Martin Takes Shots at Redditch United
- Simon Pugsley
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
In this blog Martin Attewell shares his experience of taking on a new challenge; photographing match days for Redditch United.
What's your photography background and interest?
I shot my first photos in the 1970’s. With my parents Kodak compact camera, I remember laying out my Matchbox toy cars, Airfix plastic figures and making a scene in the garden with soil as a backdrop.
Once I started working, I bought my first SLR a Russian made Zenit which even had a built-in light meter. I also started developing and printing my own black and white photos.
I’ve always had an interest in railways and vintage vehicles, anything transport related this was my main subject for my photography for many years.
How did you become involved with Redditch United and had you any experience of sports photography?
November 2023 was my first experience of any type of sports photography. Neil Jay, photographer for Redditch United, emailed our club. He was asking if any members were interested taking photos at the following Saturday’s home match. The invite was posted via our club WhatsApp group. I thought it may be an interesting challenge but didn’t respond, thinking other club members with sports photography experience would answer the call. I noticed a few days later, no one had responded, so I emailed Neil for more details.
The brief was to take crowd photos and capture any other off-pitch activities, ideally featuring United’s fans with scarfs, hats as well as fans reactions. This would allow Neil to concentrate on the action on pitch. This suited me simply because my gear wasn’t up to the job for action shots, one short lens and slow focusing with the camera model I was using at the time. That didn’t stop me from trying to doing the best I could, though.
What was your first match like?
As with many photographers, I initially felt apprehensive about taking photographs of strangers. To address potential concerns, I resolved that if approached, I would explain that the photos were being taken on behalf of the club and refer any inquiries to the office. This thought provided me with greater confidence.
My first shots were of kids, a brother and sister wearing United’s, scarf and hat. I knew this was an ideal photo the club was looking for, so asked them if I could take a picture. Just to cover myself, I also asked their parents as well. Fortunately, mom said fine. After taking the photo I realised if I asked permission of everyone for a picture, I would miss the spontaneity of a photograph. Quickly I dropped that idea. The shoot first, answer questions later approach was adopted. You’ll be surprised how many people don’t realise you are there.
It must be quite different shooting matches in the day vs night; how do you adapt?
In the winter months obviously the light and weather can change very quickly. A 3pm kick off in daylight, with plenty of light and before you know, it’s dark. Until very recently my camera setting was aperture priority. Adjusting the ISO to allow higher shutter speeds.
Yes, football grounds do have flood lights of varying quality but don’t rely on them to illuminate the whole pitch. When it is dark you’ll find it’s better to shoot only when the action is in front of you. I’ve found to my cost shooting anything at a distance is a waste of time, the grain becomes too apparent. Sometimes, it is so dark that I stop taking pictures because the camera is on a high ISO. Experience tells me I’m wasting my time trying to suppress the ‘noise’ in post processing.
Recently, I experimented and changed to shutter priority, fixed at a high 20000 ISO enabling a shutter speed of 1/800. Of course, then, I don’t have to keep looking at shutter speed all the time. After two years photographing sport in aperture priority, I tried something else! Must admit I do get stuck in my ways.
What kit do you use?
I use the micro 4/3 Panasonic Lumix range of cameras and have done for years.
My lenses are also Leica Lumix by Panasonic, 12-60mm and a 50-200mm, (full frame equivalent 24-120 and 100-400mm). Lenes and camera body both have in-built stabilization
Until I started this sports photography game, I was quite happy with my Panasonic Lumix GH5. Then I found that the Lumix G9 II had a far better auto focusing system than previous models. I bought it and at around the same time I purchased a longer lens. I should add these were only bought after a year or so of photographing the ‘Reds’ and I knew I would continue with the football photography.
I’ve found the back focus button feature a real help with fast moving objects, something I never used before on a camera. Another feature helpful is the pre shot set up. Press the shutter button halfway down and the camera will start taking a set number of frames, but they’re not saved to the card. Only when the button is fully pressed, they will be saved.
What would a typical match day involve for you?
I like to arrive about an hour before kick-off. You never can be too sure of any new picture opportunities. Occasionally I may be asked by the club to shoot something specifically required for publicity.
I’m part of Redditch United’s volunteer media team which consists of up to four photographers a videographer and someone who writes the match reports. With everything being sent to Tia the clubs media manager. Volunteer means you’re not under any obligation to be at every match so occasionally I can find myself the only photographer at a game.
I have found after almost two years, shooting for the club it’s getting more difficult to find ‘new’ shots of the supporters. Simply, I’m photographing the same supporters who have got used to me wandering around the ground. I do get good reaction shots when a goal goes in, and they spot me and look towards the camera.
You must take a lot of images, how do you process them after the game?
All my ‘processed’ images are sent over to the media manager via my Cloud account.
Once I get home from a game the shots are reviewed directly from the SD card using my laptop. I sit in the armchair with a mug of tea and start deleting photos I know won’t be used i.e. out of focus, have poor composition, pose/expression of the subject doesn’t look correct etc. The amount of photos shot does vary, anything from 100 to nearly a 1000. With experience I don’t take anything near a 1000 these days. The vast majority won’t be seen ever again so I delete them. Again, with experience you learn when not to press that shutter button.
Usually, I process the previous day’s pictures the next morning. There’s no deadline imposed for the images but there’s no point in giving the club finished pictures a week later ether. For a while I shot in RAW but now it’s JPGs only. The whole process is a lot quicker by leaving out the RAW processing step.
On average there are no more than 300 to 800 photos to review, most of them are deleted, some during the game, so I’m left with approximately 200. If you’re wondering why so many images, shooting multiple images of the action on the pitch soon starts filling the card.
For processing the photos, I use Adobe Photoshop Elements. I call it a ‘cut’ down version of photoshop it’s been around almost as long as photoshop and years ago Elements was even given away free when you bought a printer. My version is a bit more resent. Sometimes I use DXO Nik Collection and Topaz are used to help with editing.
Typically, I can spend up to three hours or more processing. I soon learnt not to spend more than five or ten minutes on a photo trying to fix it, just move on because the image probably isn’t worth it anyway. Most of the time I just use shadows and highlights slider, straighten and crop tools.
Is there a link to social media or website with your images on?
For the last year Redditch Utd have been posting post-match images of each game on Flickr Redditch United | Flickr. My photos file name always begins with MvA .
On Redditch Utd’s website look for their online program page where you can view previous match day programs. Matchday Programmes - Redditch United Football Club.
Thanks to Martin for sharing his experience as part of Redditch United's volunteer media team. Lots of good insight into the challenges of sport events and action photography.
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