Rain stopped photography

We hoped Prescot Cables' game at home to New Mills would be dry, but rain was forecast to start around kick off, and it followed my bus to Prescot. To say the visitors have not enjoyed a good season is an understatement, as they had played 18 games without gaining a point. Rod, our drummer, was tempting fate pointing out we were not planning to give them a Christmas present when they came in from warming up. I did not catch the reply, but one word sounded like "off".

The pitch had last been used three weeks previously, and looked as though it had benefited from the rest, but the rain was heavy enough for the possibility of the match being abandoned. I took up position on the gasworks side.

Andy Scarisbrick

The weather was warmer than usual, so I did not realise how wet I, and more to the point my equipment, was getting, which would cause a problem later. The match officials seemed to have read that week's You are the Ref, as the referee was responding to the condition of the sides normally used by the assistants by using the right diagonal.

The visitors showed no sign of overcoming their difficulties, and Rob Doran scored after about 10 minutes.

Rob Doran

We consolidated our lead with two goals in quick succession a few minutes later from James Edgar, who has worked hard to keep opposition defences busy but has not been rewarded with goals.

James Edgar celebrates his first goal with George Mannion and Joe Nicholson

New Mills pulled a goal back just before half time, and I headed to the bar with a reasonable set of pictures, although I am still working on not noise reducing away the rain.

I went back to the gasworks side for the second half, where the rain seemed a little lighter, which may have been my imagination. I was starting to have a spot of bother, as I was running out of cloth (a normal handkerchief) for drying the front of the lens, and was just moving the water around. I was just about operational, although I missed James Edgar completing his hat trick in a bit of a goalmouth scramble, and thought Phil Bannister had scored it.

Phil Bannister

Shortly after this I had to stop, as I was suffering from condensation, something I have successfully avoided in seven or eight years taking pictures outdoors, There are precautions, like keeping the camera dry, and putting it in the bag before I go indoors. However, the mild damp weather created a similar environment in the camera, with the wind blowing on to a wet front of the lens creating a temperature difference and condensation. Once I had it, there was not a lot more I could do in the photo department, so I watched the last 25 minutes without viewing through a small rectangular window.

James McCulloch in my last usable picture of the day, half an hour from time

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 5 (Edgar 3, Doran 2) New Mills 2.

Disappearing pictures

I posted an unusually small collection of photos for Prescot Cables' game at home to AFC Liverpool in the Liverpool Senior Cup. Two thirds of the way through the game my two week old SD card stopped working, taking my photos up to that point with it.

The disappearing photos included our match ball sponsor enjoying his hospitality. We do not usually take pictures of the sponsors, but this was a bright chap aged about 10 called David. As he was prepared to spend what I assume was his birthday cash or something similar, and bring four paying adults with him, he got a few more goodies than usual, including a pair of gloves from Marcus Burgess. I wondered whether I would have been able to pay for a sponsorship when I was 10, but the equivalent of the current £50 was only £8.99 in 1978.

I took my usual position on the gasworks side, and started snapping away. The visitors were playing in purple, a kit colour I do not encounter very often, and which turns out blue on photos.

Despite losing the pictures up to about half way through the second half, I was able to to try what I wanted with the remaining images, mainly trying to get the AFC Liverpool kit to come out in its natural purple. I tried different combinations of lighting temperature (blue / yellow) and tint (green / magenta), and found the combination that made the visitors' shirts come out in the right colour made the players close to the orange of our shirts.

A purple AFC Liverpool kit - and orange everything else

Rob Doran in more natural colours, and the AFC Liverpool kit looking blue

There was a gentleman also taking photographs with a decent looking kit, who I thought was with the visitors, as he was behind the goal they were attacking in the first half, and was more towards their end in the second. This may not have been the case: when I posted my collection online, AFC Liverpool asked to use a picture to illustrate the match report on their website.

Joe Nicholson

Both sides had their chances, but the game looked to be heading to penalties, until Lloyd Dean was brought on, and almost immediately made an impact with two goals in as many minutes putting us through to the quarter finals. It is the advantage of this competition, the small size of the County FA makes for a small number of rounds.

Connor Grainger, stepping up from the youth team, made a first start, having come on from the bench in a previous game.

Connor Grainger

We also saw five minutes from Josh Donnelly, who showed promise in pre season, but who has not been able to play in the season so far.

Josh Donnelly

After the game, I was able to catch David and replace the missing picture with one by the pitch and one with Andy Paxton for him and his family.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Dean 2) AFC Liverpool 0

I'm sure it's not supposed to crunch when you do that

That is what I have been saying for 30 years when I rotate my left arm. As the occasional discomfort in the shoulder (usually in damp weather) started when I was 14, and has got neither better nor worse since, I have never regarded it as a cause for concern.

However, my 70-300mm zoom lens has recently been making a sound as if something is not engaging, at the 300mm end of the range, which suggests it may be developing a fault. Not that I can complain, I have subjected it to a level of usage many would not normally reach. I took it to a repair shop, where the helpful, if lugubrious, assistant was confident that the issue was with the Vibration Reduction (VR) unit.

VR is a wonderful thing, but not particularly relevant for sport. As a rough rule of thumb, you start to have a problem with the shake from hand holding the camera at a shutter speed slower than 1/focal length. VR provides additional stabilisation, allowing crisp images to be captured up to 4 shutter speed settings slower, and it works, I have taken pictures at 1/125s at 300mm. However, I rarely use speeds that slow taking sports action, we can get away with 1/200s, but any slower will usually not freeze enough of the action.

So, when shooting sports I usually turn the VR off. That does not isolate it, and when it goes wrong, it er, vibrates - fortunately only for half a second, after which I can focus normally. After talking to the man in the shop, I decided to see how it develops, as the remedy in any event is to replace the VR unit, which is quite expensive.

It was with my equipment thus impaired that I set off to Prescot Cables' home international friendly against Flint Town United of the Huws Gray Alliance. The weather was much more like we would expect on a summer evening than last week.

Davison Banda

Andy McCoy

With the mixture of bright sunshine and long shadows, the Auto ISO really comes into its own, with lighting conditions varying in a single run or pass.

At this time of year, every week brings sunset 10 - 12 minutes earlier, so the floodlights came on for the second half.

Luke Edwards

With the natural light assisted by the lights early in the half, I did not manage to get rid of a slightly pink hue, but later on, I got the results we expect under the lights.

Matty Parker

I also spoke with our programme editor, Paul Watkinson, who explained that we have new printers this year, which allows a different picture on the cover for each game if we wish, so I will be providing some pictures for that. Paul very wisely (from his point of view) persuaded me to send 2 or 3 from which to choose, in the same way I do with the Liverpool Echo. We will look at the requirements for the programme cover in more detail in a future post, I think it will be a bit different from the paper, whose priority is to have a picture to go with the words, and can be summed up as: 1 - goals, 2 - goal scorers, 3 anything else.

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