Hockey On A Sledge

The Phoenix club this season have set up both a women's team, and a sledge team, and I was asked a couple of weeks ago to photograph both teams during training for the MPCSF website. 

The sledge hockey training is no problem, but when it comes to the woman's team...well, it would be kind of hard to photograph and train at the same time. I could have photographed the woman's team earlier in the month when I was out for a week after getting a head hit and a virus, but I was banned from training by the coach!

The sledge team is made up of both able and disabled. The Phoenix team have a few GB team members on the squad too.

Players sit in a sledge and use their stick to move themselves along the ice. Sledge hockey is also full body checking too, and sometimes it can get really rough out there!

The head coach of both teams, Pete, and one of the sledge players, Steve, are doing a 100-mile walk from Altrincham ice rink to Coventry ice rink. This is all in aid of the MPCSF and a charity called Stick n' Step. They're doing it over a week.

The Manchester Phoenix Community Sports Foundation helps introduce sport to disabled and underprivileged children in the North West. While Stick n' Step provide free education and support to children with cerebral palsy, along with their families and careers.
If you would like to donate, it doesn't have to be a lot...as they say, a little goes a long way, you can donate here:
www.everyclick.com/charitywalk 

If you could share it, that would be great too.

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Three Things

Thing One

At the end of January I had to fly solo for a game, as Richard and Yolanda were attending a close friend's birthday party.

Being a lone photographer for a team is nothing new to me. I was solo all last season with a different team, so I knew the crack and what to expect. I wouldn't be able to cover everything that happened in the game, I'd just have to hope I'd get lucky and the goals and other action would happen where I was.

I did forget that there is a certain pressure to being the only photographer. If you get it wrong, you can't fall back on the other members of the team. There's just you. You and what you have on your memory card. So I did worry my camera would through a wobbler and I'd end up with hardly anything, or nothing at all!

Luckily, I stood in the right places at the right time. Normally in the third I'm in the home end, but that game I went to the away end and was right to do so. Two fights happened. The first to drop the gloves was Andy, the second was Ondrej.

Another thing to come out of that game was the photo of Andy got printed in the M.E.N, which is my first published photograph (that I've seen for myself!).

Thing Two

I made my first trip to an away game at the beginning of the month, which didn't go unnoticed by one of the players who commented, "This is your first away game this season, what has taken you so long?"
It is a good point. The team I photographed for last year was 80+ miles away and sometimes I was there 3 times in a week, so I'm just done with long journeys. Done! But I made this one because it was the first leg of the semi-final of the Challenge Cup.

Thing Three

Last year, I wrote about the new team calendar and how it was a two part project.



Well, the second part of this project is on its way! I'm not sure when or what day it is due out, but I can tell you the second part is a recipe book.
I got sent the food ideas from the boys and researched them, and then did a bit of food photography. I'm not a natural when it comes to food photography but I gave it my best shot and I hope everyone likes it.

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Smoke And Ice

A couple of games ago, my photo buddy Richard Allan wrangled us onto the ice pre-puck drop. We were going to photograph the guys charging onto the ice as their names were shouted out after the intro video.

The only problem I have with this is that my camera doesn't like low light and shooting through the smoke. My camera is slowly crapping out on me, like the last one which isn't fun. So, I decided to give another camera a whirl.

The other camera, which belongs to my dad, is a Lumix G3. It is a mirror-less DSLR, which I'm not really a fan of. The camera is too small and I don't like what I see through the view finder, but I'll pass that aside for the fact that it can shoot in low light just great! So along with that I was using a fixed focal lens of 45mm which stopped down to F/1.8.

Before we hit the ice, I gave it a try:

It seemed okay, but when they turned the lights out and the lad on the smoke machine got going....how good was it going to be? Well, there was only one way I was going to find out.

The lights went out, the music played and then the boy on the smoke machine got a bit trigger happy. It looks nice, don't get me wrong, but it is like photographing through fog. It is annoying during the first period, you end up with hardly anything!

ANYWAY.....back to shooting.

It was a bit hit and miss, as the boys move so fast when leaping out onto the ice and it is so dark...and you have the smoke to contend with. So with all these factors, your camera has a pretty mean job of focusing and shooting fast to get the images you want.

I missed a couple of the guys coming through the smoke out onto the ice because every now and then the camera struggled to focus, which is no worry as long as you get some of the other boys stepping out.

Some of the photos I had on the memory card were just the empty door, no players. There's a skill to it, you have to know your camera, what it does and how the settings you choose will affect the final image. Your basic settings, aperture, ISO and shutter speed are all interrelated. So how you set one will affect the others.

I am pleased with images I captured. The first of Luke Boothroyd being the best out of them all...I would like to try again without a fixed focal lens, so I could zoom in that little bit closer. However, I wouldn't be able to use my own camera due to the reasons stated above.

Although, having said that, these shots give me an idea for a photo shoot.



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Live On Air

So last night I took a trip with fellow team photographer, Richard Allan, to Media City UK which is located on the Salford Quays.

We were to be guests on the BBC Radio Manchester's sports show presented by Ian Cheeseman. Our hour was shared with two basketball fans and two fellas involved in the cycling world. The aim of the hour was to highlight and promote minority sport.

