Purple Clouds Photography – Phil Oldham’s Photoblog

Treve Whitford from PNE’s media department called to ask if I could cover their reserve teams away game at Oldham, with it only being a matter of minutes away, I was happy to oblige. But it wasn’t at Oldham. It was at Stalybridge Celtic. Wonderful.. lighting on a par with candle light to deal with! Still, it gave me a chance to give the 1D Mark 3 a good test at ISO6400.

The camera performed flawlessly, and I even managed to correct the focussing issues I’d be having previously. I was happily snapping away at 1/400 for 5 frames per second and feeling safe in the knowledge that they’d all be in focus and sharp. Something that I’d been struggling with beforehand. God bless Canon’s in built lens calibration tool!

Preston lost.

Sedgley Park score

Having had a cancellation for today, I took it upon myself to get in some practise with rugby union. Geoff Roberts was kind enough to allow me to shoot Sedgley Parks derby match against Manchester.

Manchester are currently bottom of the table, and the match promised to be fairly one sided. One sided it was.

I used the 1D Mark III with the 300 2.8 to shoot the game, the action never came close enough to warrant the 70 – 200 2.8. The Mark III was a life saver today, the light fell dramatically in the second half and I wouldn’t have been able to get anything hand’t I pushed the ISO up to 6400. Even then, the last 15 minutes were not really possible to photograph, as the shutter speed dropped to a lowly 1/250!

I was asked, at 10.30pm on a Saturday evening, to cover a charity football tournament, only 12 hours later. Having had a rugby tournament cancelled due to weather, I was happy to oblige.

The event, organised by Disability Sport Events, in conjunction with Ralf Little (pictured) was to raise funds for the cause. Teams came from far and wide, and featured TV celebs from many famous shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Shameless and Casualty. Also supporting the event was Charles Reed, and ex Manchester City player, Danny Mills.

Unfortunatly, due to working commitments, Ralf couldn’t attend for too long however was kind enough to show his face and have a kick around for the cameras.

Not sure how much was raised yet, but all in all… a good positive day to support a fantastic cause. It gave me some ideas for more editorial portraiture too….

In the blue corner..

An early Saturday morning (again!) and a trip to Wigan’s Robin Park sports centre. Wrestling was on the cards today. Again, a day for all ages, although split by weight category. Everything from about 20kg right through to 90kg. Pictured, is somewhere in the middle, to give a sense of scale!

I ran in to pretty much the same problems as with the previous weeks karate, however light was more abundant (if you can call it abundant..) and there was a good mix of modern lights and natural light through the sky light.

This, is where the problems began. Early in the day was good, shutter speeds were relatively high, and I was even able to stop down to f3.2… yes, you heard me correctly! However as light failed, in the afternoon, and I became reliant on the electric lighting, light levels dropped and so I had to drop both the shutter speed, and stop up again to f2.8.

Fighting went on until 5.45, at which point it was entirely dark outside. Then we proceeded with a 50 minute presentation.. I don’t think a competitor left without some form of medal or certificate! As long as it makes the day feel though, the faces on the light ones were delighted, and surely, this is the only way to encourage development which will produce our 2012 hopefuls.

Action

An early Sunday morning provided plenty of grump to drive over to Sutton Leisure centre near St Helens with. This was only added to, when walking into what can only be described as the yellowest light since Big Bird was made into a lamp. If he ever was… if not… I may just suggest that idea… Correcting the white balance was easy enough though, plenty of white about.. and no correction needed after! It was set to a custom value, although I forget which.

Anyway, the day was broken down into age groups. Starting with the little ones, and moving on up to the adult categories. The smaller ones were the easiest to photograph in the difficult light, due to slower, and few movements. Freezing the action with the elder competitors was more difficult due to the enhanced movements. Choosing the right moment to snap the shutter was the key to getting the shots.

Didn’t do too bad though, and met the wife of the staff doctor at Man City. What a day eh!

I spent a cold Monday evening at the Tameside stadium in Ashton-Under-Lyne to photograph their Unibond Presidents Cup tie versus Clitheroe. Curzon initially went down 0-1, before pulling back an equaliser. This took the game to extra time where both teams scored again, before Ashton fired in two winners in the second half.

All shot on the 1D Mark II and 300 2.8L at ISO1600, f2.8 and 1/320. It was quite dark!

Proud to be...

New beginnings are afoot! Time has elapsed since our website was last updated, much over a year in fact. Business has moved from strength to strength and is headed in a much more refined direction.

Sports are where ‘it’s’ at! Perhaps, seen as offshoot from ‘people’ photography, sports have drawn me in, in a manner which I’d never expected. The draw you ask? To be there, capturing history in the making. To be there, witnessing and recording human triumph. To be there, witnessing the emotion and adrenaline.

Being there, is a big thing. I read in awe, photographers’ blogs from the Beijing 2008 Olympics, sided with some of the most unique sporting photographs I have ever seen, I knew it was what I wanted to do.

Photographing such high octane events, gives new experiences and skills, many of which can of course be used and modified to produce boundary pushing new work in other fields such as weddings… both technically and creatively. Variety is as they say, the spice of life!

So I ask you, to please keep checking my new blog, as it develops over the months and (hopefully) years to come. Your support will give me the confidence to continue pushing for my career in sports photography. 2012 here we come….!!

Kind regards

Phil Oldham