Choosing the right position.

At my last soccer job, i had a whole lot of competition.
That´s one of the things that comes with shooting big events like a quarter final in UEFA Women´s Euro.
If i counted it right there was at least 4 competing "wired agency's", with at least 6 photographers.

This means that the major newspapers get a lot of images from key situations in games like this.
So in order to get a image published, it needs to stand out enough from the others.

When choosing position, it´s a whole lot about anticipating what will happen in the game. Sometime it works good, sometime your "guessing" is really bad.
In order to get a different angle from the other photographers, i choosed a position at the "long side" while the most photographers chose the "short side".

This time my choice of position paid of really well.
I had the perfect angle when Denmark made their first goal.
Since Denmark was told to have no chance to win this game, but did just that. (after deciding the game with penalty shoots after both full time and overtime had been played).

The Swedish newspapers made a quite big thing about this game.
And Expressen, on of the major national newspaper published one of my pictures.

Women's euro quertfinal France - Denmark

Right now the European championship for Womens soccer are played.
Images from Quarterfinal between France - Denmark.
Denmark want supposed to have any chance to win over France.
But they actually did, after the game was decided by penalty shoots.

My first soccer shoot

These photos was taken in the same year as my first "hockey assignment".
(Oktober 2007, qualifying game between division 1 and "Superettan", Jönköping Södra IF-Sirius).
http://sportskjutaren.blogspot.se/2013/07/my-first-hockey-assignment.html

With the difference that had bought my own camera (EOS 350D), and a lens that was ok for shooting sports, at least as far that light is ok.
I would for sure not recommend that gear for shooting sport.
And, needless to say. I would have done a whole lot of things different today.
Mostly "small details", but all the small details put together makes a big difference.

Real estate job

Usually i am not able to show my real estate shoots here on my blog.
This is one of very few exceptions.

My first "hockey assignment"

When i got this assignment, it was in order for me to take some pictures on all the HV71 "fans" that had what they called a "mini-invasion" in Malmö, with 400 persons traveling with bus all the way from Jönköping to Malmö (which takes about 5 hours, single way).
These kind of "invasions" are quite unusual.

This was in February 2007.

At this time i had no plans, what so ever to become a professional photographer.
I actually didn't even own any kind of SLR.
So i took these images with a borrowed Canon EOS 350D and a "kit lens".
Not really what you need to shoot icehockey action with.
Neither did i know anything about shooting sports action.

Lets just say that i tried, and the the below picture here is just published to show you have bad it worked. (Nowdays i would had that picture deleted).

If anybody, at this point, would have told me that i should become a pro photographer. I would probably laughed at them, and thought that they were crazy.

Now, i had owned an "analog" SLR some years earlier, (Konica FC-1), so i knew the basic things since earlier.



I didn't even know what a "credential" is. Even though i was issued one, thanks to people helping me with that.
Due to the credential i was issued, i had access to the "Photo pit".
Here in Sweden we have "photo pits" at rink side, without any plexi glass in front.
The experience of getting that close to the game is something i will never forget.
And it was pretty much that experience that actually got me into sports photography, and switching career towards becoming a professional photographer.

A few months later i bought my own DSLR (a used one) and started to build my very first portfolio.

In January 2008 i started to shoot icehockey regular (for the Swedish Hockey League, then known as Elitserien).

In April 2008 i shoot my first "deciding final" in icehockey (Swedish championship).
Just 14 months after this very first hockey assignment.

So i guess you can say that this assignment was my "entrance" into major change in my life.

Product photos

Pictures from a ongoing project.
The very first time i shoot products for a client.
More details to come here when it gets published.

Updating my portfolio (Speedway)

I just updated a part of my portfolio.
The one with "Speedway" pictures.
These images was added (and some old removed).
Three of the images are from the final in the Swedish championship last year.
My portfolio are found here:
http://photo-it.net/portfolio/