Wembley & Twickenham x2 & The Photographers' Gallery etc etc

What with all the website moving about, I've forgotten to write any informative sports photography posts recently. So here goes for a quick update on what has been a hectic couple of weeks. As usual, click the pictures to link to the relevant gallery.Firstly, I shot the England v France game at Twickenham on February 23rd. With snow forecast, I foolishly went up on the train from Virginia Water. This is OK on the way in 4 hours before kick off when the crowds haven't formed, but it's a nightmare on the way back when it is extremely busy at Twickenham station. It's even worse when you have no idea that you came in from Virginia Water and get off at Sunningdale instead and wander about trying to figure out where your car is and why the car park is in a different place, before waiting for another train to take you back to the correct station. In the event, it didn't snow and the motorbike would have been by far the better option. Trains suck.It was a damned good game though, with England winning 23-13 and our boy Manu having his ear half ripped off. Blood always makes for good pictures though, and it was nice of Manu to sacrifice himself for the cause of the assembled photographers, and he got himself a lot of coverage as a result.There was some excellent action from that game, but as usual I like trying to find other pictures in an otherwise hectic scene, and I quite like this one of Chris Ashton eyeing up the 6-Nations trophy as he comes off the pitch after warming up.After getting home at 11pm following the train debacle I was quite knackered, but had to get sorted out for the following day's game which was the Capital One Cup Final between Swansea and Bradford at Wembley. This was helped by having shot Bradford at AFC Wimbledon the weekend before, so I knew who their players were, the manager etc. In that match Bradford lost 2-1 and I have to say that it was a pretty shonky game with the ball spending most of its time in the air rather than on the ground. On that showing I predicted a 0-5 scoreline at Wembley but foolishly didn't place a bet using any of the 400+ mobile betting apps that Sky Sports keeps plugging.Any Wembley game is a big game, and this was no exception. I took the bike up which was fine going there, but how do you get out of Wembley without heading the wrong way and ending up heading to the M1? I've done it so many times now it's getting silly. Clearly I have issues with the return travel thing. Anyway, I got there 4 hours ahead of kick off, parked the bike for free 50 yards from the media entrance and joined the queue.As you can see there was a good-sized queue there when I arrived. They opened the doors about 3 hours before kick off but only let you in 2 at a time after a thorough bag search, so it took another hour before I could warm up. That particular part of Wembley is without doubt the coldest place in Britain.The story was in a Bradford win (or even just a goal), so I put myself on the side at the Bradford supporters end to do Swansea attack 1st half, but importantly Bradford attack in the 2nd half. As it was, Swansea just totally outplayed them and I got a couple of nice shots of the 1st half goals, and focused on the crowd and Bradford players in the second half. There was a particularly touching moment when referee Kevin Friend put his arm round one of the Bradford players after they'd conceded their 5th and had a quiet word, which went on to be printed large in the Star the next day. Lots of good trophy and celebration shots followed after some judicious positioning and utilisation of one of the ball boy stools to get at the centre of the champagne spray. You can see pictures from that game on the Focus Images website.On Wednesday 6th I found myself giving a talk at The Photographers' Gallery in London. It was about my journey from being a complete sports photography noob to a slightly more experienced noob, with lots of anecdotes and pictures included. It seemed to go quite nicely, with very positive feedback from the audience and lots of really good questions as well. I do like it when the audience is interactive - something the speaker can encourage by asking them questions at the start of the talk to break down the barriers. Also, the Photographers' Gallery is a top place to give a talk. Apparently Don McCullin gave a talk there a couple of weeks back so I felt privileged to have the opportunity. I had time to have a look around before the talk, and I have to admit that a lot of the work on show was over my head by about 10,000 feet. I'm guessing high-brow photo collages and deliberate distressing of prints is right up someone's street though.I then had a dance performance to shoot with my favourite dancers, the Actual Size Dance Company. This is turning into a really nice cooperative venture and is a great way to get a bit more creative rather having to sit pitchside and have the action presented in front of you. I did another shoot with them at the abandoned brickworks which I'll write about in the near future.Then yesterday saw me at Twickenham again for a squeaky 18-11 win over Italy which was much much closer than the score would indicate. Italy seem to be making real progress in the way they play and act on the pitch, and they seemed to have sussed out the England team pretty well. Tuilagi was wrapped up every time he got the ball, and Ashton & Brown barely saw the ball at all.Though the first half was a good one for England, they couldn't get through the Italian defences and it fell to Flood to kick all the points. The second half was rather weird, and the last 5 minutes were really tense as Italy piled on the pressure. The key moment that relieved it all was when Courtney Lawes caught a lineout to regain posession, and when you see how close the Italian was to getting hold of that lineout in the shot below you can see what a good job Lawes did.It was very nice to shoot in the daylight at Twickenham. Thought the lights are really good on most of the pitch, they get quite dim in the corners where all the try action tends to be, so having a lovely soft daylight to shoot in was a good change.I've had a few people email and ask about white balance settings for shooting under changing lighting conditions. Personally, I just leave the white balance on auto. I'm very impressed by the Canon 1DIV auto white balance - it generally gets it absolutely right with few exceptions, and I have enough to worry about just shooting the game than having to be concerned about manual white balance. Anything that is slightly off is easily corrected in Lightroom with one click of the white balance dropper so it's never a problem.So there you have it. With all that plus other stuff I don't have time to write about, a couple of very hectic weeks with some respectable results. Next time I'll have something to say about Damian McGillicuddy's mini octabox, the Sony RX1 and off-camera lighting of those lovely dancers.