[jobby]

November 24, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Great shots Ray, love them all, last is my favourite….

I take it your the guy thats at all the Town games at Lissywollen?

[jobby]

October 23, 2008 at 3:15 pm

I’ve managed to get into a few events by chancing my arm. I’ve been doing Sports Photography for the last 16 months and I’ve only had two official passes – Ireland U20 Rugby International against Scotland and Dublin V Westmeath Leinster football Championship this Summer in Croke Park.. They are very strict in Croker, especially for the Dubs games. I received these passes on the back of selling as a freelancer each week to the Athlone Advertiser..

I’ve managed to shoot at events like the European Open (Golf), Walker Cup (golf), All-Ireland hurling q-finals (Semple Stadium), National League games – GAA, Under Age Soccer Internationals in Athlone, by just turning up with the lens over my shoulder and looking like I should be there!

Shooting sports has been something I’ve always wanted to do and the last year and a half has been great. The disappointing part is looking at poor images on the local papers when you have some crackers from the same game. Some papers use images from the guy in the stand which is really annoying as they are generally very poor in quality but couple an editor with poor standards and a tight budget and this is what you get! Others use full-timers who haven’t got fast enough lenses to deal with the conditions but like to stay loyal to them as they cover all non-sporting events which account for the majority of images they print..

I charge for every photo that gets printed, I started by handing a cd of my images into the local papers..

Good luck with your journey…

/John
http://www.johnobrienimages.com