Stirling Summer Skins 2012

Mario Brothers & Gang: AKA Cammy Smith, Robert Fawns, Duncan Menzies.

On Friday 3 August I visited The Peak, at Stirling Sports Village, for the annual Summer Skins curling competition - a very colourful out-of-season event that attracts curlers from both Scotland and abroad, of all ages & abilities: Beginners, club curlers, national champions, European champions, World Junior champions, etc!

Reigning European Women's Champions: Anna Sloan & Vicki Adams.

This was my second year at the event.
In 2011 I had finished my first season as an Ice Technician at Kinross Curling Rink, and so went along to the Summer Skins to see curling in a different format, and to film it for promotional purposes.
Having enjoyed it so much last year, I returned this summer to both film & photograph the event. It perhaps wasn't quite as colourful, but there were a fair few crazy characters: The Mario Brothers, Baywatch cast, Indiana Jones, Shaun The Sheep, Little Bo Peep, and a whole lot more, all made appearances on the ice!

Sheep & Bo Peeps: Chay Telfer, Mhairi Anderson, Claire Sloan, Graham Sheddon.

My photos have been online for just over 3 weeks now, and attracted a good number of new likes to my facebook page, which is greatly appreciated.

Not sure if that's Hammy McMillan Jr or Pamela Anderson.

Last night I finished editing the video footage, which is embedded below. It's double the duration of the previous video, but takes a completely different format, which I feel warrants the extra time. For example all of the "best-dressed" characters/teams each get their own segment, with related theme songs, which equates to roughly half the video; with the second half of the video being a compilation of everyone else, much like the 2011 video.

And while I'm talking about curling...
The new curling season will be getting under way soon. It is a very inclusive sport, suitable for everyone - yes, EVERYONE - and as well as being great for your general fitness, can be as fun or as serious as you want it to be. 

So if you are interested in taking-up curling as a new hobby, or just fancy having a little shot, now is your chance!

Ice rinks across Scotland will be hosting free Try Curling sessions, which are designed to give non-curlers a perfect introduction to the sport with qualified coaches, and none of the pressures that you may face by jumping-in at the deep end with experienced club curlers straight away.

Sorry for the wee sales pitch there! But as I've been posting a lot of curling-related artworks over the past year or two, I thought I'd mention it just incase I've sparked your interest in the sport.

Scottish Women's Football 2012

Glasgow City (orange) VS Murieston Utd (blue/red). 10 June 2012.

Last summer I took my first foray into football photography, by covering a few league matches & an international friendly on behalf of Scottish Women's Football (SWF).
This summer I've been pitch-side again to photograph some relatively high-profile women's matches: The Premier League Cup Final, Second Division League Cup Final, (both games at Recreation Park, Alloa), and a Henson's Scottish Cup 2nd Round match in Livingston.
It has been a really enjoyable experience, and the developments that I've witnessed within the sport over the past year are very promising for its future growth within Scotland.

Hearts (maroon) VS Aberdeen Reserves (white). 20 June 2012. 

For example, many clubs are heavily promoting themselves on social networking sites; there are now a number of quality websites & reporters dedicated to the women's game in Scotland (see related links at bottom); and the mainstream media is slowly but surely getting around to featuring the sport on a bigger scale.
All this combined means that the sport has vastly grown; with bigger audiences, more commercial sponsorship, and a better standard of play on the pitch. But there is a very good reason for this rapid growth.

Glasgow City VS Murieston Utd. 10 June 2012.

Last summer, the Women's World Cup Final in Germany broke the record for most tweeted-about event, and worldwide interest in the sport has since soared.
In Scotland this rising interest was capitalised upon by SWF, which took to Twitter to engage the captive audience with a call-to-action, and soon enough a number of clubs, players, photographers, and reporters, were marketing the game to an ever-growing audience.
This was followed by Glasgow City FC, Scotland's leading women's club, progressing from the Women's Champions League qualifying round, and making it all the way to the last 16, where they were eventually knocked-out by 2x former champions, Turbine Potsdam.
Making this achievement all the more remarkable, is the fact that City (like all Scottish teams) are still an amateur club, with the squad playing around full-time jobs or university studies - whereas many of the Champions League teams were full-time professionals.

Glasgow City VS Spartans. 30 May 2012.

