Gentlemen of the Press

Last Tuesday saw Prescot Cables entertain Woodley Sports, leaving their pristine polyester to play on our rather more weather affected surface. They were playing in red, which I suspect takes about half an increment off the best aperture for the desired shutter speed compared to having one team playing in white.

James Thomas returns to Prescot

Tuesday is also the publication day for the Merseymart, of which more in a moment.

Last time I was in London, I was talking to my friend John from the Southwark News. As I mentioned at the time, most local papers, even those owned by the larger groups, only have one or two staff photographers, and will use those mainly for news and events, with sport taking a back seat. So, the amateur photographer can help the club, although some requirements for print are a bit more exacting than for the web, particularly in terms of pixels, of which more in a future post.

Just before the Durham game, I had a call from the sports desk at the Liverpool Echo. They have relaunched the Merseymart supplement, covering south and east Liverpool, Huyton and Prescot. As Cables are the highest placed football club in the area, we get a fair chunk of the back page, and our Chairman, Tony Zeverona, put the Echo in touch with me to see if I could supply some photos. Before anyone sees crisp currency, if local papers could afford to pay for photos, they would employ someone to take them, so the main glory is your name in the paper. I even buy my own paper!

When I have supplied photos before, it has been a one off for the Southwark News, or the opposition's local paper, so I sent a link to my online collection, and let the paper's sports writer choose the images. However, the Merseymart deadline is on Monday, so to speed things up, I pick the photos.

I mentioned in the last post the pictures I sent after the game against Bamber Bridge. They chose the picture I was expecting, of Ashley Ruane shooting for his second goal. Generally, they will not be looking for the best standalone picture, but the one that best illustrates the match report. Where a player has scored two goals, he is likely to be in the picture, preferably scoring.

Here is the picture as it came off the camera.

For the web collection, I cropped it like this.

If it had not been a goal, it would probably not have made the collection - at full screen size, we can see that Michael Grogan in the background is in slightly better focus than Ashley Ruane. When I submitted it to the paper, I cropped it slightly differently to draw attention away from this.

This was a bit wider than the space the paper wanted to use, so they cropped it more tightly - I try to avoid cropping through players, but this can be done whilst still showing that the shot was taken under pressure from the opposition.

That is is not exactly as the image appeared in the paper, it is my crop to show the effect - the original and any variations I make of it belong to me. By sending the photo to the paper, I allow them to use the image, and any variations to cropping and lighting they make belong to them.

We also had a good match report. The club recently appointed a new Press Officer, after some time without anyone filling this role. This has really improved the coverage, as he has a knack of writing match reports that can be used by the press with minimal editing, which makes the reporter's job easier. With a print deadline approaching, a match report or press release that can form the bulk of a story, accompanied by a picture, can really increase the chance of getting coverage.

The pictures from the game against Woodley can be seen here.

Natural Light Day

Around this time, there occurs an event which always brings a sense of cheer - the first football game of the year (3pm kick off) to be completed without the floodlights. We can call it Natural Light Day. Never mind there will probably be a couple more dark afternoons, and evening games to come, proof is here that the days are getting longer. It is good for the club too, they do not need to add a couple of hundred pounds to the electricity bill.

Natural Light Day this year saw Prescot Cables' first game for four weeks, hosting Bamber Bridge, who have also switched to amateur status. Shortly after the last game at Durham City, Cables' new manager Shaun Reid took up his duties, so this was his first opportunity to see his new team in a competitive game.

The Management - Lee Smith, Shaun Reid and Tony Carroll

Lee Smith has been appointed as Assistant Manager, matching Shaun's UEFA A licence with Lee's experience of the local game as a player, including 181 appearances for Prescot. I think Dave Ridler's coaching was an attraction for players, and helped the club retain players through the switch to amateur status, so I hope similar professional level coaching will be an attractive option for good local players.

In a game in bright winter light, Prescot went ahead early in the first half with a goal from Ashley Ruane, who has been looking promising for some time, but just missing the net. So the score looked like staying, until the last 10 minutes struck again (our league position would be better if games were played over 80 minutes), with Bamber Bridge equalising with a penalty, then going ahead. The game was still not over, with Ashley Ruane equalising with a second goal.

I have started to supply some pictures for the Merseymart, a supplement to the Liverpool Echo, about which I will say more in the next post. From this game, I sent 4 pictures. There was this one, that I thought was the best action shot.

John Couch tangles with his marker

This one shows Ashley Ruane shooting for his second goal - one that would normally miss the final cut, as Michael Grogan in the background is in slightly better focus than Ashley, but a goal is a goal.

Ashley Ruane shoots for goal number 2

Then there were a couple of images to build up their stock library, so they can illustrate a mention of a player in a match report.

Jack Booth

Joe Gibiliru

Readers in Prescot will know which one they used, but I will be talking more about that in the next post.

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

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.