off time: Paul from our Train Crew went to Burscough and reported a good game in atrocious conditions.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Firwood Waterloo 36 Birkenhead Park 21.

Nice cigar, but no try

Prescot Cables planned to make a special occasion of the game at home to Warrington Town, with local Mayors and the Member of Parliament being invited. Unfortunately, whilst the week had been reasonably dry, it rained overnight on Friday, and by Saturday morning the pitch was no longer playable. With most football in Liverpool being postponed, I decided to head for Birkenhead Park. The opposition of the day was Wirral RUFC, from a couple of miles down the road, so they could take a late decision on whether to play. A slippery pitch in football can lead to broken ankles, whereas rugby players are likely to end up flat on their faces in the mud, which is in many ways the idea. Standing water is, however, a problem for everyone.

At the time I needed to leave home, the game was still on, so I bought a ticket. Some refer to Merseytravel's Walrus card as "Oyster style", presumably meaning it is small and plastic. The essential component of Oyster is pay-as-you-go, whereas Walrus is pay-before-you-go, so you need the day planned before you first use public transport, and changes are either wasteful or expensive.

No sooner had I got on the bus, I found the game was postponed. However, Waterloo (one less zone on the Walrus) were still playing. This was against Sheffield, so if there was an announcement, it would have been made by then, although it was still raining heavily. I presented £10 at the turnstiles, and was pleasantly surprised to receive a programme and £7 in return.

I took a position on the terrace side, where there were pools of water: the pitch looked soft but playable. Waterloo were playing into a stiff breeze, with low cloud, and, with the floodlights being under repair, it was fortunate both sides' kit included some white

That did not last long, particularly for the forwards. although some of the backs tend to stay standing for longer.

Soon, mud was starting to merge with facial furniture.

For the second half, the hosts took advantage of being at home, and changed into dry kit, of a colour to do no favours to my exposures.

The referee also changed into something drier, although he was more visible.

This was a low scoring game, more rare in rugby of either code than a few years ago. Better pitches and rule changes have reduced the incidence of matches with pushing and shoving in the mud for 80 minutes finishing 3-0. This was not quite such a game, but the scores came from a penalty apiece in each half. I only attend three or four games a season, but I think this is the  first I have been to where both sides stayed in single figures, and the first where neither side scored a try.

As for the cigar, I was not actually going to attempt to smoke one (the last time I did was when you could do so indoors), it was far to wet for one to stay alight.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Firwood Waterloo 6 Sheffield 6

Padding the timetable

One hazards of travelling by train to fixtures you may attend often enough to remember the time of the train, but not often enough to keep fully on top of small changes, is finding that the timetable has undergone a bit of padding. Last week was the first time I had been to watch Firwood Waterloo for a couple of seasons, last season had too many weekends with no sport at all. So, the 15 minute journey that, with a seven minute walk from the station, meant the right train could get me there as the game kicked off, had now changed to 20 minutes, so at kick off time I was trailing along the road in the wake of a sprightly elderly gent, with the unmistakable sound of a game coming from the ground.

I arrived to find the game against Sale FC in full progress in bright coastal sunshine.

When I was at school, there was a chap a couple of years above me, known to all as Wilf, who had an optical prescription heading into double figures, and whose talents were most definitely in the academic direction. A mutual friend told me of a PE lesson where he received the ball, sprinted for the line, deposited it in the appropriate manner, wondering why he had encountered no opposition, only to find he had placed the ball over the touch line. I am sure Waterloo's Freeman Payne was unlikely to do the same, but the coach seemed keen to make sure.

It had the desired effect, resulting in a superb individual try.

The scrum is something of a mixed blessing for the photographer - players are in one place and not moving too quickly, but there is a limit to how many scrum photos you want from one game. The sequence of engagement has been revised - the "crouch, pause, touch, engage" sequence, where, if the referee was a bit slow, the last step could be a statement of fact rather than an instruction, has been replaced by "crouch, bind, set".

This is to ensure the packs are in contact before they start pushing, with the aim of reducing the risk of neck injury. Referees are instructed to ensure the law that the ball is to be put in straight is strictly enforced.

This has the result that the opposing hookers compete in hooking for the ball with their feet. When the changes were introduced, there were complaints from Premiership coaches that their hookers had long since lost the skill of hooking, which was met with a typically forthright observation from Daily Telegraph correspondent and former England hooker Brian Moore that the clue to the function of the position was in the name, and that they should find it again. From my somewhat inexpert observations, this seems to have made the scrum a more genuine contest, albeit with a strong advantage to the side putting in. In this game I noticed the ball being won by the side not putting in twice in as many minutes (once for each side), which I would not have expected in the past

One aspect that leaves me confused is what a player who has been tackled is allowed to do with the ball on the ground. I thought the player simply had to release it, but these days you seem to be allowed to hold it in a convenient position for your team mates.

I wondered whether this was just my memory, but I was not alone: I was standing in front of a group of former players who looked to be in their forties, as I am, and they were reminiscing about how it was better in the days when you just let go of the ball.

