500GB of video, 70GB of images and very little sleep
Hello !!
Welcome to another look into the wonderful life of a Sports Photographer, last four days have been full-on work from 7am until 3am - and in that time, plenty of material has been produced to various clients.
The Bank Holiday weekend was spent photographing the Women's Invitational at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford - with Greece, Germany, Israel and Team GB taking part. Great to see the Arena pretty much Sold Out for Sunday and Monday - and also that there were quite a few younger fans in the crowd, which meant that the noise levels of support were pretty good! Helped of course by TWO over-time games on Saturday :-)
For me the it was always an early arrival to SSP - edit some pictures while team train on the court. Games start, shoot still images of all the team, with Team GB the main client for the event. After Team GB games I also did the post game interviews, on video, of two players and the coach. As well as the still images, I had a camcorder running all through the games to capture some brief video clips to add to the interviews.
After the games, it was a 30 minute drive to the hotel - where rest of the 'crew' seemed to enjoy a nice dinner and relaxing evening.. where as myself.. well, import the video clips, edit the videos - edit images, and find a take away somewhere :-) Nice that the hotel room had two teaspoons, this helped me eat my noodles on Sunday.. in emergency cases I have been known to use my toothbrush to eat noodles - challenging, but can be done.
In these smaller events, the interaction with players is also a part of why I love these events - and at least for now, there aren't that many people covering the sport.. so your face gets known pretty soon, and Social Media helps as well.. On Sunday I got a 'tweet' asking if I was at the game, and say Hi to certain players.. then you say Hi to them and.. just a nice little interaction that sports that still have athletes who are approachable.
Monday - as usual in UK events, once the game is over, the media rarely get much time to finish their work at the desks - hardly had I done the interviews, before the tables and court were being rolled away. Would be nice to get an extra 30 minutes before being 'chased' away. Long drive back home, back to editing the video interviews and few pictures and leave the rest for Tuesday morning.
Get 95% of everything sorted on Tuesday afternoon - and then it is off to Birmingham City Ladies for their FA WSL game versus Chelsea. Typical luck - all weekend it has been sunny and I have been locked inside a sports arena, then when I have a game outdoors.. it's 8 degrees and raining (although it did not rain during the game!). I mean come on!! End of May and it is 8 degrees outside.. all the while they are enjoying 28 degree heat-wave in Finland *sigh*
Great game of Women's footy - with Blues coming away with a nice 2-1 win.. and any of you out there interested, look for the game highlights on ESPN/YouTube.. Jo Potters goal... you won't see many better than that!!
Wednesday gives me time to take stock of things - clean the lenses, charge camera batteries, empty hard-drives and archive all images from the weekend. In the here is the total what was captured over the weekend :
Video : 280 minutes of footage, divided into 11 player interview clips, 3 highlight/interview clips and few bits not be mentioned yet :-)
Photos : 70 gigabytes of JPEG images (not sure how many 1000's is that), from One Media Day, Six basketball games and one football game
Another productive weekend, with hopefully some happy clients at the end of it - I sure enjoyed covering the games, meeting people and just doing what I love doing.. capturing sporting events!!! Tomorrow - off to new challenges, Women's International football in France... looking forward to it already!
OH !! and for those who've bothered to read ALL the way here - a little friendly advice if you are in the crowd as a fan. We photographers DO point our lenses to you every now and then, and we love it when you celebrate your team scoring. But a piece a advice, please do think of HOW HIGH your shirt lifts up when you raise your hands and jump up and down.. especially if you have decided to NOT wear a bra. Nothing wrong with this, but lets just say that those images of crowd can hardly be published.. although you all did seem celebrating and oblivious to your 'wardrobe malfunction' during this time... And to those who have asked me to publish those images... SHAME ON YOU :-)
ALL IMAGES © VILLE VUORINEN / GOOGABU NORDIC CREATIONS LTD