Today where I live was a very pleasent start to the day, the sun was shining and there were moments when the weather was really great. There I was walking around a local supermarket and I noticed my iPhone actually vibrate in my pocket, which is unusaul - I was very surprised to see that a friend and a potential model was asking if I was available in the next couple of days. So to cut a long story short by the time we actually got to meet up the weather was nasty and windy, with rain and drizzle and the clouds had come in so I had to rely on my pocket lightning to provide the light.

I’m no expert with the old flashes and I don’t really enjoy using them but I have recently got into trying to do some of the Strobist style stuff - which gives your photographs a very exciting touch, with a very stylized visual effect. The first for me today was to be shooting totally in RAW - I could not believe the difference that it actually made to the images. I used to wonder where all the vivid colours had gone in some of my photographs. It was interesting to see as the set of images was loaded into Apple ® Aperture 2.1 it pulls the .jpg into the program first as its the smallest and then drags the NEF file in second - and you would not believe the difference that the RAW file had. The jpeg was pale and washed out and the NEF just popped - it was at this point I was very glad that I’d used the RAW file setting.

The wind was blowing so hard that we had to stay in the lee of a large building to seek shelter from the weather. In fact once we had found this spot Maria described it as being relatively warm, and to think not five minutes before on the other side of the building it was too cold to work.

Today we were practising the I’m far too moody to be having my picture took but I look good when I am model look.

All in all I am very happy with the results that were achieved today and having the opportunity of working with Maria again, with those interesting Mediterranean looks.

If your an agency in the North of England, drop me a line and I will put you in touch with Mariah. [andrew [at] sportpictures.co.uk]

Not a very interesting post really but I was very surprised to be confronted by the Google Streetview Car in South Manchester, UK.
Not one of my photographs but I’m hoping my big cheesy grin will be recorded for posterity when google streetview is released for my area…

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.

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, 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.

It’s always a great joy to find a group of people that are willing and wanting to have their picture taken. These Sol Beer promotions people were parked off Piccadilly Gardens in three Volkswagen Beetles in yellow with big logos all over them.

Cie Gianni Joseph Dancers perform

Originally uploaded by sportpictures ]]> http://www.sportpictures.co.uk/2008/07/29/cie-gianni-joseph-dancers-perform/feed/ http://www.sportpictures.co.uk/2008/07/03/kind-comments-from-student-fashion-designer-at-manchester-metropolitan-university-minna-ramsay/ http://www.sportpictures.co.uk/2008/07/03/kind-comments-from-student-fashion-designer-at-manchester-metropolitan-university-minna-ramsay/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:53:39 +0000 admin http://www.sportpictures.co.uk/2008/07/03/kind-comments-from-student-fashion-designer-at-manchester-metropolitan-university-minna-ramsay/

“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…