As a professional videographer, I end up in strange ‘waiting situations’ on the job in places that aren’t your average break room. I’d been a Forest fan all my life and attended every home game until I was asked to film a match day pitch-side for the club. I’m now both a local super fan and a freelance addition to their amazing media team, but I still sit in the Brian Clough Stand every time I’m not asked to film the match.
The only person in a 30,000 seater football stadium.
I never expected to find myself in a situation like this. The only person in a 30,000 seater football stadium on a hot Thursday afternoon, waiting to record a video interview. I’d love to say I planned to create a photo album based on the juxtaposition of silence & emptiness in a famously loud football ground but the reality was I had about 15 minutes to wait and I happened to have my point and shoot film camera on me with about 10 exposures of Tri-X left in the body.
There is no decision behind the film I used and the camera in question – it’s a matter of circumstance and a happy accident that it was in my bag at a time like this.
I personally love that Nottingham Forest have a shipping container stand in the corner now. It’s unique and provides the stadium with even more personality. I think it’s a temporary structure that will only be around for a few years so I definitely wanted to get a shot of it whilst in a scenario like this.
A weird crop I know.. I absolutely love cropping images to strange sizes. As a hobbyist photographer on a point and shoot, I don’t know the ins and outs of what is considered the right way to showcase film images but I love being able to turn photos in Lightroom into a unique shape. When I took this simple dugout shot, I imagined it like this and I love how it turned out – although the point and shoot auto focus let me down a little!
Brian Clough Seats
The afternoon shadow on the chairs feel poetic in black and white but to me they just represent the blinding sun that Brian Clough fans endure (saying this from experience) during a summer afternoon kick off.
My granddad has sat in this stand for many years and still forgets to bring a cap sometimes. You can find him wearing a newspaper on his head sometimes to act as a sun blocker. He ended up in a fan shot on TV once because of this, he’s a genius.
These seats are situated in the away end of the John Robertson Stand (formerly named “The Bridgford End”). During a Europa League game last year some seats got a bit ‘smashed in’ by the visiting supporters after a loss. I wanted to take a picture of the replacements but you can’t really tell the difference on the photo.
I always spot this floodlight from miles away on my way to the ground and as a childhood Forest fan, it’s always been the first thing that catches my eye and excited me for the game I’m about to see – especially evening games under the lights growing up.
I’m lucky that this was one of the last shots on the roll as it was over 30 degrees when I took these and I must have accidentally touched the lens whilst wiping my sweaty hands. I was basically a human sprinkler walking around the ground in the heat. I’m sorry for the graphic explanation but that smudge in the top right corner just reminded me of how boiling I was. Bring on autumn..
If you’d like to see some of the video work I’ve filmed & edited for Forest, I’ll link my videographer website here. I hope you’ve enjoyed this strange collection of amateur pictures and some of my City Ground fun facts. You can tell I love the place!
I’ll end on a shot of my camera rig at the ground. A good pic for the LinkedIn eh?
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