We did our first shoot with the Nottingham Lions Ice Hockey Club this week. It was a complicated shoot to pull together, not least because we were shooting on the ice which creates obvious slip hazards, but it also made the shoot quite late - it was 9.15pm when the ice became free.
Our contact for the Lions is Matt Bradbury - he is our “gatekeeper” for this project. I call these contacts gatekeepers because they can quite literally unlock the door to the access required. In this case Matt has been fantastic - from arranging on-site parking through to liaising with the venue, nothing was too much trouble. And of course he arranged our 6 players, including a goalie.
Inspired by Pinterest boards we’d pulled together we planned 6 shooting scenarios;
1. Shoot puck skidding across ice from various angles. Thrown in by hand, these shots will be composited into the action shots later, eliminating the danger of flying pucks from the action shots
2. Single skater powering into shot, ice spraying up. Simulating hitting puck or just fast turns etc. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/single-player-action/
3. Double skaters powering into shot, ice spraying up. Simulating hitting puck or just contact etc. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/dual-players-action/
4. Bring in goal & Goalie
5. Shoot from behind net, single & then double skaters powering in, simulating goal mouth action.. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/net-minder-action/
6. Erect black backdrop behind net
7. Shoot Goalie portraits. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/net-minder-portrait/
8. Remove goal
9. Shoot single player portraits. See this Pinterest Board - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidkeepphotography/sports-ice-hockey/single-player-portrait/
Everything went really well & we were back in the car & on the way home by midnight. A late night shift but well worth it! A massive thank you to Marlies & Alex, without them I just couldn’t pull off shoots this complex.
This is just the first stage of an ongoing project and we have lots of other plans - you could be hearing about this one for quite a while :-)
I look like a dwarf telling a story to a bunch of giants!
I used every light I had - flash & constant LED
