England v Australia, trousers etc.

Yesterday saw me at Twickenham for the whole day. With a brief as long as my arm from sponsors O2 and their agency M&C Saatchi, plus the match to shoot and send to the papers via Focus Images, I had a pile of work to do to pack everything in.As usual, arrival was by motorbike even though it was very quiet at 9am and driving in would have been fine. Getting out afterwards is a different matter as those who have ever been to Twickenham will know. As well as taking "normal" pictures, I was also taking phone shots of the build up to the game and sending them off for the O2 Instagram feed. It was quite interesting that something that you'd never normally take a picture of works quite well from a social media perspective, so I had to keep thinking about that as I went about my business.First things first - with an empty stadium it was the ideal time to get some general views done. There must be something druidic about Twickenham as on the 2nd of November the sun rises directly between the posts - surely a good omen for the match to come. I do like being in a stadium when it's completely empty. It's kind of eerie but you get this feeling of huge space and anticipation which is more pronounced if you make your way high up into the stands.I had my little Olympus OMD EM5 with me with an 8mm Panasonic fisheye on it which is ideal for this sort of thing. It's a super little camera is very competent indeed. I'm waiting to see if I can try out an OMD EM1 as well - more on that shortly.Then it was back to HQ to meet some competition winners who were getting a tour of the stadium. I was tagging along to shoot the England changing room which has been redecorated. I can't show those pictures yet, but it's safe to say it looks amazing. In a world of marginal gains, a super cool changing room might just add that little bit to the mindset of the players. I should also apologise to the other photographer was patiently waiting for the tour group to leave so he could take the shot he'd painstakingly set up before we all rolled in.Once that was done, and with a load of other branding and general stadium shots plus a bit more Instagramming in the bag, I thought it best to back up the changing room shots straight away as the EM5 only has one memory card. Card failure would have been very bad so it was back to the now full wire room to get those backed up and uploaded. There I met Paul Terry who was shooting for Focus Images but also helping me out on the day. We went through the rest of the briefing and allocated ourselves different chunks of it, and then split up to cover as much of it as possible. Whilst Paul headed off to look for logos, I went up to the top of the stadium to look down on the England team arrival. There are always a lot of people there to greet the team when they come in on their uber flash coach, and shooting down from above is the best way to capture them I think. So trying not to drop my phone whilst snapping some Instagram pics, I fired off a few more with the "proper" cameras just to make sure.There followed a bit of a mad cap circuit of the outside of the stadium looking for more logos, crowd shots, angels and suchlike, including an amusing stint into the big Rugby shop at the other side of the stadium where there were mannequins to photograph whilst explaining to shop staff what I was doing, and dodging fans buying replica shirts by the hundred. After what seemed like a 50 mile hike, it was back pitchside to shoot some actual rugby. Hurrah!And that's when the rain started. Marvellous. Still - a chance ot test out my new waterproof trousers from my outdoor brand du jour, Fjall Raven of Sweden. These are quite difficult to get hold of in the UK as there aren't many stockists (one of the best is Grahams in Inverness). For this winter I bought some Barents Pro Hydratic trousers. The thing I like about this gear is the excellent fit and finish, and how quiet it is. Unlike many of the trendier and heavily promoted outdoor brands, the Fjall Raven gear is made to be quiet and very hard wearing. The trousers are waterproof with a goretex-like membrane, and also lined, so nice and cosy as well as waterproof. I've also got a Montt jacket which is a very nice fit, totally waterproof, has a hood, and doesn't rustle and squeak. Ideal outdoor kit whether you are photographing or not.Anyway, back to pitchside. Why are all those photographers pointing their 400's over there. Oh, that'll be Prince Harry then. A quick shot or two of him smiling before shooting the National Anthems. I now owe Marc Aspland two beers after he let me know about a ball heading straight for my head earlier on, and then told me that contrary to earlier info England were going the opposite way to where I'd set out my stool. A hurried relocation followed, struggling around the pitch with piles of gear now not neatly packed so flapping all over the place, then ready for the kick off.The match itself was quite strange, with Farrell uncharacteristically missing a couple of penalties, whilst the rain stopped thankfully. I'd decided to swap my usual setup and put the 400 onto my 1D mark IV with the 70-200 on the 1D mark III. I really need a 1DX I've decided. With the mark III being the weaker body from an autofocus perspective, I normally have the short lens on the mark IV to capture the goals and celebrations that you get in football. For Twickenham however, sitting a fair way back from the try line, the majority of work is on the 400 so I decided to put that on the mark IV and hope the mark III would handle focusing correctly with the very impressive 70-200 mark II. This did work out generally OK as indeed the vast majority of the pics were taken with the 400. The Mark III did OK but the noisier output and slight focus inconsistencies did get in the way a bit.The first half was largely uneventful. Half time involved shooting the parade of champions who had won the 2003 world cup, plus more sponsorship pictures. The second half was rather better. In particular, Mako Vunipola's super charge down of Will Genia's attempted clearance was pounced on by Chris Robshaw who blasted across the line for the first try. By happy coincidence, this all happened right in front of me and it was so fast it was hard to work out what had just happened. I find instinct takes over at times like these and the camera seems to be just an extension of your body, with fingers working on their own, the zoom ring turning without having to think about it. Kick, thwack, pounce, try. Faster than you can say it.I knew I had the try. It was decently sharp, and as I'd been shooting at 3.2 not 2.8 to get a snitch more depth of field. The best shot of the sequence though was Dan Cole with his fist raised looking like some conquering viking standing over the two Aussies that Robshaw had pulverised. With that shot marked in the camera I looked at the chargedown shots and saw that I had a nice one, but the ball was nowhere to be seen so I ignored it. Checking later when I got home I found the ball just tucked behind Genia - damn, should have sent it in! Still, it would make a good spot the ball competition!So, the try shot was sent off pronto and is the one at the top of this post. One key lesson though it to avoid being too tight on incidents like this. As Robshaw lay on the ground 4 other England players came in with much leaping, roaring and arms in the air. Seeing as I'd soomed in on Robshaw I cut their heads off what would have been a super set of pictures. Damn damn damn. Next time, shoot a bit looser and then sort it out on the computer afterwards.I saw the photographers either side of me bashing away at their keyboards to get that try shot sent in. The faster the better! Who knows who won the speed race, but Henry Browne took the front page of the Sunday Times with his version.After another try, this time from Farrell who woke up in the 2nd half, and some heavy pressure from the Aussies, England won 20-13. A quick scuttle around to shoot the trophy award which I notice Sang Tan's version made the front page of the Sunday Times, and then I had half an hour to catch up with Paul, send the remaining shots, and then prep for the post match PR work that we had to do.Another hour of logos, speeches and suchlike ended a pretty long day. I was happy knowing I had a good shot of the Robshaw try, sure that it would be the moment of the day that most of the papers would use. With the kit back on the bike I filtered down Rugby road past all the stationary cars, hung a left at the roundabout then did a swift U-turn just past the traffic island to cut a good 45 minutes off the trip back, then got beer and pizza sorted whilst I recharged everything.After another 4-5 hours of work on Sunday morning going through all the sponsorship  pictures, sorting, tagging and editing them before uploading, and I was done. If anyone ever thought this stuff is a walk in the park they should think again. Argentina next Saturday - bring it on!