I'd been on the radio once before. I was 14-years-old and it was a pre-recorded interview, but that didn't stop me stuttering and my mind going a complete blank. I was to be a story on the news as I was in the top 28 out of around 30,000 other kids who'd entered a photography competition.

This time however, it was different, as we'd be live on air! Before leaving to go to Media City, I checked the points and stats of where the team currently lay in the league just in case we were asked.
I was really hoping they'd be easy questions and I wouldn't draw a blank...or worse, swear.

When our part of the show started, the presenter went round the desk and got everyone to introduce themselves and talk a little bit about their sport. I instantly thought that Richard and I should swap places, as it was a guarantee that when it got to me, I'd be asked about the
Manchester Storm (the team that came before the Phoenix). Inevitably I was asked when it was my turn but I simply said that he'd have to ask Richard about it as I wasn't around then. By that I meant hadn't even heard of ice hockey, but the presenter took it to mean that I hadn't been born and we had a short conversation that went something like this:

Me: "You'll have to ask Richard Allan about the Storm, as I wasn't around back then."

Presenter: "So how old are you then?"

Me: "You can't ask a lady her age!"

So, Richard talked about the Storm days and the first few years of the Phoenix. I waded in about how I think films like Slap shot and Goon have a lot to answer for, in terms of stereotyping to which the presented replied: "That's a very robust defence of your sport." Well, quiet, yes.

All in all, I didn't cock-up or swear. Richard and I were Team Awesome, we also managed to plug this weekend's clash against MKL and the website address!

After the show, Ian Cheeseman gave us a mini tour of the floor we were on. He took us into the studio used by the BBC Breakfast crew, which is also the same set that is used by North West Tonight. Of course we sat on the sofa and stood in front of the weather map and had pictures taken. Let's face it, who wouldn't?
We saw where 5Live is broadcast from, along with where the BBC Sports news is broadcast. We also saw a few of the news presenters and the lady who presents the weather.

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Patience In Game

Patience is a virtue, especially in photography.

Every photographer has a list of shots they want to get, and they'll try every game to get that shot. You can try all game and never get it....you can try all month to get that perfect shot and never get it, you can try all seasons for that one perfect picture. Sometimes on a rare occasion you can get it exactly the way you want it, they way you see it in your head, other times you have to settle for what is on your memory card. You can't control the game, the passes, the plays, the goals or the fights. You have to take what comes your way.

The shots I try to get every game are goal photos. The team can be knocking them in like there's no tomorrow and I don't get one. Last night I missed the first four and a good slice of the rest too. But the ones I got turned out:

A lot of other photographers really like to get the fights. I'm not really fussed about a fight, its not on the top of my list but if it happens I'll take it. They don't necessarily make the best images, especially when a fight is more like a love-in. A large slice of the fights I've seen have so far this season have been more of a hugging session than fists flying. If you have an image in mind these fights mean you have to wait a bit long for that photo you want. However, get a "real" fight and you have to contend with other players and the officials getting in the way and spoiling the images you get.

But the Holy Grail of all hockey photography, that you have to be most patient for, is the team you photograph for lifting meaningful sliver wear. You might have to wait all season and you might not be rewarded, but if you're team is the team you take as much as you can.....line-up those shots you have in mind and snap away.

It doesn't matter what league or country you're in, or what language you speak. Take your colours off and you're list of "most wanted shots" will be very similar. They'll no doubt tell you the same thing: patience is a virtue, wait long enough and you'll be rewarded.


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Pop!

So I took a photo during the game of Czech defence man, Ondrej Pozivil, and I looked at it and thought: "Ooo - not very good, but lets see what black and white does."

So I tried turning it black and white. It looked good, I liked it. But I thought there was something more I could do with it. So, I popped some colour!

Here's the finished picture, which I happen to really quite like:

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What's in a name?

Evey hockey team has one. Some teams have more than one guy on their roster that can be classed as one.

Sometimes it appears, that some fans, have forgotten what these men are used for.

So what exactly am I talking about? I'm talking about the Sean Averys, the Dave Semenkos and the Steve MacIntryes of a team. The enforcers, aggressors, instigators, agitators, and my least favourite word of them all, goons.

Most likely hitting the 6 foot something mark, and more often than not built like a brick shit house, these guys have two things in mind when it comes to playing the game. Firstly, to play the game and hopefully win, and secondly, to protect his team. Sometimes, they have other things on their agenda like generally getting under the skin of the opposition.

These guys aren't meant to be all fluffy and cuddly. No. Cross the line and they'll smack that smile clean off your face with one easy swipe of their giant bear paw.

Hockey fans everywhere have, at one time or another, bad mouthed the other team's tough guy. While I too am guilty of this, I like many hockey fans out there understand why these big, strong, powerful guys play like they do.

But what exactly do these adjectives actually mean? Well, lets take a look....

Enforcer:
1) To impose obedience as by force
2) One whose job it is to execute unpleasant tasks for a superior

Aggressor:
1) A confident assertive person who acts as an instigator
2) Someone who attacks

Instigator:
1) To urge onto some drastic or inadvisable action
2) Someone who deliberately foments trouble

Agitator:
1) One who agitates
2) To excite, disturb, or trouble a person, the mind or feelings

So, the next time these guys drop n' sock you can sit there and think, "Yep, it's all in the name."

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