#Shoulder2Shoulder

Flash Bang Wallop, What a Picture.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was asked just before Christmas to take photos of some the Rams Sirens Ladies side “Baring All” to raise funds to help their injured colleague Dani Watts. Well, better late than never, the calendar is now available to buy online from the Redingensians Rams website - Rams Sirens Calendar you do have to join the website, but that only takes a couple of minutes and is entirely painless. All profits from the calendar will helping Dani in her long road to recovery.

I was very pleased with the final results of the calendar shot, it was the first time I’d done anything like that, but the edited shots turned out to be pretty darn good, even if I say so myself.

Anyone who has read this blog for a while will know that photography plays a large part in my life. I promised myself that when the big C came to play that I’d still take photos. I managed it more or less most of the way through my first treatment, with one spectacular failure at Old Bath Road when I left in an ambulance before the game even kicked off. The second treatment was obviously a bit more of a challenge as lying in bed in the Churchill for two weeks limited my chances with my camera, other than the iPhone which is fine for snaps or Instagram, but pants for decent photos in my opinion.

One of the wise old owls of the Ramily reckons he can always tell when I’m feeling ok as my photo’s from the Rams matches are on point. If I’m feeling rough they’ll be ok, but nothing special. I know exactly what he means. Sometimes it’s easy to just go through the motions on a shoot and take pictures without putting too much thought into it, especially if I’m not 100%. I’ll give you an example. Last weekend Rams took on Tunbridge Judians at Old Bath Road. The weather was awful, drizzle, lowlight and cold, just the opposite you’d want for good photos. But, I was feeling good. I sussed out straight away that long lens shots weren’t going to be great as I’d pushed ISO up to a fairly high number to compensate for the light. Walking around the pitch and almost following the action produced some cracking shots. They took a bit of editing via Lightroom, and it probably took me an hour or so longer to get the results published, but I like to think the time and effort was worth it.

I bought my first SLR camera when I was 17, it was a Russian built Zenith II with a 50mm f1.8 screw fit lens. It weighed roughly the same as a baby elephant, which had the advantage of making camera shake non existent. It was an entirely manual camera which meant I had to use the light meter, judgement and a fair deal of luck to get the correct shutter speed and aperture settings. I loved that camera, in fact, I think it’s still up in the loft somewhere. That rock solid beast of a camera saw me through to meeting and marrying Carol. One year, for Christmas, I was convinced she’d bought me a budgie and wrapped it up in a nice little box. In fact it was a 125mm lens for my Zenith, nice bit of glass, but not a budgie.

I eventually decided I needed a bit of a better camera as I was starting to get more and more keen on the hobby. So my next purchase was a Praktica BX20 twin lens outfit purchased from Station Camera’s (Long since gone) in Reading. It was quite a nice bit of kit, but prone to jamming on the manual film wind. It was also about this time that autofocus cameras really came into play. So, after a couple of years of the BX20 I upgraded to a new Canon EOS100. Still a film camera, but with autofocus, auto wind and all signing bit’s ‘n bobs. This started my journey with Canon equipment. Next followed a film EOS5, then my final film camera, an EOS3 which was a truly wonderful bit of equipment and my first foray into what would be classed as Pro Spec Kit. However, film was losing the battle against digital, so with a degree of reluctance it was bye bye to the EOS3 and hello to a Canon EOS20d. I’ve still got 5 rolls of film in the fridge in the garage, over 10 years old now and way out of date. I’d love to run one through the old Zenith and see what the results would be. The next thing to concentrate on really were the lens’, very early on I was told that the glass is just as important as the camera body, so as soon as I could afford it I went for a 70-200 f2.8 and a 17-55 f2.8, to this day they are still the lens’ I use. The 70-200 is ideal for sports photography

and the shorter lens is perfect for portraits, landscapes, or of course Neville.

Three years ago I upgraded from the EOS20d to an EOS7d which is still the body I use to this day. One day, when the 6 numbers come up I’ll buy that EOS1ds………

Once people find out that you take your photography fairly seriously you’re bound to get the “Could you do my wedding?” questions. Stupidly, four times I’ve responded positively to that question. Three were done for gratis for friends or family, one was a paid job for a friend of a friend. The free shoots were ok, but still stressful. Asking if Auntie Joyce could possibly put down her dry sherry and join in the “Family Shot” isn’t so daunting when you know that Auntie Joyce is a game old bird. Doing the same when you don’t know who the relatives are and don’t know if they have a sense of humour is more of a challenge. The one “Paid” assignment I took on was down in Sussex, I think I left home at 7am and got back again at gone 10pm, I didn’t charge enough for my time, especially as I had to use my day job professional skills to actually get paid for the job. The highlight of the day for me was probably when I was taking a group shot fairly close up with a wide angle when some wag from the shot commented that “You’re too close, you won’t get us all in”. My response of “I don’t tell you how to clean the toilets, don’t tell me how to do my job.” Didn’t actually go down as well as I’d hoped, matey boy seemed to take objection to be called out for being an idiot J

Nowadays my photography is limited to pleasure only, rugby, Neville, and anything else that takes my fancy. I’ve done the odd shoot for friends in specific subjects but not for cash, there’s too much pressure to produce results that justify the fee, that’s not me.

I was lucky enough to get great photography advice from a Pro Photographer who had strong links to Redingensians RFC. I did a couple of days work for Gareth when in all honesty I was probably still too inexperienced to know what was expected. The 7 a side Football festival was a real eye opener, not only in the way that no one seemed to respect the players or refs, but in the way the ball pinged about all over the place. At least with rugby you’ve got a fairly good idea how the play will work out, unless of course Max is on the ball, then it’s anyone’s guess!

My advice to any budding photographer out there would be to shoot as many shots as you can, use as many different modes as possible so you can get any idea of the differences between Sutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual. Take the camera off Auto and play about with the settings, be brave! Finally, spend as much time as you can with whatever editing tool you use, don’t fall into the trap of publishing quickly to satisfy the demands of others, they’re your shots, show them some love before showing them to Joe Public.

This was another “Not really about Cancer” post, I’m enjoying this sort of writing. My current valve has lasted over three weeks, which is a record, I’m enjoying this sort of health. Sunday 4^th February is World Cancer Day, I’m enjoying this sort of still being here to contribute. The Six Nations are about to start, I’m enjoying the annual banter.

And to close off this post about the wonderful ability to simply capture a moment in time, indulge me, here are some of my favourite photos I’ve taken in the digital age.

#1 - Steep Hill in Lincoln, aptly named -