Phillip Island Nobbies

On Saturday I took some photos at the Nobbies.  I showed the photos on my other blog, here.  I thought I would show some here as well, though, I wanted to see what they would be like if they were black and white.

Sometimes when you make images in just black and white in makes the viewer concentrate more on the mood, and you don't get distracted by the colours.  The ocean has many colours in it, but in these images I want you to look at the waves, because when we were there at the rocks, that is all we look at, the waves.

The sea was angry and the rocks were being pounded, over and over by the waves.  It is not very often you them like this.

The waves were huge, and every now and then one of them would go so much higher than any of the others.  This image works better in black and white because I found the corner in the left bottom too distracting.  It is all green, now you just look at the wave.  Well, I hope you do.

Wind surfers, must have been a great day for them  It was so wild.  I don't know how these guys were doing it.  They must have been having a lot of fun, but they must have been so cold as well.  I was freezing.  The wind was so chilly, felt like it was coming straight off the Antarctica, probably was.

Would you go wind surfing in this weather?

Photos at Phillip Island

Yesterday I went to Phillip Island to photograph some cycling that was happening on the Grand Prix Circuit.  Here are a couple of my favourites.

And.

It wasn't a great day for taking photos and not sure that the ones I've chosen are that great.  I did take a couple of the weather.

A very dark cloud was heading our way and we thought for sure it was going to bring a massive amount of rain, luckily, it went right over and rained somewhere else.  Well that one did.

Then it would all break up and the sun would come out.  Such strange weather.

Trials of Photographing Netball

I know I've gone on before about what a challenge photographing netball is, the walls that are put up, and the experience of it isn't too different. Over the last week and a half I've taken photos at Parkville, Hisense Arena, and my local club. The easiest was my local club, and the hardest was at Parkville. Hisense Arena was a pleasure to photograph, but getting the accreditation wasn't easy and I'm not sure it is going to be something that I will be allowed to do again, well not soon.

Going to take photos of people playing netball at my club, was exhausting, but I don't have the hassles that I have at other venues there. The people running the centre know I have permission and I can just walk around and take photos. The exhausting part is that there are so many Macleod teams and they are all playing during the day, so you don't really get a break if you want to take photos of them all. I couldn't do all of them, but I did quite a few and will catch the ones I missed next time.

Going in to Parkville is a different matter. I hate the suspicion you are treated with as soon as you say you are there to take photos. You have to fill out a form, and get the other team to sign it. So silly, because the form doesn't say anything except that you were there taking photos on that particular day. It doesn't ask who you were photographing, what you are going to do with the photos or anything else. Even the signature from the other team doesn't tell them who they are. Not sure who it is meant to protect, not me that's for sure.

They also have this woman who runs around with a clipboard and makes sure everything is above board, but she is not a pleasant person. She was very abrasive and made me feel really bad because I didn't know the rules and, oh, because I was taking photos. I'm starting to understand why kids love photos of themselves, they don't get to see them very often because their parents aren't allowed to take them. Anyway, I found the woman to be really offensive and I made a compliant to the netball and they have organised it now so I don't have to get permission anymore and can just go in there to take photos of Banyule. I will have to take a copy of the permission letter with me because I know I will get asked for it.

Taking photos at Parkville presents a photographer with some interesting problems from a technical point of view as well, it is dark. There are lights, but not enough light to make the courts seem like daylight.  The ISO has to be pushed to the absolute maximum so you can get a fast shutter speed.  You need to use a fast shutter speed for netball.  I don't know where people get the idea that netball is a slow girls sport, I'm here to tell you that it is fast, especially a team that is good and has been playing for many years.  Flash is frowned upon, you can't have a flash going off in a players face, so you have to do the best you can.  It really does require different skills than is needed for photographing cycling. 

As I stated earlier I went to Hisense Arena and took photos of the Vixens last week.  It was tougher getting permission, and not anyone can rock on up and say they are there to take photos.   I had to get a special pass, or a temporary Media Accreditation pass.  It was waiting for me at the door and then I got to go in and down to the basement.  I had to find the media room and then I was introduced to Kate, who showed me around and took me up to the arena where I could take photos.

