davemolloy's photostream

During some lighting tests for a group portrait of the four candidates for President of the Trinity College Dublin Student's Union in early 2010, this moment cropped up.

The annual Trinity vs UCD rugby game, which ended in a decisve victory for UCD, was my first time taking sports photos. Rather challenging with my limited kit: most of the shots have significant motion blur, and I had to wait for the players to get physically close. This is the scrum half making a break for the wing I was waiting on.

Trinity hooker preparing for a line out. High contrast with the tone curve and lots of sharpening.

After the final whistle, this player took a moment to catch his breath and think over the circumstances of a particularly bad defeat from their rivals.

This giant of a man (Scott de Vala), seemed largely unfazed by his team's defeat, but everything about this shot- the steam rising from the players, the way he's insepcting the binding on his fingers, and the solemn expression-sums up the atmosphere. A friend of mine who is a very talented sports photographer gave me the following advice before the game: "When the last whistle blows, get on to the field and try to find the guys who look distraught or the expressions if they win."

Good advice.