The day was cold and bleak – perfect for suburban football some would say. The Rovers were taking on Old Hailerbury which has the likes of ex-AFL starts Robert Harvey and Brett Voss. Harvs wasn’t in the action for this game but Vossy was and it was great to see the ex-Saint running around the paddock again (bias of being a St Kilda supporter I guess!).

The Rovers put up a great fight and came out victors in the end.

I asked my friend in the team John if he would be willing to pose for me. Once I explained the idea he was really willing to help out.

I now needed to get use of the stadium as they are a busy centre that always has something on. A phone call, email and another phone call later and the deal was done mind you a nice early 7.30am start!

I give John top cred – he came into this with as much enthusiasm as I did which was good, gave the whole shoot a great vibe from the word go. He had about 10 changes of clothes which was great as I had only had one in mind but ended up using a few.

Set up for images was a mixture of varying Nikon SB units. The beauty of the speedlights is that it gives you the ability to change up the scene quickly without having to move a ton of gear around. The above shot was an SB800 fired through a shoot through umbrella camera left with an SB600 camera right firing at the back of John’s head through another shoot through. I also had an SB28 bare on a stand down the back pointing at the backboard to light it up. All units fired by Pocket Wizards.

Was great to shoot John. Here’s hoping I can come up with another shoot to use him in. Maybe even an outdoor setting this time!

There were a huge amount of police present for this game and their presence was seen very early on with Knights supporters asked to move to the other end of the ground away from the South Melbourne supporters. Everyone behaved from a spectator point of view which was good.

With the game underway I quickly got to shooting anything and everything. Whilst understanding the rules and knowing the general flow of the game I find myself struggling to stay up with the action in some cases. I guess I was trying to liken it to AFL shooting where I can predict the flow of the game and each play is a bit more smooth than soccer. I found the game would suddenly take off and I would miss a header or a kick that would have proved a great shot. Lessons well learned though which is all part of being a good sports photographer – understanding the sport you are shooting.

I eventually got into the swing of things and even managed to try out one of my newer lenses – the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8. I’ve had this lens for a little while now but have not really had much of a play with it. I must admit I was very impressed. The focus was fast and the zoom dial very smooth and easy to turn. I was able to zoom into action as it moved away from me and keep the players framed without getting too much background in and the constant f2.8 is just awesome for keeping up the exposure the way you want it when zooming in and out. Highly recommended if anyone is in the market for a mid range zoom.

In the end I couldn’t let my trusty Sigma 300mm f2.8 prime go unused. The light began to fade but still some good action was played out right in front of me (one of the downfalls of a long prime is this type of action is hard to capture).

A brilliant spread was put on, the beer flowed and the Saints got up and beat Hawthorn! What more could you ask for. I didn’t get to take my camera gear with me but did take along the little Canon IXUS 75 point and shoot and took a few quick shots of the ground once it had emptied. It’s pretty impressive to see it empty as well as full.

Hope I can get back one day with the good gear and get a proper panorama.

More ramblings soon…