The game was a bit one sided in places, as you might expect with Sale chasing the title and Waterloo competing to avoid relegation, although Waterloo still managed a couple of good tries.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Firwood Waterloo 13 Sale 45

Emerging from hibernation

Many people advocate a winter break for football and other outdoor sports. The question is of course when it would be. A cold snap in February has wiped out a couple of weeks' football fixtures; last season December was frozen off; the year before the cold snap was in January; and before that, November was washed out. The danger of a scheduled break is that playable pitches will be idle, with fixtures still postponed at other times. So, there is nothing for it, but to find a nice pile of leaves, and retreat under it for a couple of weeks when the bad weather comes.

It could be worse - in Helsinki last week they were talking of ice hockey possibly being frozen off. This was the second year of the "Winter Classic" match, in the Olympic Stadium, between the venerable HIFK, who play at the Ice Hall, a short walk from the stadium, and Jokerit, their Johnny-come-lately rivals from the railway sidings of Pasila. The SM-Liiga has a minimum temperature for games of -20ºC: any colder raises concerns about the welfare of the players and spectators, and it is difficult to prevent dangerous cracks forming on the surface of the ice. In the event, the temperature stayed just above the required level, and I am reliably informed a large crowd was mad enough to sit outside and see HIFK win 3-2.

This weekend saw another round of postponements, including Prescot Cables' fixture at Ossett Albion. Rugby union came to the rescue, with Bradford & Bingley visiting the ice free Sefton coast to play Waterloo.

Much of the art of creating a good sports photo is in cropping. In rugby union, there is often a lot going on, players moving in to form a ruck or maul, or taking up position for when the ball emerges from the breakdown, so the image looks cluttered without a point to draw the eye.

However, when we crop closely around the player with the ball, we get a much clearer image.

In a ball game, I usually regard the ball as an essential component of a picture, unless it is a portrait. I am not sure whether I need to apply this as strictly in rugby union, a lot of action takes place in a ruck (with the ball on the ground) or a maul (with the ball being handled standing). Not having played, I am not sure what is going on in there, but a former player can probably deduce something. The most photogenic moment remains when the ball is about to emerge.

I also caught a picture that can only come from rugby, where the player is holding the ball. I had not noticed how much the light had dropped, and the automatic settings gave a shutter speed of 1/160s, making the ball appear in the image as perfectly still, with movement occurring all around it (the effect is clearer if you click on the picture to see a larger image).

The rest of the weekend was a busy sporting one, although not for photography. My friend Roger was staying with me, so it was ice hockey at Manchester Phoenix (fortunately indoors), and rugby league at Warrington Wolves. Both these outfits can afford professional photographers, so I could watch without the need to think about pictures. There is a snag, particularly at the rugby league - I am not at all used to seeing the action at the other end of the pitch without the assistance of a 300mm lens.

The rest of the pictures from the game at Waterloo can be seen here.

Picking up the ball and running with it

Prescot Cables' game at home to Mossley at the weekend was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, caused by torrential rain falling on already wet ground. So, it was time to find a sport with a relaxed attitude to mud (or where a safe and meaningful game can be played in wetter conditions than football).

I therefore made my first trip for some time to Waterloo FC, who were playing Sandal. I have been an occasional visitor to Blundellsands if Prescot Cables have not been playing or I have not wanted to go to an away game. Since I have been taking pictures for Prescot, I have been more inclined to travel away, so my visits to Waterloo have been even less frequent.

P.G.Wodehouse had Bertie Wooster describe rugby (union) thus, "Rugby football is a game I can't claim absolutely to understand in all its niceties, if you know what I mean. I can follow the broad, general principles, of course. I mean to say, the main scheme is to work the ball down the field somehow and deposit it over the line at the other end. In order to squelch this programme, each side is allowed to put in a certain amount of assault and battery and do things to its fellow man which, if done elsewhere, would result in 14 days without the option, coupled with some strong remarks from the Bench." Fortunately, we will be staying on the sidelines with a camera.

Both codes of rugby present a different photographic challenge to football: players are usually holding the ball when running with it, passing is by hand, and offside is simply being in front of the ball, which makes for a more structured flow of action. I usually watch from the side of the pitch rather than my normal football location behind the goal. I have never tried watching rugby union from the end of the pitch - I have with league, and got some good pictures of players running, but missed out on a lot of tackles.

Running and tackling are of course common to both union and league. Union, however, has its own photo opportunities: contested scrums (observe the nice straight feed in the example below),

and line outs, which seem to take a bit of time to organise, but are worth it from the photographer's point of view.

Another photogenic part of both codes of rugby is passing the ball - in union the best shots often come after the ball emerges from a scrum, ruck or maul.

For once at this time of year, I have not been talking about floodlights, as, in common with many rugby clubs, Waterloo kick off at 2.15 in the winter, allowing the game to be completed without adding to the electricity bill.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.