Carpe Diem

Barney Owl (mascot of Sheffield Wednesday) made an appearance at the Sport Relief Mile in Hillsborough Park last Sunday.  I saw him hovering but I was pre-occupied with looking for pictures of runners approaching the finish line....I thought, I'll get him in a moment....well, I didn't of course and now I've been asked for a photo of him at Sport Relief so that SWFC could put it into their programme for this week......arrrrggghhhh....never mind, this time next year Rodney.....

My first Basketball game shoot

If you're going to shoot a basketball game, your first in fact, then why not make it a biggie?  The Harlem Globetrotters came to the Sheffield Motorpoint Arena on Friday 23rd March and I was able to get press accreditaton for it as a freelancer.  Good job no-one was paying me for the pictures as I was not at my best......(or as Scott Kelby said of his first basketball shoot - "...I sucked...").

The lighting was ok for watching the game as a spectator, but even the EIS (notorious among sports photographers) lets you use 1/1000th at 4000ISO (not ideal, but ok).  For the Globetrotters I was at 1/640th at 6400ISO and hoping that the noise wasn't going to be too bad.  Needless to say the D700 did a fab job and it was just down to me, trying to get the angles while not blocking anyone's view and failing hopelessly to really follow the action as those guys whip it round the court so fast in one of their trade-mark "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" moves.
Great night, great show.  Check out their website.

Sport Relief Mile, Sheffield 2012

It was a gloriously sunny day and the runners turned out in their droves at Hillsboroug Park to join in this year's Sport Relief Mile, raising money and having fun.  Winners of the main 6mile run were Rebecca Robinson and Philip Cowley.  Well done all.

What's new pussycat?

Update.....well, the 'bouncing' Nikon SB-900 has been given a check-over by the nice people at 'H.Lehmann' and should be back with me soon.  Endcliffe Park Cafe have confirmed my space on their gallery wall for as soon as I want it, so I've gone with a souped-up picture of Surprise View, Peak District, ordered as a canvas from Supersize Print and complemented with the same as postcards from VistaPrint.  Good job I haven't got kids wanting to drain my pocket of spare cash as well........

What to do for Mother's Day.....

.....well Mrs C drove us up to Barnard Castle to see her family.  We went into NEST for a drink and I had a lovely chat with Eva Zandman about her photography and how to get the best out of Google Analytics.

All the best Eva - hope you have some great work this year =:~)

And the Winner is.....

....Lowepro.  I have had several of their bags over the years and my 4year-old Slingshot 300AW recently bust a zip.  After a quick email to their website and sending my bag off to the UK Distrbutors, a replacement Slingshot 302AW arrived a couiple of days later.  Great products and even better customer service - well done!

The Moon's A Balloon (or 'Put a Diffusion Dome on your flash...')

As David Niven noted in his marvellous book "The Moon's A Balloon", there is an old proverb that says when the soft breezes blow and the sun is warmest on your back, the breezes are planting the seeds of weeds into your garden.
I thought I was having a pretty good time of it recently - photo sales up, being published in several places, page views up.....but then the weeds started to blow in: I've left my umbrella box somewhere (who knows where..??), the zip bust on my camera bag, my home-made flash grid gave up the ghost (good excuse to sit down with the black straws and glue again), and then I discovered that it helps to have the diffusion dome on your flash if it decides to bungee jump from your light stand.  The diffusion dome broke but it did at least break the fall of the SB-900 which mostly still works but has had to be shipped off for repair (I'd normally leave it but it is the only flash that fits my ring-flash so needs to be working, particularly as it is now discontinued).  So, that money which should be dribbling in from invoices and which was pencilled in for nice things has now been spent, and more, on weeding.....oh, the joy of photography =:~)

The Joy of Analytics

One of the things that we couldn't imagine 20 years or so ago was the world-wide-web and just how much it would become an integral part of so many areas of our lives.
The best tool imaginable for anyone with a website who wants to see who is looking at it, where they are, what pages they land on, where they exit, keywords etc etc etc etc etc (there is just too much to list here), is Google Analytics.  As I've said before on this blog, it's helped me see that Michaela Tabb is the most looked-for person that ranks on my website (still don't quite get that).  Today I'm celebrating a milestone.  Just after Christmas Google Analytics was telling me that I had had over 400 visitors to my site in the last 30 days (a standard, rolling view) and that has been creeping up since pictures were published from the UK Indoor Athlectics in mid-February, and has now reached 501 visitors for the period 10 Feb-11 Mar 2012.  I don't think Scott Kelby will be losing any sleep over this, but if he happens to be reading this then all I can say is: "Scott, hi - I'm up to be your Wednesday Guest Blogger, anytime, no really!" =:~)
So, Google Analytics, thank you for a pep on a Monday morning.

When things don't work out with Google

There is an old saying that goes "When one door closes another door opens".  Yesterday I was contacted by Google about working for them on a project called 'Google Business Photos'.  They had seen my website and the commercial work that I have in Sheffield, but.....it needed more of a time commitment than I can give for now so we parted on our separate ways.....
Today I've sold another photo from the Aviva UK Indoor Athletics Championships and hope that it will be the start of a collaboration with a major Sheffield institution.....it's all swings and roundabouts.

Framed

One of the best places to chill out in Sheffield, Endcliffe Park Cafe is a family friendly cafe in a great spot in S11, with a warm welcome at any time of year.  Always busy when the sun is out, they organise events throughout the year (look out for the Duck Run down the Porter Brook - this year on Mon 9th April).
I have just pencilled in to place one of my canvases on their 'gallery' wall after Easter.  Now I have to think what would look best there - probably a nice local scene that will fit in with the windows to make it seem like you are looking out of a window.

Where do all the good newspaper pun headlines come from?

I've been trying to think of one for this blog since the Aldershot Mail got in touch to request the use of a couple of photos of Isobel Pooley from the Aviva Indoor Athletics UK Championships 2012.
Isobel is a talented young high jumper from Hampshire and the photos are to accompany a piece on her and the 2012 Olympics.  Go Isobel!