First go at Football Photography – for me, and the kid

At the beginning of August me and the kid went to take some photos of the Worcester City Women’s Football club. I’ve mentioned this outing in the context of the Tamron 50-400 a couple of times already here on 35mmc – not least in my review of the lens – so you may already know that this was the entire reason I wanted to borrow the lens from Tamron in the first place. In short, for those who don’t know the story, Connie had expressed an interest in a bit of sports photography, so we jumped at the chance to encourage it. We bought a Nikon Z50ii so she would have a camera to use, and in the end borrowed two lenses, the Tamron 50-400 from Tamron and a secondhand Nikon from LCE.

I don’t really want to talk about the kit very much here, as I have done that already. Instead I want to talk a little bit about the experience we both had and the photos we got. Being a local team in a smaller city in the UK, the experience was quite different from that outlined in Mike’s article about World Cup photography, but for me and Connie it was a really enjoyable experience that resulted in some photos I’m proud of for myself, but also – more significantly – a whole chunk of pride in the kid herself, as well as the photos she took!

As I’ve said elsewhere, arranging this shoot was pretty easy. I know the owner of the local Women’s team through our sponsorship of the team at The Kiln, so I just asked her and she said yes. That being said, as a small local team I imagine they need all the support they can get, and would likely be happy to have others take photos in some way or another. The advantage I think I had was that Nicole is aware I am a professional photographer, so there was no need to credibility check me as such. But, I think there was still some arrangements to be made on her part as the ticket people needed to be made aware of us turning up, team ‘media’ bibs arranged for us, and people more generally informed to expect us when we got there – so I thank her for that!

One way or another, when we did get there, everything was ready for us to be able to have access to go essentially wherever we wanted to go, including walking around on the pitch itself before the game and around the edge of the pitch during the game. We were shown around and introduced to various members of the wider team, given access to a team-only area to leave our stuff, and made to feel very welcome. Connie was great too, she always makes me and her mum proud with how well she’s capable engaging with adults, and this was no exception, she did us, and herself, proud!

Of course, having never shot spots photography like this before, I didn’t really know a huge amount about what to do or where I might get a good shot from, so whilst I could demonstrate to Connie elements of professional photography from the point of view of the tangential aspects of the job, actually showing her how to do the sports photography bit was something I had to wing a bit on the day, though I like to think that even the winging it element of what I did might have been a little useful to her.

What did throw me slightly was Nicole telling me not long after we got there that their usual professional photographer wasn’t there, so if I was able to get a few shots for them, this would be really useful. I’m sure she didn’t mean to, but this weighed the responsibility on me a little heavier than I expected I’d be facing, so I ended up taking it quite seriously. Fortunately we were allowed a little bit of a warm up. Whilst the team warmed up, we too were able to take the opportunity to get some shots before the game kicked off. I tried at this point to give Connie some idea of the sorts of shots I thought she should aim to get.

Then it was time for the game to kick off. I had in the weeks prior done a little reading about good positions to shoot from. The main tip, which seems obvious in hindsight, is that if you are shooting for one team, being at the opposing team’s goal end is the best place to get the most interesting action of your team. There was actually a photographer there from the opposing team (Portishead), and he did the same thing be going down the WCWFC goal end – so that was at least reassuring. I set Connie shooting, and then got myself into a position I was comfortable. Unfortunately, I didn’t find comfort in the first half. I did get a couple of shots, but not many – I just couldn’t keep up. Connie, on the other hand managed to get what I believe is the best shot that either of use took on the day, just look at this:

The second half was easier for me. I found the rhythm of the game and my photo taking and got a few more shots I was happy with – certainly enough to be able to feel I had succeeded at the task in hand.

Favourite’s of my own photos:

What I found really interesting in the end though was seeing the difference between mine and Connie’s shots. She got some great conventional spots shots – as I have said, I think her shot above was the best that either of us took. But, being somewhat free of the expectations to get some conventional sports photos, she also took some really interesting and genuinely good photos that perhaps sit outside of the conventional requirements of spots photography. I am perhaps a little biased, but I do think she has a natural eye!

My faves of Connie’s:

All in all, a great day out. It was a really enjoyable opportunity to try my hand at a type of photography I hadn’t tried before, even with the added pressure of having to actually deliver some images. Moreover though, I really enjoyed sharing the experience with the kid! She made me enormously proud on the day, and I am really impressed with the photos she managed to take too!

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