Sport Pictures

The clothes show live 2008 was once again a very long day. Mr Ho drove us both to the NEC in Birmingham. We started at about 7.30 am on the Saturday morning. We were very fortunate to arrive a little later and were pleasently surprised at how close we were able to park.

Apart from the main Fashion Theatre show there were two other main catwalks at the event. Andrew and I were fortunate to catch nearly all the student designers shows and a couple of chances to photograph the main designer catwalk, sponsored by Motorola this year.

Perhaps it was the credit crunch – don’t get me wrong the main designer catwalk had designs from the likes of Galliano, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana, and it was a 35 minute show repeated on the hour every hour. The difference with the show in 2007 was that there was only the single show.

I was fascinated by the heel-less high heal shoes that the models were wearing in thee Galliano section of the catwalk show – and it was quite by accident that I noticed them in one of the final times I watched/photographed the show. It was only after a few moments on the Internet once I returned home that I realised that Victoria Beckham had worn a pair boots with this particular style of shoe at the launch of her fragrance with David.

Some of the garments shown on the designer catwalk were weird to say the least but had a modernist and slightly bladerunner weird about them, but on the same coin interesting and unique in both shape form and materials used.

A group of eight photographers and four models braved the chilling weather to take photographs in the browns and yellows of Autumn trees. Here is a selection of the images that I managed to take, more will follow.

Get your own – Open publication

The wheels of opportunity and circumstance were turning in my favor this last Sunday. My first ever confirmed press pass was for a Beach Volleyball competition in Lausanne, Switzerland around 2005, but alas the fact I only found out about this two days before the tournament, I was actually unable to fund the flight to get out to Switzerland on that occasion.

Now in the UK Beach Volleyball tournament only ever happen on the South Coast in places like Brighton and when you live in Manchester its far enough away to think twice about the journey. So it was to my great surprise that I found out that there was going to be a tournament in Blackpool of all places in early September.

Confirmation that I’d be able to shoot for womensportreport.com only really happened on the Saturday evening prior to the final day of finals.

So I packed up all my gear and made sure that the correct lenses would be on the two D200s as I’d already worked out that changing lenses on sand was not really an option. So I jumped in my little smart car and made the 55 mile journey to Blackpool.

The day started brilliantly with lovely bright sunlight through hazy broken clouds. Regardless of the fact the clouds became thicker during the day and turned into a rather dull day by the end of the day, but for a week when the weather has been really poor for a total week it was great that the good weather came out at a weekend for a change. Women Sport Report used a few of the pictures which I was able to wire straight from the media tent on the afternoon. There report can be found here.

This picture is the one of the ’standard’ shots from Beach Volleyball that has intrigued me since I started photographing sports all that time ago.

“I wanted first to thankyou very much for the images as they really show off the movement of fabric and are very different from the ones previously taken in London.” – Minna Ramsay

It was a very pleasant surprise this afternoon to receive an email from Minna. Above is quoted a small section of the email which I must admit gave me a gentle glow inside. Minna, if you read this I’ve sent you an email, or will do once I’ve finished writing this entry. I think we both owe a big thank you to the models of the evening who helped immensely to convey the feel of the garments they were displaying.

I picked this picture because this particular model was really assisting me by actually playing to the camera as she approached the end of the catwalk. A number of times she was really working the clothes and actively promoting the garments by cheeky movements that were definitely aimed at the photographer – or that’s what I’d like to think!

Minna, all the best with your search for a job – when your big and famous in Milan, Paris or London remember me…

JPG the magazine take votes on images submitted under different themes to include in their magazine. This is the first time that I have submitted. To the theme ‘Street Fashion’, I was looking back through my collection and remembered this image and I thought that it fit the theme very well. Take a moment to vote for the image – the more votes I get the more likely it is to appear in the publication.

Addition – 15 June, right voting for this theme is now over, all you can do now is wish me luck …

Addition – 16 August, not a winner this time – better luck next time!