There has been a lot of time to consider what work could be created for this final, major documentary project, something that will culminate three years of studying and work at the University of Gloucestershire. As someone who has a very high passion for sports, and a great determination to pursue a career within the sports photography industry, I felt like this was a great opportunity to use my great experience of being the All Golds club photographer for this final project. As stated in my project proposal, I have already had two very fulfilling seasons with the rugby league club, and have developed many interesting relationships with players and staff that have come and gone throughout that time. I wanted to use these relationships to document a unique 'migrant worker' situation that I have discovered where individuals arrive from Australia to play semi professional rugby here in England.
The players Josh Allison, Jayson Lombardo and Brendon Newton arrived in January to join the pre season training regime which had launched in December along with the rest of the team. We were introduced almost immediately as I was required to photograph their portrait for the club website and sponsorship pages, telling them of my major project intentions they jumped on board. I had great fun photographing photographing the usual training sessions and early season match days knowing that I was building new relationships with these three Aussies and excited for a new destination for the images that I was producing of them.
The players Josh Allison, Jayson Lombardo and Brendon Newton arrived in January to join the pre season training regime which had launched in December along with the rest of the team. We were introduced almost immediately as I was required to photograph their portrait for the club website and sponsorship pages, telling them of my major project intentions they jumped on board. I had great fun photographing photographing the usual training sessions and early season match days knowing that I was building new relationships with these three Aussies and excited for a new destination for the images that I was producing of them.
There were several options of output available and I considered several including a portfolio of prints for display at the All Golds 1908 lounge, and the production of a photographic article for publication in the match day programme of an All Golds match. These options were all available and intended to be fulfilled through the relationships that I have formed over the past few years working closely and regularly with All Golds president Lionel Hurst, graphic designer Craig Mitchell and journalist Patrick Baines. As my documentation of the boys progressed through March, it appeared that Jayson's performances were not impressing head coach Lee Greenwood and it was quickly arranged for him to head back home to Sydney, Australia.
That was just as I was beginning the interview stage of my project, so it was a bit of a blow for me to find out, however it was even more disappointing to Josh & Brendon who became elusive and difficult to get a hold of for a few weeks outside of their All Golds duties. Eventually we sat down for a written interview and they clearly expressed their disappointment at Jayson's departure. I knew that it wouldn't be right to produce a possibly negative article for a programme that I have been so proud to contribute to for so long, So I made a decision to once again change the output of this project, to an digital slideshow of images, that would be voiced over by Josh and Brendon.
I continued to document Josh an Brendon at their home, in the gym and on match-days, as I carefully compiled a script for them to record. I booked out a Zoom microphone from the uni stores which was very simple to use and recorded two very high quality audio clips. In order to cut the two clips together I had to learn how to use a new Adobe programme called Audition, however as with most Creative Cloud software most aspects are very similar to others and so I can able to export a high quality MP3 file. I was also asked to remove a section of the interview regarding Jayson so early knowledge of the Audition software was worthwhile.
That was just as I was beginning the interview stage of my project, so it was a bit of a blow for me to find out, however it was even more disappointing to Josh & Brendon who became elusive and difficult to get a hold of for a few weeks outside of their All Golds duties. Eventually we sat down for a written interview and they clearly expressed their disappointment at Jayson's departure. I knew that it wouldn't be right to produce a possibly negative article for a programme that I have been so proud to contribute to for so long, So I made a decision to once again change the output of this project, to an digital slideshow of images, that would be voiced over by Josh and Brendon.
I continued to document Josh an Brendon at their home, in the gym and on match-days, as I carefully compiled a script for them to record. I booked out a Zoom microphone from the uni stores which was very simple to use and recorded two very high quality audio clips. In order to cut the two clips together I had to learn how to use a new Adobe programme called Audition, however as with most Creative Cloud software most aspects are very similar to others and so I can able to export a high quality MP3 file. I was also asked to remove a section of the interview regarding Jayson so early knowledge of the Audition software was worthwhile.
To produce the images in the project I have used the same equipment that I do regularly, my faithful Sony Alpha a35 with 35mm, 50mm and 50-200m lenses. I tended to use the prime lenses when I was in a dark spaces such as the boy's house, and when I had the opportunity to get close, sharp images during warm ups and in the gym. To manage the files I continued as ever to use Bridge where I was able to import and rate the RAW files before editing them with Camera RAW in Photoshop. After narrowing down a final edit of 23 images I required the use of Lightroom to produce the digital slideshow, which I once again had to learn new skills for but being another Creative Cloud programme, a simple tutorial taught me all I needed to produce a very high quality final output for my images.
I am very happy with the final images, as always with the All Golds I had such fun creating them, gaining valuable experience and even travelling all over the country, I'm also very pleased with how they can be seen in a slideshow format, they capture the essence of what it takes to make it as a semi professional rugby league player, and the voice over from Josh and Brendon provide the context of what is required to make such a great transition of lifestyles. In order to improve this project in the future I would take more care in planning the audio aspect of the slideshow, In terms of planning how the subjects are projecting their voice, not directly reading from a script but answering direct questions. Also more careful consideration should go into personal time with the subjects, so that more candid images can be produced for a possibly stronger edit of final images.
I am very happy with the final images, as always with the All Golds I had such fun creating them, gaining valuable experience and even travelling all over the country, I'm also very pleased with how they can be seen in a slideshow format, they capture the essence of what it takes to make it as a semi professional rugby league player, and the voice over from Josh and Brendon provide the context of what is required to make such a great transition of lifestyles. In order to improve this project in the future I would take more care in planning the audio aspect of the slideshow, In terms of planning how the subjects are projecting their voice, not directly reading from a script but answering direct questions. Also more careful consideration should go into personal time with the subjects, so that more candid images can be produced for a possibly stronger edit of final images.
