World Cup Portraits (Part 1)

More editorial photography and portraiture here. In the run up to the World Cup I shot a number of footballers including a couple of England team profile pieces for The Times. At that time we didn’t know how prominently Liverpool F.C’s captain, Jordan Henderson and Leicester City’s Harry Maguire would feature but both have proven themselves essential selections in Gareth Southgate’s squad. I photographed Jordan at Loughborough University where he took part in a training day with students. These editorial photography commissions are often demanding as time and options are limited. It is essential to know one’s cameras and lighting inside out and be constantly looking for an opportunity to provide a good choice of shots that illustrate the story while hopefully producing something creative and a bit different. You really can’t afford to fiddle and faff with bits of kit while your subject is being grabbed by all and sundry demanding selfies. I covered Jordan’s training session on a long lens then had a few minutes to set up some lighting in the goal mouth while I had his full attention. Later I shot him in the gym using a short telephoto 85mm lens with a very wide aperture to isolate him from the gym paraphanalia whilst introducing some splashes of colour. Finally, after the Times interview I was only able to shoot him in a meeting room. So, faced with a near empty room save for a white board, table and chairs I set about trying something a bit more creative. Here he is lit by a flash to left while another flash with a red gel is directed onto the wall behind him. A third flash is firing at the lens and a starburst filter gives the……er, starburst effect. Jordan wanted to see what I was up to and declared the shot…. “very cool”.

 

 

Harry Maguire was also photographed on a visit from his club, this time to his old school in Chesterfield. Something must be in the school water as his two brothers are both ex pupils and professional footballers. Again, there was a fun skills test which produced this lovely shot of a hug from Harry which The Times used nicely over seven columns.

 

Later, I spent a little time with Harry using the school lockers and classrooms as backgrounds. He even managed to show his skills in the school quadrangle while a PR tried to keep up holding a flash for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Japan team had an agonising defeat last week at the hands of Belgium. One member of the team, Shinji Okazaki is a familiar player to followers of the Premier League. The Leicester City player appeared three times in the finals. Here’s my previous post featuring my portrait of Shinji as used in The Sunday Times.