All Charged Up and Nowhere to Go

Sports photography is a funny game with its own highs and lows. I sometimes feel that I’m completely wasting my time going to games, photographing them, spending hours editing them, uploading to my website and sharing on social media only to get 5 likes. Then I see that teams screenshot my photos instead of purchasing them, I get get really discouraged.

It’s partly because of these issues that I decided to introduce a charge for my photography going forward. At least this way I can measure the effect that I’m having and if the players appreciate what I’m doing, or not.

I would be interested to hear from other photographers about their challenges and opportunities. I greatly admire many GAA photographers who see their photography as a community thing, supporting the GAA community with free (mostly) photographs.

I really feel I need new challenges and a new project to roll my sleeves up on and I have an idea that might be be a good place to start. I don’t want to say to much about this new venture and its just an idea for now. Sufice to say I haven’t photographed soccer yet.

This week I photographed two American Football events - a women’s flag competition (Claddagh Bowl League) in Belfast and a Division 1 game, Wexford Eagles vs the Causeway Giants. Both enjoyable in their own ways.

Thanks to the Wexford Eagles for purchasing the game gallery and for submitting their game report to the Wexford Weekly along with a selection of my game photographs that were published this week.

If you know of a team regardless of sport that would appreciate game coverage, please feel free to put me in touch with them. I currently don’t charge for the coverage just the downloads and they start from just £2.

If you’ve made it this far Thank You for reading.

Best Wishes

Paul

A Crazy Easter Week

Ballymena RFC 2’s v Enniskillen in the Towns Cup Final at Ravenhill, Belfast.

Easter Monday saw me at the Kingspan Stadium the home of Ulster Rugby in Northern Ireland for the final of the Towns Cup between Ballymena 2’s and Enniskillen. I was photographing for Ballymena however, Enniskillen won the game quite comfortably despite a good fightback from Ballymena. It’s always good to photograph at Ravenhill as it offers good backdrops and the new pitch looks great in the photographs. There are new conditions to get pitch-side access including Public Liability Insurance and the requirement to wear football boots on the pitch. Thanks to Matthew Banks for the loan of his old boots BTW.

I have always carried Public liability insurance for my photography, as it is a requirement for other photography work that I do. I would dearly love to photograph a few Ulster games at Ravenhill but I’m not sure how to go about applying for a photography pass, if anyone can help or knows please let me know.

Ballymena Senior Women v Rainey Women

Later in the week, I photographed a game between Ballymena Senior Women and Rainey at Eaton Park under lights, a game that Ballymena comfortably won 25 - 7. A big achievement for Ballymena given that there were only 12 players on the pitch. Photographically this was very challenging as my camera struggled to focus in the dim condition at times, frustratingly when the players were scoring as the light fall-off at both ends of the pitch was dramatic. One of my biggest frustrations is spectators standing on the pitch behind the posts blocking my view which is very annoying. My favourite photos from the night were the celebrations at the end of the game from the Ballymena players, even though the photo below is a little blurry, I love the joy that was captured. I opted for Black and White as colour photos at 12,800 ISO look to my eyes, as washed out and unnatural looking.

Cill Dara Crusaders in Belfast for their game against NI Razorbacks in Division 1 of the All Ireland American Football League.

The week ended with a game at Newforge Sports Complex between the NI Razorbacks and the Cill Dara Crusaders. I have photographed the Razorbacks for 3 seasons and their progress over that time has been stunning, however the Crusaders controlled the game both sides of the ball and the result was a shut out win for the Kildare men 0 - 34. Photographically I used my Canon 7D mkII and my 70 - 300 L lens (my favourite combo) for the whole game and also my trusty Fujifilm X-T 20 (with 10-24 lens) for the wide shots at the beginning and end. I was very pleased with the photos from this game as the conditions were near perfect weather wise - and I was able to get close the action. I experimented during the 3rd Quarter with wide tracking autofocus and this worked surprisingly well on my older DSLR.

All in all a fun week shooting and some good shots along the way - Many thanks to those who have bought downloads, prints and ‘coffee’ your support means a great deal to me.

Ballyclare Win the League, Headshots and Panthers

Ballyclare Win the Ulster Championship League with a bonus point in Portadown.

Saturday 23 March 2024 saw Ballyclare play Portadown in the last league game of the season and despite narrowly losing to Portadown 38 - 34 the Ballyclare lads have won the Ulster Championship against nearest rival Enniskillen RFC. The Ballyclare men are now in a play-off position for promotion to the All Ireland League this game will be played on the 6th April at Ashbourne Rugby Club.

I was very happy to use my little Fujifilm X-T20 to capture the presentation and team photos on such a happy occasion.

