St George's park (FA Coaching shoot)

The FA St Georges Park photographic shoot

We were commissioned by the Football Association and Burton College to complete a
photography shoot for the FA's 4 day licensed coaches training conference at St Geoges park,Tatenhill last weekend

The training event was organised by the FA who liaised with the college's photography departments to commission students from the college to take on this assignment.The organisers from the college were Chris Beech photography course leader and Steve Davis photography tutor

We were given a brief from Chris and Steve which was passed onto them from the FA

There were about 200-250 football coaches from around the country who were attending the training event

The attendees were all gathered in the main ballroom to listen to lectures prepared by the main speakers of the day.I was asked to photograph some of the audience participation and to try and shoot some candid shots of the crowd,this turned out to be quite a difficult task as there was hardly any light available in the ballroom. I was shooting with very high ISO's on my canon 5d3 at speeds of 8-10,000 which hanled the scenario with out any problems.This is a very good camera to use in low ligjht cicumstances and easily coped with the low light conditions with hardly any noise evident in any of my images

 

We were workng in a team of 4 photographers on a rota basis plus our Tutor Steve Davis who also contributed to the photography for the day

When we arrived at the complex we were met by the editor of the media section for the FA who ran though the photography brief and instructions for the day's requirements

The brief was to shoot and produce a variety of different mages from the FA's coaching day's which would show and represent all aspects of the FA's coaching courses/facilities which the FA want to sell and promote throughout the country

The brief did'nt require any conceptual or creative images but needed to record all aspects of the coaching experience which included,coaches at work,footballers training,spectators and some general shots of the the facilities at the complex. These images would be used to promote the FA's coaching courses and facilities within the complex and also be used in all types of media advetising and publicity to demonstrate what a great product they have on offer. These include websites,brochures,visual presentations etc

Shown below are some of my shots from the day:

I was asked to record some candid shots of the audience who were in attendance  These were shot in a ballroom with very little light and the ordiance were in near total darkness

I was shooting with a Canon5d2 and Canon 5D3 with Canon L Series lenses

The shot above was taken with my Canon70-200 L series zoom lens at 8000 ISO on a 5D3 body which just goes to show the advancement of low light caperbiliities of modern day cameras. This image shows very little sign of any noise at such high end ISO's

The seminar in the ballroom was very quite when the lectures were in progress,we were asked not to use flash in the room as it is very distracting for the lecturers,we were then asked not to shoot al all as it was distracting the lecturers.I carried on shooting using a special silent mode a new feature of my 5D3 camera which I use to shoot weddings where you have to be extremely quiet

We agreed that 2 phototographers would be covering the main speakers on stage in athe FA's ballroom and the other two would shoot some candids of the audience etc

Shown here is a shot of the complex's fantastic full size indoor football pitch

A few teams of 10-11 year olds were being coached throughout the day

We downloaded all of our images from the day to one of the colleges laptop's where they were resized and compiled into a Power Point presentation whch would be displayed later in the day to the confernce attendees in the main ballroom

The shots above were taken to show the audience participation on the training day
One of the main problems we encountered on the day was the exclusion of the use of flash
We were asked to photograph the main speakers on stage in the main ball room which was only lit with spot lights around the stage area. We all had to use high end ISO's to accomodate these conditions or use a tripod to enable faster shutter speeds.

Some of the coaches at work throughout the day

I recorded this shot to show the coaches enjoying the facilities on offer on the day which also shows off some of the complex's facilities and magnificent superior indoor full size football pitch

We were given a deadline to shoot,select and post process our 10 best images each of the day which would be compiled and presented in a powerpoint presentation. This had to be completed for about 4pm.The presentation would then be projected in the ballroom to the audience/attendees of the conference last thing before the conference closed

The shot above turned out to be quite a challenge to balance the light of the dark skin tones against a very bright background

Overall we produced some really good images of the coaching day between the 5 of us and we all covered and completed the brief with a variety of different images to the satisfaction of the editor and the FA staff