Monday, December 29, 2008

Inspiration

I went to London to attend an off camera lighting seminar given by David Hobby who writes the Strobist blog at www.strobist.com at the start of December and in the pub afterwards some of the guys from the London Strobist group had a copy of 'Platons Republic' - a big book of the work of a guy who has shot portraits of some seriously famous people, I only got a minute or two to browse the book but got myself a copy second hand from www.amazon.co.uk last week. In the last few pages of the book Platon has added handwritten notes telling the reader a little about how the shoots went and it's interesting stuff.

American photographer Vincent Laforet recorded Platon speaking at the Eddie Adams Workshop in the States recently and it's a great listen - click here to enjoy it and here to visit Platon's website.

BTW - the pic is mine - it's 14 year old World Champion kickboxer Chris Weir of TNS Dundee - shot with off camera lighting.

Nutters


Nutters
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
Shot Dundee's visit to Queen of the South for a couple of newspapers and it was freezing, which wasn't the best of situations as I'd awoken on Saturday morning with a severe doze of 'man flu' - Thankfully my mate Jim had offered to drive Tommy and I the 150 miles from Dundee to Palmerston Park as I'm not sure I would have handled driving that far too well. The cold didn't affect these lads though - they were going through their karaoke routine at full volume.

A visit to Palmerston is always a pleasure, nice friendly people and a 'proper' football club - they treat visitors well. There's a car park in front of the main stand and it's got plenty of space. Photographers at Palmerston get the use of the players lounge to edit and transmit their pics, which has the added bonus of a little food being available, they are quite accomodating on shooting positions - you can shoot from the sides as well as behind the goals, which isn't always the case at First Division gounds - St Johnstone and Airdrie for example restrict you to behind the goal-lines.

On the down side I learned to take the batteries out of the cameras and keep them warm when traveling - I started the day with five fully charged batteries - the first two I tried just wouldn't work at all - the third worked for around 30 shots and I was lucky that the last couple kept going for the full ninety minutes.

Had to send my pics to the first paper from the ground and had them edited, captioned and transmitted by 5.05pm - in fact we were done and dusted by shortly after that and back on the road back to Tayside by half past five.

Tech note: My 3 dongle got a good signal from inside the ground, in fact it seems to work well at all the First Division grounds.

Here's some pics

Friday, October 17, 2008

Home


Home
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
The one place that no matter where I've been is always home

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Plenty of goals at Airdrie

Saw this when putting the gear into the boot of the car after photographing Airdrie against Dundee at the Excelsior Stadium. Shot with Canon 30D with 300F4L.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lionel Messi runs at Barca new boy Jose Martin Caceres

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi runs at new signing Jose Martin Caceres during a practice match as the Spanish giants trained at St Andrews University ahead of their pre-season thrashings of Hibs and Dundee United.

Copyright David Young 2008 - Do not reproduce without permission

"The finger"


"The finger"
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes Arribas gestures to an onlooker who shouted 'Hola Madrid' as the Spanish giants trained at St Andrews University ahead of their pre-season friendly thrashings of Hibs and Dundee United

This image is copyright David Young 2008 (davidy233@gmail.com) - do not reproduce without permission

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Amy MacDonald and Steve Lovell

Pop star Amy Macdonald and new fiancé, footballer, Steve Lovell look happy as they watch the pre-season draw between Steve's former clubs Dundee and Aberdeen at Dens Park, Dundee.

Steve proposed to Amy during a holiday in Grenada last month and the couple announced their engagement at the T in the Park festival last weekend, where Amy dedicated a new song 'Troubled Soul' to him during her set.

One of Amy's previous songs "Footballer's Wife" derides women who think they are stars because they are married to a footballer.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Down in the Metro


Down in the Metro
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
Just a holiday snap - A family of Spanish football fans look downcast while waiting for their train at Colon metro station after leaving the Madrid Fanzone at half time of the Euro 2008 match against Greece with Spain a goal down. Spain came back to win 2-1.

Spain went on to win Euro 2008, because I was going to Madrid I wanted Spain to win from the start - I wish I'd put money on them.

My missus is superb, she doesn't like real heat an awful lot and she's not a big fitba fan but she agreed to go to the fan zone to watch the match and it was gettting on for 90 degrees at 8.45 local time (kick off) - it was still really hot at half time and we headed back into town to find a bar to watch the second half - lots of Spaniards did the same.

I was jealous as hell when BBC showed the fanzone at full time tonight - outside being in the stadium the Madrid "Cuatro fanzone" would have been the best place in the World to be at full time.

Madrid is probably the most enjoyable city I've ever spent time in - and I say that despite getting robbed by one of the city's fine pickpockets.

Spain's Capital city is gorgeous, lots to see and lovely weather - it's best feature is the best cafe society in Europe at night - you can get fed after midnight and sitting on a terraza with a cana of beer late in the evening in warm weather is quality.

You won't meet many Brits and you should make an effort to try to speak Spanish - both of them are plus points for me.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sneaking a look


Sneaking a look
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura sneaks a look at the Celtic support as his side perform 'the huddle' before their final Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League match of the season at Tannadice Park, Dundee. A goal from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink clinched the league title for the Glasgow giants.

Celtic wiki www.kerrydalestreet.com says of the huddle "It was introduced to Celtic by former Captain Tony 'Mogga' Mowbray (1991 - 1995) who felt it would be a great way of instilling a bit more spirit into the players, and cohesiveness into the team. The Huddle is now an integral part of our pre-match ritual, and serves to unite the players, the team, and the fans in preparedness to face our footballing adversaries. It bonds us, and readies us for those we are about to commence battle with."

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Arbroath v Stranraer play off

I shoot Dundee Football Club’s matches for the club, a local paper and often a national paper too, I covered every game they played in the season just finished – from the very first friendly in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis to the season closer at home to Hamilton Academical on April 26th, and lots of people who know me think that’s it as far as it goes for me - I’ve been asked a couple of times what I’m doing to fill my evenings and weekends since their season finished – Truth is I’m busier than I was during the regular season.

As well as covering a couple of sportsmans' dinners and a kickboxing tournament over the last two weeks I have covered nine matches, from schools football to amateur cup finals to the Scottish Football League Third division play offs – I photographed both legs of Arbroath’s semi final win over Cowdenbeath and also the home leg of their final against Stranraer – when Robbie Raeside gave me one of my favourite ‘cellys’ of the season.

I’ve known Robbie for years, he played for Dundee a decade ago and lived in the same street as me for a little while, he’s a smashing bloke and I was delighted when he headed Arbroath into the lead just before half time – and came our way to celebrate. The paper didn’t use this - they ran with my pic of his goal instead but I still love it.

Monday, April 21, 2008

I'm going to the Cup Final


I'm going to the Cup Final
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
no not me (at least I don't think so) - I don't know why but I just love this picture. It's of a Queen of the South fan who has just got a voucher to entitle him to a Scottish Cup Final ticket.

He'll be a Hampden in May to see his team play in their first ever cup final.

Taken at Palmerston Park before Queen of the South beat Dundee 1-0

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Bloodied


Gauldry v Harvester AFC
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
Gauldry's Steven Smith waits for treatment after a head clash with team mate Mark Kirkwood in his side's The Famous Grouse Scottish Amateur Trophy tie against Livingston side AFC Harvester.