Out of Focus
By Big-Al
January 31 2014
London Wasps v London Irish – Saturday 25th January 2014, LV= Cup.
It is not always easy being an amateur photographer following London Irish. Of course those of us who like to follow premiership matches through a lens are fortunate that at the majority of grounds there are no issues with using photographic equipment.
In order the freeze the action a fast shutter speed is required, and in order to get a fast shutter speed, good light is required – from around the start of October through to the end of March (so, most of the season), unless the TV gods give us a lunchtime kick-off, we are likely to be playing in fading light and floodlights are nowhere near a bright as daylight. For those couple of months where the light is decent (provided the TV gods don’t give us an evening kick-off) we are likely to get bright sunshine which produces the problems of harsh shadows and vastly different light conditions in different areas of the pitch. Ideally all rugby would be played in bright, but cloudy conditions.
Unless I find a couple of thousand pounds to spend on a nice professional quality lens (which would allow me to shoot at F2.8 instead of F6.3) in order to freeze the action during winter matches, for which a shutter speed of 320th of a second or faster is really required, I have to under expose and then use photoshop (other photo editing tools are available) to brighten and lighten the picture. This results in fairly grainy looking pictures, although when weather conditions are really bad this can give a good impression of what is was like to be there.
If I could find the money for the professional lens, I suspect there then would be issues with using it, I expect most have noticed the pros with their massive lenses and I expect you wouldn’t be happy if the person in front of you was blocking your view with one – so I will stick with my relatively small lens even if I win the lottery.
The professional photographers are allowed to go pretty much where the like and swap ends at half time, but us amateurs are stuck in one place for the match. I have a liking for taking photos from behind the posts and for one half I will have Irish attacking, the disadvantage is that for the other half the parts of the game I’m most interested in are at the furthest point of the pitch. Distance causes a few problems, in order to fill the photo with the action and not large amounts of empty space a fair amount of cropping in required (and with the photoshop enhanced under-exposed photos, you can’t really crop too much), the relatively large depth of field with F6.3 will mean that the background is fairly clear as well as the action, which can distract from the main subject of the photos and as the main subject is fairly small in the frame, the autofocus may not be looking at the same thing as me.
From a photographic point of view, I find the most expensive seats are generally not the best place to be – if you are sat on the half way line, there is the advantage that the furthest corners are not so far away, but all the attacking play is heading away from you, so you only get shots of players coming towards you when they try to play their way out of defence.
For Saturday’s match I was positioned behind the posts, with Irish attacking that end in the first half – in order to tie the match bits in with all the photo bits above, I guess I need a couple of photographic references – so Brian Smith had stated that for this season our main FOCUS was to be the premiership, so after 2 previous loses in the LV= cup, even taking a very WIDE-ANGLED view this was not going to be one of our more significant matches.
I arrived at Adams Park in good time, the weather was bright with sunny periods, but the forecast did mention the possibility of showers later on – from pre-match gossip I learnt that there would be some good news on the player front for next season during the week (presumably referring to the official announcement about Tom Court).
Although it had been mentioned during the week that we were likely have a fair number of youngsters playing, the team selected for the match had a very strong look to it and on paper we looked to be the stronger team – and we dominated for the first 30 seconds or so, but it was Wasps who struck first, scrum-half Charlie Davies going over for their first try after just 4 minutes and Joe Carlisle added the extras. 7-0 to Wasps.
We responded through Sailosi Tagicakibau – the ball was worked quickly across the field. A break by Guy Armitage whose pass found Losi on the half way line. A 50m run, avoiding a couple of tackles and we have our first try. The wind took hold of Shane Geraghty’s conversion attempt, so just the 5 pts, Wasps lead 7-5 after 13 minutes.
A couple of tries in quick succession around the mid-point of the half put Wasps firmly in command. Firstly Ed Jackson finished off a driving maul, but Carlisle’s conversion attempt struck the post. A couple of minutes later Josh Bassett is found in space, avoids the attempted tackle and crosses in the same corner. This time Carlisle is on target with the conversion. Wasp lead by 19-5 after 25 minutes.
Jimmy Stevens replaces Mike Mayhew.
With the half drawing to a close, we get a maul going from a lineout about 15m out and Mr Chris Hala’ufia touches down for our second try. Again the combination of the angle and the wind mean Shane’s conversion attempt is unsuccessful. Wasps lead is 19-10 after 37 minutes.
Andrew Fenby replaces Tom Homer.
There are no further scores before half time.
We made a number of changes at half time with Matt Parr and Jamie Hagan replacing John Yapp and Leo Halavatau in the front row, Blair Cowan on in place of Chris Hala’ufia, Sean Kennedy making his first appearance for us in place of Tomás O’Leary and Myles Dorrian replacing Shane Geraghty.
The third quarter was dominated by the weather with neither side looking likely to add to the score. During a long stoppage for an injury to Guy, the players leave the field for a few minutes while the monsoon is at its worst. Guy is stretchered off.
Gerard Ellis replaces Guy Armitage.
With the players back on the pitch and slightly improved weather conditions, Jamie Hagan crosses the whitewash for our third try of the afternoon, but Myles Dorrian is off target with the conversion. Wasps lead by 19-15 after 65 minutes.
A couple of minutes later a successful penalty from Carlisle extends Wasps lead to 22-15.
Although we have the better of the last 10 minutes, there are no further scores. So the final score is London Wasps 22, London Irish 15.
The post-match news is that Tom went off purely as a precaution, so nothing to worry about there. Guy’s injury is not as bad as first though, cartilage rather than ligaments, so should not mean a long lay-off.
So our LV campaign is as good as over for another season, our final match against the Scarlets is a dead rubber, with only pride to play for. Even though a result at Wasps would not have retained any interest for us in this seasons LV cup, it was still a disappointing defeat – we had a strong team out which should have been capable of achieving more than they did.
I guess our FOCUS was elsewhere.
Out of Focus
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 31/01/2014 03:05
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Re: Out of Focus
Posted by: b.q.f.m (IP Logged)
Date: 31/01/2014 06:56
Good report Al.
Actually found the photographic stuff interesting too, now I know exactly how you get those great shots of Losi!
Actually found the photographic stuff interesting too, now I know exactly how you get those great shots of Losi!
Re: Out of Focus
Posted by: Foggy-Balla (IP Logged)
Date: 31/01/2014 13:12
Lots of depth of field at f/6.3? I curse if I can't achieve over f/20 
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
"Our prayer is 'God save Ireland' and pour blessings on her name!"
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
"Our prayer is 'God save Ireland' and pour blessings on her name!"
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
Re: Out of Focus
Posted by: 'Big-Al' (IP Logged)
Date: 31/01/2014 17:44
Foggy - there are circumstances where F20 or greater is needed
but at other times a smaller depth of field gives a better result
I find for sports photography, generally the smaller the depth of field the better.
but at other times a smaller depth of field gives a better result
I find for sports photography, generally the smaller the depth of field the better.
Re: Out of Focus
Posted by: Foggy-Balla (IP Logged)
Date: 02/02/2014 10:25
Ah, but you know what my very boring pictures are of, Al, I don't do art like you!
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
"Our prayer is 'God save Ireland' and pour blessings on her name!"
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
"Our prayer is 'God save Ireland' and pour blessings on her name!"
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.