On an international scale too, while the Scotland men's team continue to stumble their way through matches and major qualifying campaigns (now ranked 49th in the world); the women's team are soaring from strength to strength (ranked 21st in the world).
The Scotland women currently sit second in their Euro 2013 qualifying group, behind undefeated leaders France (ranked 6th in the world), and need just one point from their two remaining games to be guaranteed a play-off spot!
If you have any interest at all in Scottish football, I'd really recommend getting yourself along to Tynecastle (Edinburgh) on 19th September to support the Scotland Women in their final Euro 2013 qualifying match against France. It should be a cracking game, and with tickets at only £5/adult (cheaper for kids), it's a real bargain!

Hearts celebrate winning the 2nd Division Cup Final. 20 June 2012.

Further proof of the impact Scottish women are having on the game at international level, include the fact that several players are now playing semi-pro football in the English FA Women's Super League. Meanwhile, Glasgow City's Jane Ross is one of only 3 non-English players selected for the Great Britain Women's Olympic team: And her former teammate, Lisa Evans, has just completed a transfer to Germany's Turbine Potsdam, where she will live her dream as a professional footballer!

Jane Ross (on ball) was recently selected for GB Olympic squad.

Lisa Evans (orange) in one of her last games before turning pro.

Scottish Women's Football is played on a summer season (unlike the men who play the traditional winter season), and has two national leagues (Premier & First Division), along with four regional Second Divisions.
If you need a footballing fix while the men are on holiday, why not give the women's game a shot? You may be pleasantly surprised...


Related links:
Scottish Women's Football (governing body).
SFA: Women's international fixtures.
SWFitba
The Away End
Scotzine.com

More curling photography

Last month there were a couple of big events at work, with the 21st annual Kinross Junior Curling Classic taking place from 7th-9th October, and the Kinross Wheelchair Curling International Invitational from 18th-20th October.



On top of my usual Ice Tech duties, I was also the official photographer & webmaster for the Junior Classic. This involved creating, maintaining, and editing a blog/website for relevant news, scores/results, and photos throughout the weekend; as well as perching myself rink-side for between 30 & 60 minutes per session to photograph the sporting action (with 13 sessions & about 48 games - if I remember correctly - over 3 days)!


You can visit the Junior Classic website at: www.kinrossjuniorclassic.blogspot.com

And you can see all my photos from both the Junior Classic & Wheelchair International on the Kinross Curling Rink facebook page.

Scottish Women's Football photography

For the past 3 Sunday's I've been doing match photography for Scottish Women's Football (SWF) to help promote the sport. It was an interesting experience, and culminated with me getting media accreditation from the Scottish Football Assocation (SFA) to photograph the Scotland Vs Belgium women's international friendly match at Falkirk Stadium, which was an exciting new experience for me.

Jane Ross (blue no.13) plays the ball to a teammate while hounded by opponents.

Despite growing steadily for many years, the status of women's football in Scotland remains rather low-key, but following the success of the FIFA Women's World Cup a couple of months ago, SWF has been looking to capitalise on a growing global interest in the sport: So when I read that they were looking for a helping hand from some photographers I was keen to get involved.

I've avidly watched major women's football tournaments (ie: World Cup, Olympics, European championships, etc) for several years now - having first been impressed by the skill and flowing gameplay of the 2007 Women's World Cup in China, which (if I remember correctly) was extensively covered by BBC3 - and this years tournament, despite restricted coverage, continued to impress.

Timelapse experiment.

Although I was not too familiar with the game in Scotland, I was curious enough to spend time at some matches and do photography for the SWF website.

The game in Scotland is certainly far from as developed/commercial as the men's version (at this time), but I have found the few matches that I have so far experienced to be full of promise for the future; and considering the current state of our men's game (following last week's early exit from European competition by our top 3 men's clubs), I think the women's game is in a prime position to boom in popularity over the next few years.

The mainstream Scottish media focuses almost entirely on the men's game, and often spouts despairing headlines about the poor quality of our leagues, so for some positivity Scottish football fans may want to start looking towards the women's side of the game...

Glasgow City FC is the leading women's football club in Scotland, and despite being a part-time club, are into the last 32 (knockout stages) of the Women's Champions League - having progressed from the group stages undefeated against several professional European clubs!

They now face Valur (from Iceland) over 2 legs in September, and if they progress will equal the furthest any Scottish women's club has previously reached.