Ballyclare Rugby Club League Champions 2024

Earlier in the week, I was delighted to capture profile shots for Ballymena Rugby Club Coaches and Women Rugby Players. So good to chat with the players and coaches. It’s funny how we all hate to have our photo taken especially with strobes and a big camera, with team-mates watching on. The week previous the Ballymena Women earned a place in the Suzanne Fleming Shield final by beating Lisburn Women’s Rugby Team in an exciting game that was won with the play of the game.

On Sunday 24th March, I was delighted to travel to Belfast to capture images for the Belfast Knights and South Dublin Panthers at a game played in Belfast. The weather was kind with a mix of Sunshine and overcast conditions. For the game I used my light setup using a Canon 7d MkII with a 70-300mm (L) lens which is my go-to optic on a crop sensor. Congratulations to the Panthers for their W - It was my first time capturing images of the kitted Panthers team, so I was very pleased to see them at last. I also love to catch a Knights game the Knights are one of the longest-established teams in the league with a huge offensive line.

Half Time Team Talk - Spencer McDowell

A tough game for both teams.

Rugby, American Football and Schools Bowl Final.

Well, what another fantastic week it has been, starting with rugby in Ballymena as they played Cashel in the All-Ireland League. I was very pleased to be invited as a guest of honor to the pre-game lunch (which was gorgeous) catered by the fabulous Galgorm Resort. I had a good game as well with several images that I was very pleased to capture such as Curtis Henry’s diving try above. Gear wise I stuck with my 400mm prime with the Canon R6 and my trusty 70-300 L with a Canon 1 DX mkII.

I also love the photo below which is a bit different to the standard post-game photo - I love the line of players and making eye contact with one player. As you may already know black and white is my favourite format.

The next highlight was the return of Irish American Football. I have photographed the Belfast team NI Razorbacks for 3 years and this new season will be my fourth (where does the time go?). The team’s first game was against the Antrim Jets at the Newforge Sports Complex. A game that was convincingly won by the Razorbacks 44-0. I certainly knew that the season had started again in my legs as to get the best images I followed the play around the field - and for days afterward I felt it in my thighs, still a good workout for me. The gear I used was the Canon R6 with my 300mm f2.8 for the first half and my old Canon 7DmkII with my 70-300mm L for the second half. I was pleased with both setups with the 70-300 being a lot more flexible. For an older camera, the 7D mkII can hold its own as long as the ISO remains below 3200. Even at higher ISO’s the grain is not unpleasing especially in black and white.

The image below was taken with the 300mm at f2.8 and it nicely blurs out the distractions of the background.

A massive highlight this week was the schools rugby final played between Ballyclare High School and Cambridge House grammar. The atmosphere created by both sets of supporters was fantastic with the stand at Eaton Park packed out as well as both standing areas fully occupied by very excited and noisy supporters. The game was very tight and low scoring with lots of line outs and scrums. I decided to sit in the same place for the whole of the game to optimise the position of the sun in my photos, although I did move around a little to get some crowd shots etc. I decided to try using my Olympus OM1 with a 40-150 f2.8 with a 1.4 teleconverter. The system worked okay but I would have preferred to use my full frame gear as the crop sensor meant that I couldn’t crop the photos as much as I wanted too.

For the presentation and celebration photos at the end I used my trusty Fujifilm X-T20 which always delivers excellent colours and clarity. I enjoyed the experience of schools rugby so much that I hope to cover more games for Ballyclare and Ballymena next season.

Cambridge House supporters who asked for a photo.

Cambridge House scoring in the first half.

The victorious Ballyclare High School with the Danske Bank Schools Bowl.

Sports Headshots, Rugby and Theatrical Photography

NI Razorbacks profile pics photoshoot

It’s that time of the year again when the American Football teams prepare their social media ahead of the season opener on the 3rd of March. This will be my 4th Season covering the Belfast Division 1 team the NI Razorbacks.

This week we set up a photoshoot to capture head shots of the players for the Razorbacks website. I used a simple setup of 2 strip boxes and a beauty dish on a boom arm. My main problem was the number of players and the time available to get the shoot done however, once the lighting was set it was just a matter of running through the 20-plus players in turn. It’s always fun working with these guys.

I’m always happy to assist teams with this type of work for a very modest fee.

Ballymena 2nd v Rainey 2nd

Saturday’s rugby game was a battle between Ballymena and Rainey’s second teams, the game was played at Ballymena Academy’s excellent ruby pitch as Ballymena's home ground was water-logged. The match was almost a one-sided affair with Ballymena winning 60 - 14.

