Hope you've had a great weekend, it won't be long until the next one. All the best, Nick.
Well, it's been a little while since I've had the opportunity to sit down and put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, as it's probably better referred to these days, but I've been busy with a lot of other things outside of the nine to five however I'm slowly getting a little more of a taste of what it's like to be a photographer. I say a little because truth be told I've also been watching a lot of football and sipping a few beverages as well since the 17th of August! I've been fortunate enough to secure some work with our local newspaper thanks to word of mouth, my own efforts and some sound advice from another individual who I hold in high regard. It's always nice to see your images printed and it's even better to see our local football team do well. Last season they didn't do much but they've got a lot of new faces, a younger squad and a lot of desire. I watched their latest match at the weekend whilst shooting and the team spirit was second to none. They were 2 nil down for most of the game but then managed to pull it back to 2-2 and it was only through a little misfortune at the very end of the game that they ended up losing 3-2. I genuinely felt gutted that they hadn't even got a point for their efforts. As it stands at the minute they've won as many games in the league as they did for the whole of last season and we are only three games into the season so hopefully this won't be the end of that winning feeling for too long. Getting back to the photography now before I get too sidetracked, I also had a wet evening in Ballymoney the other night and found myself pushing the D7000 up to 3200 ISO even in a floodlit stadium. Granted I'm not using an f2.8 lens as money isn't plentiful but I didn't realise just how much the light would have dropped so after that experience I was on to the boys at Wex Photographic before the week was out and I've now purchased the next best thing, a monopod. I'd say this is a must in any budding sports photographers arsenal and I really noticed a significant difference when I used it at the weekend, it cost just under £70 in total including a tilt head which is a bit closer to my budget given that the Sigma 120-300mm is about two grand further up the league just now. I hope at this stage I'm not biting off more than I can chew as I know that after a busy week sometimes running out to take pictures then picking your favourites and getting them submitted before the following week could probably turn out to be more tiring and time consuming then I imagine but at least there isn't a lot of editing to be fair. I'm shooting jpeg and literally applying a crop in most cases. I have edited some for the club website and made my own personal changes for something different but we'll see how things evolve especially if I'm shooting other sports. By the way if anyone has any got links or know any good sports photographers that they can recommend that I can check out or follow please don't hesitate to let me know. Hope you've had a great weekend, it won't be long until the next one. All the best, Nick.
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Normally I don't dwell too long when I'm posting some of my work but I've held off on these for a couple of weeks mainly because I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to post them but in the end I guess I'm working on the basis that I took time to shoot and edit them so why not share the images. Unfortunately the Twelfth, along with many other parades, has become a contentious hot bed for political debate and an excuse for what I suppose most would class as mindless violence but everyone will have their own opinion on that. The family day out and carnival atmosphere that it's supposed to be is close but yet so far in the same breath! It's hard to believe the media coverage went from high to low in such a short period of time. In one hand we had such a prestigious event with the G8 summit where we seen the Emerald Isle in it's best light and then very quickly on the other we returned to a darker shade of green where we witnessed the not so pretty side of things. Talking of media coverage there's sure to be more of it down the line as Ross Kemp just happened to be visiting for the Twelfth and was recording proceedings for his new series, it'll be interesting to see how things are portrayed to the rest of the world. Thousands take part in Twelfth of July celebrations across Northern Ireland every year and it's a great opportunity for some street photography but as well as the images I thought it would be worthwhile including a clip that I discovered online. From a photography point of view just take a look at how many of these guys were risking life and limb to get the elusive shot, now I understand that a lot of them are probably being paid to do a job but there are plenty of enthusiasts like myself that were amongst this, all I can say is good luck to you. If you look at the 2.50 mark on the clip you'll see exactly what I mean when the tog gets a little too close for clicking. |
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