Trying Hard
March 2, 2024As with all things photographic, you are only as good as your last picture and for me this month, it was a struggle to maintain my high standards. Wether this lack of focus (excuse the pun) is the really terrible weather were experiencing at the moment or that malaise that sets in when there seems little variety to the daily routines and assignments you are given. Sometimes you need a challenging job or you need to shake yourself up and try to take images of the same old subjects that differ in your usual approach, or show a different perspective on something that is familiar. Hopefully, that will become apparent in next months selection of images.
February began where January left off. More sport. Rugby and Football, but the added bonus of a couple of shifts for the Portsmouth News felt good, as things might be turning themselves around. The first event of the month was at Burnaby Road and USRFC v St Jacques Vikings Guernsey. A match that I never really got a handle on photographically but it did make a spread of images in the Portsmouth News.
With a midweek rugby match being my next commission the challenges of a floodlight match were compounded by heavy driving rain and blustery winds. The conditions tested my Think Tank rain covers and my own waterproofs. It still didn’t stop the rain finding the front element of my lenses, with frequent recourse to my chamois leathers and lens cloths.
It was a welcome relief to have a shift for the Portsmouth News, the first of the year. And to cap it all the sun came out for a dry day, even though it remained bitterly cold. The day consisted of photographing a rising BMX star, an artist amongst his new exhibition and a visit to the Southsea Model Village for its first opening day of the year. This was followed by some football and bit of a wait for my final job, a local Chinese restaurant holding its New Years Day celebration.
The following Saturday saw another United Services home match at Burnaby Road, this time against Millbrook. The following day was another paid commission, some portraits of the Royal Navy Women’s rugby team. The images will hopefully be used in the programmes of forthcoming matches.
It was then two back to back sports events. The first was the Royal Navy women’s side taking on the Fire Service women’s side. Matches are always fraught with challenges at Burnaby Road under the floodlights there. The lights are so placed that three of the corners of the pitch receive little to no light, the resulting images seem resemble a painting in the Pointillist style or a black cat in a coal hole! The remaining corner receives its illumination from the clubhouse bar not the floodlights. The following night was football, the Royal Navy and RAF U23 sides going head to head in the final of the inter service U23 competition. The RN taking home the silverware in a 1-0 win.
The final event of the month for me was The News Business Excellence Awards working alongside other photographers, reporters and videographers. Always a busy event of constant uploading between the different key points of the evenings events to meet the demands of the news desk and deadlines. The only guarantee is a late night. But it was worth it with a good spread images across the paper including a front page image.
Next month the sport will continue and hopefully a shift or two for the Portsmouth News. Either way, I hope to have battled my demons and be better prepared for what life and my photography throws at me.
Images from the events mentioned here can be viewed on my social media pages. Try my Instagram page; https://www.instagram.com/woodlandkeith/ Also, take look at my Twitter/X page for some my work from my job at HMS Collingwood, https://twitter.com/K_W_Photog
Some of these images and others can also be viewed and purchased or downloaded (depending on my agreements) by visiting https://www.kwoodlandphotography.com/ and making your way to the client page.