PhotoArk were recently honoured with the task to provide game & team photos for Matlock Town FC reserves at a home game with Dove Holes. Kick off was at 3PM Saturday 16th February, a particularly cold afternoon.
My brief was to provide general game pictures along with a MTFC Reserves team photo suitable for publication. The project undoubtedly called for my trusty Pentax K-5 and 16-50mm f2.8 lens as this provides the speed and versatility required for fast moving action. Naturally it would not allow me to do close-up action shots but I was still situated in a prime position having the freedom to move all around the side-lines.
Before the match began I gathered the team together for a squad photo, which could be used for promotional purposes. In an ideal world, I would have liked to photograph the team with Riber Castle (a local landmark) in the background. Unfortunately, because of the time of day the sun was not in my favour so settling the team in front of one of the stands was my only workable alternative. The 50mm end of the lens was perfect for this as it provided a short telephoto perspective. I stopped the lens down to f4 to ensure optimal sharpness while maintaining high shutter speeds.
After kick-off, following the action around such a large pitch presented some difficulties. Every time I switched sides to get some ‘in action’ shots the teams had a habit of migrating to the other end of the pitch, I guess a long lens would be useful after all!
Some previous cameras I have used would struggle to have followed the action around the field. This was mainly because of slow auto-focus or a clunky manual-focusing system. But this is where my Pentax system shines; the auto-focus will quite easily lock onto a fast moving target and track them providing continuous focus mode is enabled. But there are those odd occasions, especially when the players are at the other end of the pitch, where auto-focus tends to struggle usually resulting in the background being pin sharp instead of the players. Luckily, the K-5 has a nicely seated switch for quickly disabling auto-focus allowing me to track a player’s action.
Although not required on this occasion, the K-5 & 16-50mm Lens is superbly weather sealed insuring me against the much loved but changeable British weather!
All in all, a very interesting assignment of which I hope to be doing more in the near future. A copy of the brochure can be found here featuring our images taken during that match.
Images
