My first football assignment tomorrow, slight collywobbles! Advice appreciated.

footman

footman

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Laurence
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OK, more than slight collywobbles!
My son and I support a West London football league team, both ST holders. A few days ago he sent me an email saying they were looking for a photographer for the youth team matches and that I should apply.
I didn't realise he was joking, the devil!

Anyway, I had a look and seems they were looking for a young intern, in other words someone to do a freebie. I gave them a call and it seems they've been looking for ages, no-one suitable has come forward.

Even at my advanced age they seemed keen for me to step into the breach but I stressed that I would happily step aside for a young person. Also it seems I would get a share of sales of my shots.

First youth match is tomorrow, it's a local derby and if it was a 1st team game would be the ultimate needle match, I wouldn't be surprised if the juniors don't see it that way as well :eek:.

I've never shot sports before but doing wildlife and birds I'm set up for action, the thought is still daunting though.

Any advice/tips from football photographers would be most welcome:)
 
My input for what it's worth Laurence.....

I kneel or sit and have two bodies on the go....200mm and 300mm. I shoot half th game from the side (1/3 along the pitch) to get passing shots and then the second half from behind the goal line to get some head on shots. For the photo journalists, it's important to get one or two good action shots but amateur football requires a broader overview and getting shots of as many different players as possible is the thing....they like to see themselves on the web somewhere.

Bob
 
Thanks for the reply Bob.
The club pro has suggested that I position myself behind the goal line of the end we are attacking and use my 300 F4L IS + 1DIV up until the 18 yard box when I should switch to the 40D with 70-200 F4L IS.
I'll take your advice on board and perhaps vary my position a little.
He also wants me to do stuff with resizing and metadata that I'm ashamed to admit I haven't tackled much before, bit of a learning curve for me today!
 
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For a minute there, I thought I might bump into you tomorrow but it's against Bristol that I'm doing tomorrow, not your lot ;)

Are you going to go to any of the away games?
 
purpleclouds said:
I'd stick the MKIV on your 70-200.
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Interesting, why? Do you mean I should put the longer lens on the 40D and use the 1D for nearer the goal mouth?

kelack said:
For a minute there, I thought I might bump into you tomorrow but it's against Bristol that I'm doing tomorrow, not your lot ;)

Are you going to go to any of the away games?
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As usual I'm confused:). Which team do you photograph for?
 
footman said:
Interesting, why? Do you mean I should put the longer lens on the 40D and use the 1D for nearer the goal mouth?
Click to expand...

Yes. All the important things in a game tend to happen in the penalty area so do you really want to rely on the lesser capabilities of the 40D autofocus to nail the shots?

If it becomes a regular thing and you end up doing night/floodlit games, you'll find there's more light in the centre of the pitch than at the edges, so you'll get away with the lower ISO capabilities of the 40D better on the long lens.

Out in the field where action is more predictable and slower moving in the camera viewfinder, it is easier on the AF system so your 40D would be better suited to that job.

I'm going to presume the club will want to see goals, celebrations, controversial penalty decisions etc, so you'd be wanting to capture these at the best quality possible. Anyone can shoot 'two men on a ball' action on a long lens, but take a look in the papers and you'll see that there isn't much of this featured unless it's a 0-0 draw or focussed on one player in particular.

It's best not to be swapping bodies around as mastering short lens usage is the key. If you were to upgrade the 40D after having used it on the short lens it'll mean relearning the technique as crop factor will be different, AF will be different and so on..
 
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hi mate i know what you are you about its for brentford i would suggest stay clear mate i was doing this for 4 weeks for them they had me going all over the place. then they want you to upload all the pictures to there website using ftp which i had so many problems and it would not upload.

Then i had to chase them to ask why the pictures had not been put up for sale then after the 5 email they finally put them up. AND all that for 40% and they never sell pictures.

They have asked you to do qpr vs Barnet under 18's just be careful because they are using you mate its alot of hard work and effort which they don't want to help you with.
 
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wrightyboy said:
hi mate i know what you are you about its for brentford i would suggest stay clear mate i was doing this for 4 weeks for them they had me going all over the place. then they want you to upload all the pictures to there website using ftp which i had so many problems and it would not upload.

then i had to crash them to ask why the pictures had not been put up for sale then after the 5 email they finally put them up. AND all that for 40% and they never sell pictures.

they have asked you to do qpr vs Barnet under 18's just be careful because they are using you mate.
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Bit confused about which team you were doing it for. I'm doing it for Brentford as a sort of stop gap really while the regular guy is away.
I don't expect anything in the way of sales so I'm not bothered really.
Sounds like you had a pretty unsatisfactory experience though, shame really as it puts you off.
 
footman said:
Bit confused about which team you were doing it for. I'm doing it for Brentford as a sort of stop gap really while the regular guy is away.
I don't expect anything in the way of sales so I'm not bothered really.
Sounds like you had a pretty unsatisfactory experience though, shame really as it puts you off.
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i was doing Brentfords under 18's mate, that is my point i had so many problems uploading the pictures to them. the metadata that they want you to download did not work. hope you have a lot of patience lol

sorry meant to put brentford vs qpr
 
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wrightyboy said:
i was doing Brentfords under 18's mate, that is my point i had so many problems uploading the pictures to them. the metadata that they want you to download did not work. hope you have a lot of patience lol

sorry meant to put brentford vs qpr
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I think I've done the metadata bit OK, I haven't used ftp for a million years but it still seems straightforward. I'm sure that's what you thought until you pressed the send button!:)
I see you put your watermark on the images.

wrightyboy said:
http://www.officialbfcpics.co.uk/

if you go to colchester away and Barnet at home that is the matches i done in the last couple of weeks.
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Excellent stuff. Are you a regular at GP, do you go away at all?
 
