Archive for the ‘sport’ Category
Beach Communication
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.
Athletes in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Over the past three or so years I have been blessed with being able to shoot at a number of local, national and international sporting events. Earlier today as I was watching Gail Emms and Nathan Robinson in their badminton games I realised that I must have shot a number of Olympic competitors.
My challenge to you is to spot the Olympic athletes in my photographs on Flickr. For the person that tags the most Olympic athletes before the closing ceremony I will provide a professionally printed A3 photograph of the image of their choice from my Flickr collection.
For a valid claim you have to tag the most Olympic athletes from my collection with the Flickr +note function with Athletes Name and ‘Olympics 2008′ in the note [ click on the photograph of Fatima Moreira de Melo above to see an example]. Please then add a comment in the comments section stating your claim with the Sports Persons name. The person with the most ‘claims’ in the notes/comments will be sent an email and asked to provide details of the image they would like and an address to send it.
All entries after the closing ceremony will not be counted. Get spotting those Olympic athletes, the fun thing is I don’t actually know how many I have got!
Exhausted
Exhausted, originally uploaded by sportpictures.
When you have ran as far as these people you would not blame them for taking a few moments rest at the end.
Pushed Too Hard
The Manchester 10K Run
I just had this funny feeling that I knew this guys face but I could really not place it. And to think its the guy out of Eastenders after all. I was starting to think that my celebrity count was quite low for this year and I turn up with this gem.
The lighting bobbed around from being very good to being relatively flat. This is a shot from when it brightened up. I love the expression on the face, he had around 350 metres left to run … I’d be begging for oxygen if I’d just run that far.
The Manchester 10K Run – 90 Years Old and 500m to go.
Well it was a warm, cloudy and sunny at times Sunday morning and the Manchester BUPA 10K race was happening again. My favourite bit of going out and shooting this race is to see the smile on the face of the 90 year old lady that does the course with her two helpers from the hospice. The funny thing for me is that there are more able bodied competitors that are actually behind this lady.
Speedy Shoes
Its the Manchester 10K race tomorrow and at this present moment I am definitely going to be going and doing a little bit of photography. Although I do like the pictures that show the elite athletes bounding towards the finish line – I also like to record the people that have definitely pushed themselves to the limit and those that push the limit on costume sensibility.
If you are running then all the best, and here’s to your best times. Look out for me I will be near the finishing line after the bridge over the Mancunian Way on the end of the central reservation if they will allow me, but before the bridge and the ever so high Beecham Tower.