As the light was better I opted to shoot using my Sigma 150 - 600 lens which hasn’t seen much action since last summer, Its darker aperture of 6.3 at the long end means I can only use it on brighter days however, I was pleased with the results especially at the long end. I look forward to getting more use from this Sigma lens again this year as it is much lighter and more flexible than my f2.8 prime lenses.

Larne Drama Circles production of Juno and the Paycock

One of my favorite things to photograph is Theatrical Productions especially period productions such as Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, produced by the fabulous Larne Drama Circle. On Sunday I attended their dress rehearsal to capture some of the production’s scenes for the company.

The show will be performed over 3 evenings at Larne’s McNeill Theatre starting on Wednesday 28th February. With tickets priced at £10 this is a performance not to be missed.

I am interested in developing this aspect of my work going forward and would be open to working with more Amateur Dramatics companies going forward as I love working with creatives and capturing their work.

Ballymena Rugby, Theatrical Portraits and Camera Club Talk

The past couple of weeks has been a busy period with me starting off with my talk to Larne Camera Club about sports photography, in which I explained my approach to sports photography and shared my top tips for getting the sort of images that I want to make and not simply photographing what happens on the pitch. This talk was received well and I believe that a few members will have a go at sports over the summer period.

Ballymena RFC v UL Bohemians

It was a pleasure to cover the game between University of Limerick ‘Bohemians’ and Ballymena in a close game that was one by Ballymena 34 - 31 with a tremendous comeback from the home side in the second half when it looked like Bohemians had the game won at half-time. I was particularly pleased with the photo above capturing a Ballymena try. I look forward to seeing Bohemians again next year.

Juno and the Paycock Theatrical Portraits

I also had the privilege to create portraits for the forthcoming Larne Drama Circle production of Juno and the Paycock which will be playing in Larne’s McNeill Theatre at the end of February. The actors were great fun to work with and enthusiastic about shooting their respective character portraits. This is the type of work that I would like to do a lot more of.

Ballymena Women’s Rugby v Cooke Women 2nd XV

On Sunday 11th February, I found myself at Ballymena’s Eaton Park again to photograph Ballymena’s women taking on Cooke RFC women. The game was won by Cooke however the Ballymena Women gave the more experienced team a good game and maybe surprised themselves that they were able to hold them off for large parts of the game. The future of the women’s game in Ballymena looks to be secure especially with the amount of work going on at u18, U16 and U14 levels.

Ballymena Rugby Under Lights and Ballyclare Win on the Road

Thursday night’s game was at Deramore Park for Ballymena’s 1st XV playing Belfast Harlequins. Difficult to photograph under lights, especially at the spread of the light was uneven across the pitch. I photographed the game mostly using my 300mm f2.8 which let enough light in to get some good close-up images for the team.

The game was a tight affair in which Ballymena emerged as winners with a final score of 21-24.

Ballymena’s Roshan Weerarathne

Ballyclare’s Jack Gamble scoring between the posts

The second game of the week was away to City of Derry Rugby Club where Ballyclare bossed the game from beginning to end with a final score of 19 - 61. For this game, I decided to use one camera and one lens, I used my Canon R6 with a 70 - 300 f4 - 5.6 L. This is one of my favourite lenses as it works so well on the R6. I also decided that I would use live tracking for the whole game which surprisingly worked incredibly well with only a few missed shots. I’m going to experiment in the coming week using this mode of auto-focus to see if it will work with my main lens the 400mm f2.8. I also used electronic shutter mode, the keen-eyed photographers among my readers will note the rolling shutter effect on the rugby posts as I panned my camera with Jack’s run.

I have also started a new website that is a portfolio type of site using Squarespace. I’m hoping that this will raise my profile a little and let people see the range of photographic services that I offer while my main focus will remain sports-orientated. I also signed up with Linktree for much the same reason, so far so good.

My favourite photo from the day.

All Ireland Junior Rugby Cup Final

On Saturday 27th January I found myself at one of my favourite sports grounds, Dundalk Rugby Club to photograph the final of the All Ireland Junior Rugby Cup between Ballyclare Rugby Club and Bective Rugby Club from Dublin. I was photographing for Ballyclare so photographed their attack during both halves.

As can happen on big occasions, I wasn’t particularly happy with many of the in-game photos and I found that missed capturing 4 of the 7 tries, this was for a variety of reasons including not changing camera quickly enough and on one occasion not realising that my second camera was turned off (I felt really stupid for this one).

My favourite images from the day are of the team celebrations and of the travelling supporters from both teams.

For this game I used a 400mm f2.8 and my 70-200 f2.8. Team photos were captured with my 24-70 with Canon flash attached.