After last weeks game in Newton Aycliffe, tonight was the second leg in Newcastle. The Eagles played host to the new boys Durham Wildcats.
Both teams took turns to score and were only separated by a couple of points at the end of the first half.
Ralph Bucci continued to impress as he controlled all of The Wildcats attacks and constantly worried the home crowd.
However the second half was a different matter and the Eagles started to show their class and outscored the visitors, by the end of the game they won the match by 20 points – beating Durham Wildcats 92-72.
To see more of the images from the game CLICK HERE.
Last days shopping for a weeks holiday to Scotland. As I’m off to Ballachulish on the edge of Rannoch Moor in the West of Scotland with the RPS, for a week long Landscape Photography workshop.
I’ve never been on a workshop before and I’m looking forward to it and interested in what I’m going to learn. I may be naive but I think I’ll probable learn as much from the other people on the course as from the leader. All people have different approaches to photography so it will be interesting to see how people prepare, and set up their cameras and what lens, filters etc. they will use.
The RPS or Royal Photographic Society is the oldest Photo society in the world and well respected for its standards and support to both professional and amateur photographers. I have been a member for a year and I’m on the committee for the Northern Region (I believe if you join something you have to put something into it!). Hopefully in the next year I will have submitted a panel of work and gained an award / Distinction from them.
Anyway back to the workshop – the last time I went to the area was about 5 years ago and was the first time I had ever seen the mountains, then only for a brief time on one day, as all other visits I have been rained upon, snowed on and always had poor visibility due to low clouds. So fingers crossed for some interesting weather this time – or at least some visibility so that I can take some more photos.
To read more about the RPS CLICK HERE.
Tonight was Durham Wildcats first game in the top league of British Basketball and as luck would have it they are playing their local rivals (and probably the best team in the BBL) Newcastle Eagles.
There was a full house in Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre to watch and they even had to turn people away at the door but despite the best efforts of the local crowd they couldn’t help the Wildcat’s start the season with a dream result.
The Eagles were quicker out of the blocks and went straight into a lead, but once the Wildcats started playing they narrowed the gap and at half time they trailed by only 7 points.
However despite the best efforts of Ralph Bucci (below), who showed he had the class and ability for the top league, The Eagles ran out easy winners 66-88.
To view more images from the game CLICK HERE.
15 minutes to go before kick off in the match between Sunderland and West Brom and I’m already hot and bothered. The stadium display reads 25 C and I’m lucky I’ve managed to get a seat in the shade.
I almost feel at home at the ground with all the ex-Man Utd players on show – well I’m hoping for a good game of football and hopefully after two 0-0 draws at ‘Boro there will be plenty of goals.
I had a visit to Durham tonight for a meeting with the Durham Wildcats, the newest member of the British Basketball League. This was a pre-arranged session to take some player portraits prior to the start of the new season.
I arrived early to set up the lights and make sure everything was working, the lights metered and positioned and the backdrop hung.
However instead of the main hall I had to set up in one of the changing rooms – no problem.
Then the club chairman asked me to take some head shots for their web site – no problem.
Then I was told that the new club strip hadn’t arrived yet (first game Saturday!) – No problem.
All the players would have to wear a club polo shirt – but they only had one with a logo – No problem well not really….
However the result of all these slight challenges was that I had to have a re-think on the type of portraits I could take in the time slot before the players started training.
Despite the changes, I still enjoyed the session and managed to get some really nice portraits. I think the above photos show that the players enjoyed the session too. I only hope they enjoy the head shots when I send the photos to them.
Finally Good Luck to the Wildcats in their first season in top flight British Basketball. If you live anywhere near Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham why not have a look to one of their home games, I’m sure you will enjoy the excitement and the team will benefit from a strong home crowd.
To visit the Wildcat’s web site Click Here.
To see more portraits from the session Click Here.
Today’s trip is to the Riverside stadium at Middlesbrough for the game against Ipswich Town.
The weather is clear so fingers crossed for a good game, and that I choose the right side of the ground to photograph the action.
I went to the coast today not to build sandcastles but to play with my ND filters. It was as sunny day but with a couple of filters I hoped to slow the shutter speed enough to get some interesting blur in the sea and sky.
For the image above I used a 10 stop ND filter and two Graduated ND filters. The two grads were to balance the exposure so that the sea and sky were about the same. The 10 stop was to really extend the shutter speed so that I got some blur. Even at midday in bright (ish) sunshine I managed to get a shutter speed of over 1 minute which has created some nice blurred clouds and a misty sea.
