World Archery Competition at the European Archery Festival, Telford last weekend

[Carlh]

840+ Archers, indoors (thankfully), 3 days, 14,000 images (non-burst), 260GB of drive space used, all processing done in camera raw, simple adjustments to contrast, exposure etc..
Culled to about 3,500 so I had a few shots at different angles, of all archers, plus stall shots, plus equipment shots, candid stuff too.

I tried my best with composition, very difficult with people moving constantly, firing at different times so I had to look constantly to see who was raising their bow, focus and click before they fired.

There was a tell-tale sign of when the archer was about to fire - personally, I've never watched it, let alone photographed it, but after a while you begin to notice (as a total archer noob) the thumb action..

I asked lots of different questions when archers weren't firing, the different bow styles, the different arrows etc.. How the competition works. Was very interesting so I got a lot back from the shoot(s).

There were 3 halls in the Telford International Centre, all with different white balances. Fan bloody tastic. Not.

1.. So this is what I had, 3 halls, full of archers, firing away in rounds, all at the same time. Constantly, for 3 days.

2..

3..

4..

5.. In total, I managed to get 3 or 4 arrow-launches. No burst shots, 250th of sec, throughout the whole 3 days.

6.. The men's World Champion for 2014. Was a great final. 10's all the way until the end when the opponent (from same country), made a mistake and got a 9. Really tense!

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed my little story

 

[MatBin]

2 & 5 are "interesting" as you appear to be in front of the firing line, or am I mistaken? I also notice very few arm/wrist protectors, my how the archers have improved over a few short years, I hated shooting without a guard. Often the archers with recurve bows have "clickers" as the arrow comes back along the bow (riser/handle) its tip causes the clicker to snap against the riser face and the arrow is usually released almost immediately thereafter as the archer knows he has pulled the arow back to a constant length (draw weight) thus ensuring a constant force is applied to the arrow at each shot. The thumb action for the compound bows is when the archer releases the mechanical trigger holding the string.
Glad you enjoyed it, I dont really see archery as a "spectator" sport, or it wasnt, maybe times have changed, hope so as most if not all of our archers are true amateurs and get amazingly good results agains their more professional based competitors such as the USA and the Koreans.

 

[Mikesphotaes]

Enjoyed those and I too wondered about the arm guards.

 

[troutfisher]

5) Is particularly interesting having caught the arrow loose,but like Mike above I wondered about the lack of arm guards.
Personally I never shot without one,it was too painful if you got wrong and hit yourself with the bowstring,although it was easier to avoid it with a compound bow.
The dress rules were changing when I gave up but I think it looked better when all the archers were in green/white rather than as now

 

[Carlh]

no2. I was standing on the shooting line, all other archers had finished, the lady was left so I got far away - enough to not be a distraction and to not get issues with the crew members. No5, we were allowed to be sat horizontally to the archers, lines were drawn where we could go. I did enjoy it and met a lot of interesting people, from all walks of life.