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footman said:
I think I've done the metadata bit OK, I haven't used ftp for a million years but it still seems straightforward. I'm sure that's what you thought until you pressed the send button!:)
I see you put your watermark on the images.


Excellent stuff. Are you a regular at GP, do you go away at all?
Click to expand...

Yeah it was straight forward untill it said critical error can not log in lol.

don't go to many away games these days. been really working hard on my photography these days:crying:
 
purpleclouds said:
Yes. All the important things in a game tend to happen in the penalty area so do you really want to rely on the lesser capabilities of the 40D autofocus to nail the shots?

If it becomes a regular thing and you end up doing night/floodlit games, you'll find there's more light in the centre of the pitch than at the edges, so you'll get away with the lower ISO capabilities of the 40D better on the long lens.

Out in the field where action is more predictable and slower moving in the camera viewfinder, it is easier on the AF system so your 40D would be better suited to that job.

I'm going to presume the club will want to see goals, celebrations, controversial penalty decisions etc, so you'd be wanting to capture these at the best quality possible. Anyone can shoot 'two men on a ball' action on a long lens, but take a look in the papers and you'll see that there isn't much of this featured unless it's a 0-0 draw or focussed on one player in particular.

It's best not to be swapping bodies around as mastering short lens usage is the key. If you were to upgrade the 40D after having used it on the short lens it'll mean relearning the technique as crop factor will be different, AF will be different and so on..
Click to expand...

:plus1: Tottaly agree. If I just new this some time ago before I bought better Nikon and long lens and decided to keep old and worse Canon for goalmouth... Shouldn't have mixed the two systems anyway :bonk:
 
hmmm.... sounds fishy to me, do brentford actually pay a "regular guy" or rely on constant stream of freebies? not putting the opportunity down for you at all pal, its great experience and you'll enjoy it, but talking about the club, it seems a little shady.
 
meatcandy89 said:
hmmm.... sounds fishy to me, do brentford actually pay a "regular guy" or rely on constant stream of freebies? not putting the opportunity down for you at all pal, its great experience and you'll enjoy it, but talking about the club, it seems a little shady.
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I don't think there's anything fishy about it. The club have a pro and he covered two games yesterday, the development side in the morning and the first team in the afternoon.
I covered the under 18's of the Academy. 3rd division clubs simply don't have swarms of pro photographers .

This is what I posted about yesterday on another forum:
Luckily it was a clear and bright day so no real issues with lighting.
I'm really glad I put the 70-200 on the 1DIV as the 40D failed miserably as a sports body.
The 300 F4 isn't known for its ultra snappy AF but it normally performs OK for me on the 1D.
On the 40D it hunted like crazy and when it did focus the results weren't brilliant.

The 70-200 was excellent and I was able to capture everything near the opposing box with ease, I had to crop a fair bit for more distant stuff. Be interested in what the gaffer thinks of the shots!

As a game it was a bit meh, I realised after looking at Dereks shots and also those of our club pro just what made a good football shot. Unfortunately QPR were somewhat dominant, not surprising as the clubs are two divisions apart.
This meant that shots of our attacking play in their 18 yard box were few and far between although I got a shot of our goal. Because of my position it only showed our player, their beaten defender and the ball!

If I get the call to do more the 40D will have to go and be a bargain for someone else and I shall sell a little used lens and buy a 7D.

The 40D is a great body and it's won competitions for me but it's not up there as sports body.
 
I'm surprised that the 40D didn't hold up, as I thought they were quite decent! :)

That aside if you can afford to not sell it, get yourself a decent wide angle and a set of remote triggers, and turn it into a goal camera!
 
They're up on the official club site now:
http://www.brentfordfc.co.uk/news/article/20121006-y-qpr-pictures-413014.aspx
It seems that I've been given copyright on the watermark, I didn't do that so it was the club pro.
DemiLion said:
I'm surprised that the 40D didn't hold up, as I thought they were quite decent! :)

That aside if you can afford to not sell it, get yourself a decent wide angle and a set of remote triggers, and turn it into a goal camera!
Click to expand...

It did surprise me, I'll do some more work with it before I make a firm decision.
 
Some nice shots there Laurence.
 
well done mate, some good shots there especially for your first attempt, as you said you were lucky for the good light as your equipment would have struggled on a dark day.
pat on the back :)
 
A good selection there Laurence and well executed for a first attempt.

Bob
 
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