As Chas and Dave would sing......

Been busy at the World Snooker Championships when work/family give me time to head off to the Crucible.
BetFred always look after the media in our little room (normally the rehearsal room backstage) so a day there is never a drag.  There are some pix on my website already and there will be some more later in the weeek and then again next week after the final on Monday 7th May.

It's rainy April

Had a good bit of time off over Easter.  One of the nice surprises was a request from Cheese Chisholm of the Harlem Globetrotters for some of the pictures from the game they played at the Sheffield Arena in March.

"Message: Hey Andy its cheese from the Harlem globetrotters #11... I was wondering if you could hook me up with the pictures that you took of me..so i can add them to my photo gallery."

You can just upload them on my fan page here is the link:http://www.facebook.com/CheeseChisholm11

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 =:~)