Watton at Stone Cricket Team at Bamville

The Cricketers from Watton at Stone visited Harpenden to play against Bamville Cricket Club on Sunday and the weather was warm and close, as was the match that played out in the afternoon with an end that was equally close.

I cannot claim to be writing about the match from a cricketer’s standpoint, I simply try to record what I find of interest from what I can capture, and this is strongly biassed towards my capturing the bails in the air and the stumps ‘akimbo’! That is challenge enough; to capture a fielder catching the ball direct from the batsman requires a thorough recognition of the characteristics of the bowler, the batsman, considerable knowledge of the game and the relative skills of individual fielders – my knowledge of the above can be summed up as limited in the extreme, or more honestly as zilch!

Now that the cataract in my hitherto dominant right eye has been rectified, my skill lies with my eyes and reasonable reactions to what they see and anticipate from my observation of the play. I have a weighty but very steady tripod, so moving around is slightly restricted, and every so often the fielders share my chosen viewpoint thus I have to wait a while before I have a clear line of sight on the batsman, or if they seem rooted to the spot, I have to move and reset the tripod level again. When deciding to follow the action of a bowler, it is well nigh impossible to follow the entire run-up due to the proximity of the umpire, and the batsman at the crease, so that often results in less than tidy images.

If the bowler is powerful, this makes inclusion of the wicket keeper less easy due to the distance he will be from the stumps, so I tend to favour the batsmen as my favoured subjects, and some can be right-handed others left-, so as play within an over progresses, my viewpoint which had one of the batsmen facing me, can change when odd numbers of runs are achieved. I therefore tend to err on the photographic and photogenic aspects, such as from where is the light coming, the composition and any drama that occurs. Crisp shots of the bails in the air and the stumps re-arranged therefore seems like a good measure of whether my photos are a success – I missed two such occasions in this match due to my attempts at concentrating on the bowlers in both instances, but hopefully the batsmen’s play of the ball helps to tell the story of the afternoon alongside the record of their occasional demise due to accurate bowling. My apologies for the total absence of the record of great catches of which ironically I did actually witness two, with my number one eyeball!

Play was interrupted by a friendly Golden Retriever, and I manage to get a few shots of an overflying gull, just to add to the day’s action, and thank you Peter for some sustenance, the end of the day however was less successful and ultimately very costly, I managed to pick up a sharp flint from where I parked my car, and with the air in my tyre only lasting to the far side of Harpenden, my journey home was delayed waiting for the AA, because, the puncture could not be repaired and the rest of the journey was completed using a spacesaver tyre, and the day following necessitated a drive to Luton to replace the tyre, as the damage was right at the very edge of the tyre.

Bamville Cricket Club, Harpenden visited by Ivanhoe CC

A week back I had hoped I would be able to get down to visit Bamville Cricket Club for the first time this season, but it did not happen, so despite being somewhat tied up with tech-editing the first few chapters of Martin Evening’s next in the series of ‘Photoshop for Photographers’ books, I cleared what I could and headed down the M1 to Harpenden. I met more traffic than anticipated, obviously due to the attraction of bright weather, so the match had started without me! Hardly a surprise!

I gathered my kit, in this instance the 150-600mm Tamron on the 7D MkII and popped the Lensmaster Gimbal head on the Silk Road Giottos carbon fibre tripod, crossed the road and sat down just outside the closest boundary. I chose a low viewpoint and splayed the tripod legs so that when seated the camera eyepiece was at my level, and started shooting.

I soon found that was not good for my back and headed past the white screens and for a short while possibly a couple of overs I kept the low viewpoint, but eventually common sense prevailed and I accepted the higher level, an Ivanhoe player came by and I was able to learn that the Visitors  side were batting.  A short while later a Bamville gentleman came over to ask me whether I took sugar in tea, which was exceedingly generous; a sweetened cuppa followed a few moments later.

I soon had an instance of stumps akimbo and bails in the air, and was able to feel Peter Carr would be pleased rather than dismayed by this.

In the end I had captured two such instances which is always rewarding; I missed another because the batsman concerned was stood precisely in front of the stumps hiding the denouement entirely!

I came into the pavilion when the team had their break and had to let Peter know, I would also be leaving before the end of the match, but I was still reward by something to eat as well as the earlier tea, so I thanked him for his hospitality, I hope the team are happy with what I did manage to capture.

Bamville Cricket Club – Last Match of 2013

Traditionally Bamville Cricket Club celebrates their last match of the Season, by playing tow teams from within the Club, that way Bamville Club cannot lose. On Sunday they were blessed with bright sunshine for most of the day, and it was pleasantly warm, and Peter Carr, the Club Secretary invited me along, and he would be very pleased if I would take a Club Team Picture for that season, I duly came along together with my cameras, and I also chose to check out CamRanger again.

Because most members would be unlikely to have eaten lunch a splendid buffet was being laid out as I arrived. Rather than confining myself to only taking pictures of the match in progress, I took the opportunity to take informal pictures of many of those attending, both players and and friends and family.

I tried to make sure that I shot the very first ball being bowled, and from then on I was trying to anticipate when the bails were dislodged by keen bowling and was pleasantly surprised by how many of such shots came my way that day – I cannot be sure that the batsmen who succumbed were quite as thrilled as I was, to capture the moment of their downfall, but I was unashamedly thrilled when I managed to do so! I even longed for the classic shot of a stump flying, but that was not to be.

Taking photos of a cricket match is certainly a fantastic way to make a rod for my own back in terms of post processing as I have to be constantly trying to anticipate when a memorable picture is going to occur, so there will always be a mountain of shots where anticipated action fails to materialise, and one simply adds to the total of images one takes, and not only that you may miss something if you choose to keep deleting at the time of taking. For that reason I would recommend that hard drive manufacturers sponsor Cricket as a great way to fill large discs!

Thank you very much to Peter for inviting me, and a very big thank you for the hospitality and company, both were absolutely excellent, and an especial thank you to the lady who made some fantastic chocolate brownies.

Bamville Cricket Season Start

Harpenden boasts two cricket clubs, the first on Harpenden Common, the second just a short distance beyond East Common, close to the Three Horseshoes Public House. The May 1st match was Bamville’s first of the 2011 season, posted as ‘Players and Jesters’ –  the Abbey Players.

I arrived after the match had begun, and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, and there was the mildest of breezes. I gathered my gear together, and made my way across towards the clubhouse and pavilion and put up the tripod with gimbal head just short of a shady tree. I spent most of the first half of the Visitors batting shooting from this locations, and with the benefit of the Canon 7D’s greater burst rate than my 5D MkII, was able to capture the ball closer to the bat when shooting the batsmen than on previous occasions.

I was also trying to capture bowlers in exciting stances, ideally with both feet off the ground! I wanted to keep a low viewpoint. but this proved hard for me to get comfortable and Peter Carr very kindly brought me some cushions which eased my back considerably, and eventually I adopted a kneeling position, with breaks to bring them back to life. All the time I was also trying to work out better ways to use the various additions I had made to the tripod and gimbal head system I had created.

During the afternoon the wind slowly gathered momentum, and the sky clouded mistily over, and as I had come with only a shirt, the temperature and windchill gradually got the better of me, and my neck stiffened, but once again Peter came to my rescue and found me a sweater, so I soon began to look a member of the team!

I was pleased to have captured a couple of bails in the air, some floating bowlers and some very energetic running fielders!