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Sport: Powerlifting, Oxford v Cambridge Varsity

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

The majority of my photography last Sunday during the Oxford V Cambridge Varsity competition was done during the Powerlifting. I started off by doing portraits of some of the competitors (which I will post soon) in the warm up area. Right next door was where the actual lifting was taking place. It was a great atmosphere with clouds of chalk dust everywhere and black walls which reminded me of black boards from school. The light level was low for photography (too low I thought) but the quality of the light looked really nice and I thought it was worth giving it a shot.

For these shots I used a roll of Kodak Tri-X that I rated at ISO 1600. I thought the light level was so low that I didn’t bother with taking a light reading. I simply set the shutter speed to the lowest I thought I could hand hold steady (1/60) and kept the lens wide open (f4.5). If I had known that the images were going to turn out this well I would have shot a lot more.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 and 50mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X rated at ISO 1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b, 1:31) for 17mins at 20C.

a man powerlifting

It's a shame I cut this guy's feet off but I was standing directly behind and over the judge so I couldn't get a better angle.

a powerlifter lifting a lot of weight

With all of the health and safety rules and regulations these days it's amazing that this guy doesn't have to wear steel toe protectors!

Taking the strain.

bench pressing weights

Bench pressing.

 

Sport: Judo, Oxford

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Last weekend I visited the University  sports centre on Iffley Road during the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity sports competition. My intention wasn’t to make action shots of sport it was to find people to make portraits of. Not being a particularly sporty person myself, I found it very interesting to be among so many people that were. As I write this the Varsity competition is not over yet, it’s spread across different weekends with some other events to follow in the summer. I did quite a lot of photography during my visit and I’ll post the images in batches as I make my way through the scanning.

My thanks go to Simon Griffin from the sports centre for being so accommodating and  supportive of my photography and also to everyone that made time to stand in front of my camera.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 and 110mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b, 1:31) for 7mins 30secs.

These guys were not part of the Varisty competition but as I walked past the room they were practicing in and saw the diffused light I knew I'd be able to make some great images. Fortunately these guys were very friendly and didn't mind me interrupting their practice session.

two judo fighters

These two guys are also photographers which made it easier for me to get my shots. At first they were a little surprised when I barged in on their practice session and announced that I wanted to photograph them but after they saw the size of the camera around my neck they knew I was serious.

These was the last shot on my roll and shot outside quite a while after the first couple above. Imagine having a face off with this guy.