A Change of Pace

After a few weeks spent busy with commercial work, complete with early trains and late night drives I was recently asked to photograph a day’s cricket. One of the things that I love about my job is that I get to travel the country, going through doors that would be otherwise closed to me.

I love reportage and event photography because it keeps the things I love about my personal work alive in my professional role. Catching things as they happen, hunting for the angle that allows you to tell the story you want to tell.

My brief was to tell the story of the day, to capture a little action and to make some team photos before the games began. 

For the action shots I focussed mainly on the wicket, it was great to get my 100-500 out and put it to some commercial use, (I bought it for bears, a wonderful subject which has yet to prove particularly profitable).

During the second innings I threw the drone up to get the shot of the two games alongside one another before returning to the wicket for a little more action.

One of the things I’ve always loved about my set up, is the way that it can be turned to any subject. The R5 has the resolution to fill a wall with detail and the speed to capture action as it happens.

My particular set of lenses can shallow a depth of field for when I want to drive a viewers’ focus and my long lens gets me close to the action from the boundary.  (My drone is only little, but when paired with the rest of the setup it really adds something.)

One of the last images of the day was a shot of a wicket and I caught the bails frozen in the air.

All in all it was idyllic, the hallowed sound of leather on willow, the Herefordshire countryside, butterflies, errant cats and a feeling of relaxed excitement as I scooted around the pitch to face a left-hander. 

I love my job, and going to the places I go and meeting the people I meet is a privilege for which I count myself lucky, that being said, this did feel like a welcome break from the norm, one that I’d be eager to repeat.

Rockwell Moment

I don’t have affiliate relationships but it might be useful to know that my all my gear in this case came from London Camera Exchange.