Pitch Invasion

There’s been a bit of talk in the news in the last few days about plans by the GAA to put a fence around Croke Park to avoid pitch invasions like happened after last Sunday’s All Ireland Hurling Final, as Kilkenny’s fans rushed on to the pitch to congratulate and celebrate with their team.  I was lucky enough to capture this shot of the Davin Stand as they did so.  Well ok, not quite…

This photograph was actually taken yesterday from one of the bars in the Hogan stand, alongside where Photovision 2009 was taking place.  Photovision is essentially a photographer’s trade show, and I went up to Croke Park to see what was on offer, and in particular to investigate what is available in terms of wedding albums, photobooks, CD and DVD holders, and proof boxes.  Having been booked to shoot weddings from December on, I need to see what is available so that I can know what to offer brides and grooms as options for displaying their wedding images.  And from yesterday, it appears that there are about as many styles of wedding albums as there are seats in this photograph.

Having done the rounds at the trade show, I took the chance to take a wander around the corporate level of Croke Park, reckoning I might not often get to see it again, especially with the stadium itself so quiet.

I tried some wide angle shots of the stadium (and indeed some fisheye shots), but they didn’t really work due to the fact that the view was obscured considerably by the upper tier above where I was standing, and I couldn’t get access out onto the Hogan stand itself for a clearer view.  Perhaps I should have asked.

So I started looking for other shots.  As I walked from the Hogan stand around to the Davin stand (or the Canal end as most people still know it) I saw this view below and liked the regularity of the seats, with the diagonal lines of the walkways cutting through them, and the two tone colours adding another dividing element to the composition.  Having taken this shot, I cropped tighter for another, aiming to exclude the netting at the lower left, but ended up looking at them later liking this shot better, as it has four walkways intersecting it, whereas the other had three, and looked a little unbalanced to my eye.

In post processing I pushed the contrast a lot.  An awful lot in fact.  Mainly because I was shooting through glass, so the image was very washed out straight out of the camera.  I was shooting RAW format as I always do, so there was tolerance to really increase the contrast without losing a lot of detail, and I took full advantage of this.  I played with the saturation of the blues, yellows and greens also to add a little punch, and finally added a vignette to draw the eye in a little, something I’m becoming a fan of lately.