And while the men's national team have a tense battle against Spain, Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Liechtenstein, to qualify for the 2012 European championships (for the first time since 1996); the women's national team is currently riding high, having recently won their warm-up matches against Switzerland & Belgium as they prepare for the 2013 Women's European Championship qualifiers against France, Israel, Wales, and Ireland.

Teammates congratulate Julie Fleeting after opening the scoring within 3 minutes.

A trio of influential Scottish women, including the supreme Julie Fleeting, play for Arsenal Ladies, which at the weekend won the inaugural FA Women's Super League title, and with the core of our national team playing together with Glasgow City, the Scottish women have surely got to be strong contenders to qualify for Euro 2013.

In hard financial times when hefty attendance costs and dull quality of play repels fans from men's football in Scotland, women's football makes perfect sense: Attendance is cheap (if not free), matches are very competitive, unlike their highly-paid male counterparts the female players are reluctant to dive or feign injury; and most importantly at this moment in time, the women's game in Scotland is both growing in status and becoming evermore successful.

With this in mind, consider cheering on the team at their upcoming matches - click here for info/details from the SFA.

Jane Ross & Hayley Lauder (blue) chase down an opponent.

Photography from 2011 WJCC (Perth)

From Saturday 5 - Sunday 13 March, I was volunteering as a steward at the World Junior Curling Championships (WJCC) in Perth's Dewars Centre: And on two of those days I was pretending to be a photographer.

Briar Hürlimann (Switzerland) delivering a stone

20 of the top teams from around the world (10 boys teams and 10 girls teams) were representing their countries and competing for the World Junior trophies. Amongst them was Scotland's Eve Muirhead, who in her final year at Junior level was aiming to win a record-breaking fourth title (having previously won in 2007, 2008, and 2009 - she missed the 2010 tournament while representing Great Britain at the Winter Olympics).

I thoroughly enjoyed the week: Welcoming many friendly faces from around the world to the Dewars Centre; getting to meet the competitors, coaches, and support staff (including notable curlers like Rhona Martin and Ralph Stöckli); and getting to watch top-level international curling from prime viewing locations every day.

Here is a small sample of the photos I took while not working - during Day 5 afternoon (girls) and Day 9 afternoon (girls final, bronze medal game, and the closing ceremony)...

Sara McManus watches as Sofia Mabergs & Anna Huhta (Sweden) sweep

Ekaterina Antonova & Galina Arsen'kina ready for Victoria Moiseeva's stone (Russia)

Norwegian sweepers (in centre) and Swiss sweepers (on right)

Most of the teams lined up during the closing ceremony

I'm surprised how well a lot of my photos came out, and I've become really fascinated with the panned action shots that [usually] make the moving players appear static in near-perfect focus while everything else is a rushing blur.

I first noticed this style of photography in a couple of the photos on the official WJCC website, where my initial assumption was, ironically, that someone had made the curlers stand out from the image by doing a bit of tacky photoshop work! I wasn't impressed with those original images because the overall style looked forced - as if the photo was originally in full focus before someone used photoshop to mask the curler (keeping them in focus) while distorting the remaining background with a motion blur filter.

I only began to appreciate the style once I saw that some of my photos appeared the same, and I realised that it was all done in-camera rather than as a quick photoshop edit.

My photo of Briar Hürlimann (top) is possibly my favourite with this style, although the Swedish photo just below it is also pretty cool (particularly how the sweepers are framed in perfect focus between two blurry photographers).

If you'd like to see more of my photos from the WJCC, please visit the relevant albums on my facebook profile by clicking the links below:

Day 5 - Girls group games

Day 9 - Girls final and bronze medal game

Day 9 - Closing ceremony

Fife Flare VS Eve Muirhead curling photos

In February I did my first bit of 'serious' sports photography, during a curling game at The Peak sports centre in Stirling.

David Jones, who is the "Area Curling Development Officer" for my local rink at Kinross, had entered his amateur team, Fife Flare, into the British Open and was drawn to play his final group game against the Great Britain 2010 Winter Olympic Women's Team, skipped by Eve Muirhead.

Here is a very small sample from the hundred's of photos that I took for Fife Flare that day:

You can see more of these photos on the Fife Flare facebook page by clicking here.

And as a little experiment, here is a conceptual video of the 300-odd photos that I took in a fast slideshow-style montage... I think it worked surprisingly well!