Sport: Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Rugby 2012

Written by Nasir Hamid on April 3rd, 2012

On the day I made these images of the Oxford Women’s Rugby team I had originally intended to photograph some of the varsity trampolining but sometimes things don’t go to plan when photography is involved. To freeze fast movement such as trampolining you need lots of light for photography so that you can use a fast shutter speed. The lighting in the main hall at the Iffley Road sports centre wasn’t bright enough for the film I was using so I took along a couple of flashes to give me the extra light I needed. I was aware that the flashes might be distracting so I planned on only using them during the warm up session before the actual competition started but I only managed to fire the flash once to test it before I was told that it was too dangerous, hence no pictures for me. What a shame.

That led me to venture out to the women’s rugby which was quite exciting although the Oxford second team got beaten by Cambridge by quite a large margin (I’ll post those shots when I can find them). The images below are the of the first time (I think) who played later in the day. It was a great atmosphere at the end of the day as the sun was setting and the cup got passed around. A little earlier I tried to get some shots of the women’s hockey team but there wasn’t enough time before the match started. Hopefully another time I’ll get another chance.

Thanks go to Simon Griffin at the sports centre for his help and support with my photography throughout the varsity competition. I’m hoping to carry on with more photography of the sports men and women that use the facility in the future.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 camera and 110mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b (1:31) by me.