There is one whole section where the media are allowed, one side of the court.  It was fantastic.  I think I always imagined that we would be placed in one spot and we would have to stay there, but it wasn't like that at all.   We were allowed to move around on the that side of the court, but not behind the goals and not on the side where the players were.  I do remember reading that we were not allowed to approach the players.  We could go up into the stands to take photos, but I decided to stay put.  I really just wanted to observe what the other photographers were doing, so if I get to go again then I have more of an idea of what I can and can't do.

Kate told me that I would have trouble photographing them because of the speed.  That new photographers, or rather people new to photographing the Vixens find it really fast and have trouble.  I have to say I didn't.  I don't know if it is because I have done some netball before, and some of the teams I get to photograph for Banyule are also really fast, or whether the fact that I know the game and can often predict where the ball is going to go has helped.  I loved it.  I loved how fast it was.  I think I like a challenge and you certainly get that.  Probably the hardest part was taking photos of players that was close to me, the lens couldn't quite cope with it.  Doesn't matter, I got photos of the rest of the court.

My biggest obstacle for the evening was the umpire who kept walking down and standing in front of me.  So frustrating, but nothing I can do about it and something you have to work around.  So many times, what would have been a great shot was ruined because she was standing in part of the shot.  Oh well, I probably should have moved, but I quite liked my little spot.

I did get some great shots, well what I think are great, to the top photographers they are probably not, but I was really pleased with my first efforts.  Who knows if they will get better, but I will have to find a way to get some media accreditation.  I would really like to find a way to be able to keep taking photos of them.  A plan is hatching and will see what response I get for it.

I do want to thank the people from the ANZ Championships for organising the pass for me.  It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it.

Women and Sports

This argument is such an old one. Why is it that women are not really given the same amount of attention in sport as men are?

I really thought, maybe, just maybe, things were starting to change. However, last week I went to the newsagency to find some magazines with sporting images in them to use in the kids art classes that I teach. We are looking at movement in images and I thought sporting images, would be perfect.

So I checked out all the magazines and was disappointed that there was not one on women's sport. I'm not saying that you can't buy them, but at the newsagency I looked there weren't any. Lots of magazines covering men's sport, like soccer, cricket, and other stuff. I asked if there were mags that covered all sport and he showed me one. Again, there were almost no women in it.

I ended up getting 3 magazines that had some good images for the kids to draw, but had to apologise to all the girls in the class that I was unable to find images for them of women doing sport.
So now where do I go, I have images myself, I take photographes of women on bikes all the time, but I still don't understand why it is so hard to find women playing sport. I know they do it, we all do. We have some very successful sports women in this country, and still they get overshadowed constantly by the men.

There are people out there doing what they can to help women in their sporting endeavors. One such group is the WomensCycling.net, they make a point of following women's cycling and reporting on their racing. If you want to find out about which women are riding where, then their blog is the place for you. It is really good and great to see only women being covered.

I'd like to say that I do the same, but I don't, however I do try and be fair. Though, it is hard when you go to a race meet and see that the girls/women race in less races, or race shorter distances and don't get the same amount of prize money. On big event nights, like the Revolution nights, I've also seen music played right through the women's races, which I found really rude, it showed a lack of respect to the women. It was like the organisers were saying that the women weren't as important, and if they don't think they are important then what message does that send to the audience.

Last weekend we saw a big weekend of cycling. Friday night was the madison and Sid Patterson Grand Prix. There was a invitational race, but only for the j17 boys, no girls. Whereas on Saturday night at Revolution 6 the Future stars were invited, both girls and boys, good to see.

It is also interesting to note that the most entertaining race of the night, and the one most people seemed to be talking about the next day, was the sprint between Anna Meares and Nathan Carrigan-Matella.
The race had all the things you would expect to see in Match Sprinting. They were track standing, Anna was forcing him up the track and there was head butting, a great race. Unfortunately Anna didn't win it, but she helped make it very entertaining and everyone had a great time watching it.

I'm also pleased to say that one of my favourite photos from the evening was from a women's race. It was the Keirin and the woman leading here, Fatehah Mustapa, went on to win the race. I love the way she is coming out the fog or the blur. I have been getting a few of these that work. It is taking a lot of practice, but hopefully they will get better.

The answer to the question posed here, I don't know, I suppose if we all start supporting women's sport a lot more, then the powers that be will have to start taking it more seriously as well, and I can't help wondering why men aren't more interested in watching women wearing lycra.