East Coast Cyclones vs Waterford City Viqueens

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of travelling to Greystones on the outskirts of Dublin to photograph the bout debuts of the Cyclones and the Viqueens. I'd already seen some of these skaters in action in Belfast as part of the all-Ireland rookie Blockopussy bout and was looking forward to testing out my new and improved derby set-up in a new venue. Accompanied by my favourite little photo assistant we had a great day out courtesy of the East Coast Cyclones and received a very warm welcome. In contrast to my first visit to photograph derby in Dublin last year, I was allowed fairly free access around the track and benches and the Refs and NSO's who travelled from Belfast had taped out two "Barbour boxes" in centre track, which were well used by both myself and another derby photographer. Anyway, the Viqueens edged out the Cyclones 212 - 167 in a well deserved victory in what was a pretty close-fought bout. Here's a few shots..........

Belfast Banshees vs Stuttgart Bad Seeds

Shooting roller derby again on Saturday just past, and a first ever international bout in Belfast with the Stuttgart "B" team travelling to take on the Belfast Banshees. I had picked up an extra Nikon SB-800 flashgun second hand during the week and pressed it into service as my key light, lighting down the straight. The SB-800 was backed up by my two faithful SB-700's as fill lights on corners 3 and 4 with the really old reliable SB-28 parked on my back up body which was equipped with my other second hand purchase of the week, a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens.

8mm Fisheye lens in action

Anyhooo, the lighting with three flash units worked really well, as did setting a custom white balance using the weird mix of flash and flourescent.

Rosa "Sigourney Cleaver" Hughes takes her bow

The bout itself was really close and pretty exciting, with the lead changing hands a couple of times druing a hectic first period.

Stuttgart were heading for a big win with a 40+ points lead in the last few minutes until the unstoppable Hanabolic Steroids hit the track to jam for Belfast in what was the final jam of the night.

Hannabolic pulled out all the stops, aided by some pretty dedicated blocking and closed the gap to a very respectable 16 points before the final whistle.

A big result for Belfast and one which will move them up a few places in the European rankings.

Last Derby Bout of the Year

Sadly, Saturday was the last roller derby bout of the year here in Belfast. It's been almost exactly one year since I first approached the team and asked to come along to take some shots at a bout, purely out of interest. One year on and I've now covered six bouts, done the photography for a video shoot, taken two sets of head shots, taken special effects shots for bout programmes, got pictures published in the local newspapers, came second in the roller derby pub quiz with my kids and generally had absolute shit-loads of fun.

Roller derby has taught me a lot in terms of photography and given me the chance to swap ideas and pick the brains of similarly inclined photographers from all over the world through Flickr and Facebook groups. I've also had the chance to meet and work with a great bunch of ladies who seem to like what I've done and are always very complimentary and kind, even when I mess things up.

Saturday was notable to a couple of reasons. Five minutes into the bout my 32Gb CF card died on me. Just died with no warning and demanded to be formatted in the camera. Thankfully I had spare cards (as always) and was able to shoot the bout, with a loss of about 40-50 shots out of a total of 450. The second remarkable thing was that the team presented me with a thank you/birthday present at the end of the bout - a lens mug (Canon, but it didn't stop me drinking out of it) a cracker bottle of Green Spot Irish Whiskey from the Middleton distillery and my own BRD t-shirt with 2nd Shooter printed on the back. I've been after one of those for ages and am secretly very pleased to have been given one.

I'm looking forward to next year. More bouts at which to improve my skills at shooting and processing action shots. Some ideas for more arty stuff using slow sync/rear curtain flash and lighting. I also want to pitch some ideas for a calendar for this time next year - roller derby meets boudoir style. Bring it on.