I’m sure that this type of image will not be popular for long but at the moment I like them and I’ll try and do some more in the coming weeks – I may even time my visit to the seaside for sunrise and some really long exposures.
First call ‘The Great North City games’ in Newcastle/ Gateshead quayside (well mostly Gateshead quayside really!). I had to arrive at 9.30am to get a car parking place somewhere near as I had to make a quick getaway to get to the Rugby. Also the Mini Great North Run was being held so there were thousands of children with their adult running partners also looking for parking places.
The weather was grey, wet bu we were promised sunny intervals later, which makes it difficult to wear the right cloths and more importantly make sure the camea and laptop stay dry. The organisers had provided a media room in the old restaurant in the Baltic Art Museum, but with no view of the events and little WiFi connection and power outlets it was almost pointless but atleast they had tried!
The first ‘must get’ image was of Hannah England in the Women’s One Mile rce, fresh from winning Silver in the World championships. Hannah didn’t disappoint and won a thrilling race to the delight of the crowd.
Next up and a favourite of mine was Bernard Lagat in the Men’s One mile race, which he won with ease. Although the USA got all of the points from the race the crowd still showed their support.
My final race of the day was the one I had to get and the entire crowd had come to watch, Mo Farah in the Two mile race.
Mo was in no mood to disappoint the crowd and headed the race for most of the two laps of the quayside. I readied myself on the gantry facing the final straight and was pleased that Mo celebrated in his trademark style -
If only he realised it was raining and left his sun-glasses off! Still it’s almost perfect.
With no time to wait for the sprint races to take place I packed my gear and raced back to the car and a quick drive across Tyneside to the Falcons Rugby Ground for the visit of Leicester Tigers. By the time I got there the sun was out and the clear sunny intervals the weather men had promised had arrived.
Falcons captain James Hudson was in tremendous form and was strong throughout the game in both the line out and in open play. For a long time in the game I believed that this was going to be Falcons day when they won a Premiership match! They have gone 9 games without a win up to today!
They even managed to score Tries – something they don’t do a lot! The above was a great Try by Greg Goosen their new Kiwi signing.
However as the game went on, Leicester did what they do best and ground out a lead, so with 23 minutes remaining they took the lead by 1 point – still plenty of time for a Newcastle score! Unfortunately as the pack got closer to the Leicester try line Jimmy Gopperth got ready for drop goal which would have won the game, however he chose to run it and as the above pic shows he got tackled and the chance ended. Leicester held on to win by 27-26 points.
Still the end of a long but enjoyable day.
To see more Athletic images Click Here.
To see more Rugby images Click Here.
Durham had a very outside chance of winning the championship at the start of the day and they played well on the final day, winning their game easily but ultimately loosing the championship due to the results at other games.
This was by far the nicest weather of any of the days and ironically meant that with the end of the Cricket season that Autumn is upon us and all I have to look forward to is rainy cold evenings on the side lines of Rugby and Football grounds.
Durham’s bowlers worked their way through the Worcestershire wickets largely in the morning session, only needing 30 minutes after Lunch to win the game.
Although most of the wickets ended up coming off either LBW’s or catches, the above image shows how close Durham set their field in order to pressure the batsmen and make the catches.
So it only leaves me to Thank all of Durham CCC for their excellent hospitality this season and hopefully I’ll see them all next season. Even the ground announcer got carried away with the end of season and wished all the supporters a Happy Christmas, that’s the first of the year but only 76 shopping days to go.
Day Two in the County Championship match at Chester le Street between Durham and Worcestershire saw yet more wind courtesy of Hurricane Katia.
The above image is of local hero Paul Collingwood doing a bit of bowling. This is the first time I’ve photographed Paul for Durham as he missed the start of the season and I missed the bulk of the middle of the season. I was pleased to get the chance of photographing him as we share the same village – me to live and him to assist in the local Cricket Team – Shotley Bridge.
..and finally a bit of action as Durham’s Will Smith dives desperately but fails to catch the ball. Cricket at first glance seems a sedate sport but it can suddenly explode into action and capturing it is very difficult. I’m happy with the image but how much better if Mr. Smith had managed to catch the ball. Never mind – that’s one of the reasons for returning and trying again. I know I’ve got a lot more trying to do!
To see more images from the second Day Click Here.
