Another Attempt at Professional Football

The great thing about photography is being able to freeze in time a piece of action that comes and goes in a split second. This foul lead to Stevenage’s second goal. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 500.

Last year I had the chance to photograph my first professional football match, the pre-season friendly between Stevenage and, my own team, Derby County. That ended in a 1-0 defeat for the Rams but it was invaluable experience as I got to observe and speak to professional sports photographers. This time around I was photographing not just my first competitive football match but also the first competitive match between the two sides. I was hoping for a better result.

My photography pass for the afternoon. 1/640s 35mm F1.6 ISO 64.

Stevenage’s mascot leading the players out onto the pitch. 1/1000 300mm F2.8 ISO 640.

Players coming out for the first half. 1/1000 300mm F2.8 ISO 640.

Before even turning up I took few lessons from last time into my preparation. I brought along my monopod as tripods are not allowed, a small fold-up stool to sit on, and also an old towel to cover my gear in case it started to rain. All small things, but they added up to ensure a more comfortable experience. I no longer had to stand handholding my big 300mm F2.8 lens the full ninety minutes. Perhaps the one thing I should have done however was take out the polarising filter. Whilst it did make a slight difference in contrast, I think I would have been better served with dropping my ISO for cleaning images.

The match saw a large number of aerial battles. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 800.

Max Bird makes a run. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 500.

Both teams had plenty of the ball throughout the game. 1/1000 300mm F2.8 ISO 400.

The atmosphere was completely different. Most of the stadium had been completely empty for the pre-season game but this time around it was almost a full house, and I sandwiched myself between the away end and the standing terraces with the noisiest home fans. The atmosphere is in some ways what makes a game so exciting, that feeling of energy from thousands of people as fans shout at each other whilst their teams battle it out. It also meant I could get the odd shot of the crowds.

Wildsmith kicks the ball up field. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 640.

Cashin heads the ball in dramatic fashion. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 800.

Stevenage are an old-fashioned physical side and it’s a type of football that Derby often struggle with. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 800.

There was plenty for me to learn during this match. As I haven’t used my monopod for sports photography before, I tried different combinations of setups. Standing, sitting, using and not using the small fold-out feet on the monopod. Looking at it afterwards I should have sat down the whole time, being low gives you a better angle on the players and I did notice throughout the match that I was the only one standing. I did also find it tricky to turn with the monopod feet deployed and also with the stool I had brought along. The smaller monopods and boxes the other photographers sat on gave them a greater ability to twist to follow the action.

Holding steady in a corner of the match. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 1250.

Stevenage celebrate their first goal. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 1250.

And the fans were certainly celebrating to. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 500.

Another learning curve was my new camera. Yes, you heard that right, this was the first proper test run of my Nikon Z8 which has turned up the day before. A very capable camera but also a very complicated one with even more settings than my Nikon D850. I tried out several different auto focus modes and found on the day that 3D tracking served me the best. Though I definitely need to test this further.

A change of pace. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 1250.

Another strong header. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 1250.

I like this shot of a throw-in as you can see the effort the player puts in and a small bit of motion in the ball suggests the force behind it. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 1250.

The other photographers were also using multiple cameras, though I also had my 70-200mm lens on my D850 handy, I never actually used it. Not being as well versed in sports photography as the professionals I decided to just focus on using one camera properly. But it’s here that I can see why it is important to sit down. If action gets closer, you can hold your main camera on the monopod between your legs and then use the second or third camera for close-ups. I doubt there’s a form of photography that requires you to do so many things at once. And that’s before we get into whipping out your laptops to edit as the match is ongoing. I however stuck to doing my editing in-camera during halftime.

Derby were chasing the game down in the second half. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 3200.

Some better play in the second half made it seem that Derby might be heading for an equaliser. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 800.

But they couldn’t find that bit of quality required and the Stevenage defence did enough to keep them out. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 500.

Sadly, it was an even heavier defeat for Derby this time around, losing 3-1. But whilst the performance wasn’t very uplifting, I did manage to get a good set of images, some of which you can see in this blog. One final thing I do need to bear in mind, is that now I have a camera that shoots at 20 fps there is actually a real risk that my current 120GB memory cards may max out during the game! Something I hadn’t even considered before the match. So much to learn and consider, but that’s all part of the fun. Hopefully it won’t be too long until I am pitch-side again.

Thanks to Layth Yousif at Nub News for getting me in.

One final header. 1/1600 300mm F2.8 ISO 3200.

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