Legends together - Charlie Cooke and Wullie Reilly

I’ve had quite a lot of pictures in various newspapers in the last week or so but the one I’m most pleased got published is of these gentlemen – It’s Dundee fan Wullie Reilly with former Dundee and Chelsea star Charlie Cooke and it was taken over a year ago when Wullie first got diagnosed with cancer.

The Evening Telegraph did a feature on him having only a couple of months to live last night and with various wee stories from his life and they used my picture of Charlie and Wullie, not this exact frame (I like this one better) – Wullie is a legend amongst Dundee fans and he’s holding a ‘going away’ party this Sunday at Lyrics – everyone he knows is invited with a donation to Macmillan nurses being requested.

I take a lot of pictures of fans, Dundee and other teams, and I’ve missed Wullie being in the crowd at Dundee’s games recently – I hope I get to take his photo at a match again.

Tributes  and stories about Wullie on www.dundee-mad.co.uk
and also on www.dundeeunited-mad.co.uk

Donate to Macmillan nurses here – www.macmillan.org.uk/Donate/Donate.aspx

Dundee's Stephen O'Donnell's dismay is clear to see as referee George Salmond flashes the red card

Dundee’s Steven O’Donnell is red carded in the top of the IRN BRU Scottish Football League First Division clash at Ross County. His side had just taken the lead when he was dismissed for a challenge on County’s Stuart Kettlewell – the game finished 1-1

Falkirk players react after Dundee's fourth

Shot Dundee beating Falkirk on a blustery day at Dens Park and this pic just about sums up the Bairns’ afternoon – it’s the Falkirk players’ reaction after Steven Milne had put Dundee 4-2 ahead.

Auchinleck Talbot Director Colin Chisholm looks at the William Hill Scottish Cup after his junior club were handed an away tie to SPL Hearts in the 4th round draw at Hampden Park.

Photographed the William Hill Scottish FA Cup Fourth Round draw, the round when the Premier League clubs enter the competition and Junior Cup holders Auchinleck Talbot got a dream draw away to, arguably Scotland’s third biggest team, Hearts. Talbot director Colin Chisholm couldn’t hide his delight as he looked at the cup while waiting to be interviewed by SKY Sports News.

Cowdenbeath manager Colin Cameron pictured at Hampden Park after his side had been drawn at home to Hibernian in the William Hill Scottish Cup 4th round draw

Another team who got a great draw were, top of the second division, Cowdenbeath who face Hibs who are struggling in the SPL – ‘Beath manager Colin Cameron got his hands on the cup and, although he won’t be back at Hampden to lift it come final day, the Fifers will fancy their chances of pulling off an upset.

Scottish FA President Campbell Ogilvie with Dundee United's number 11 ball after they were drawn against Airdrie United

The draw was conducted by Interim WBO world lightweight boxing champion Ricky Burns (who seemed a really nice bloke) and Kristof Fahy, Chief Marketing Officer at William Hill, who picked the balls and handed them to SFA President Campbell Ogilvie to show them to the TV and still cameras.

My view of the draw

This is the view I had of the draw, in between a couple of TV cameras, it was much better than that of reporters and club representatives who had turned up to see the draw – they’d have seen little with a wall of cameramen, video and still between them and the podium.

More pics from the draw at www.davidyoungphoto.co.uk

One of the most frustrating things about shooting football (soccer) is when a goal is scored and you are completely blocked from getting the shot (ie: a player or referee is directly between your shooting position and the scorer) – it happened to me yesterday, but I got away with it because of my remote.

The picture above shows what I saw, but despite not being able to get a photograph of the goal from where I was I kept shooting in the hope that my remote would catch something and I got lucky – see after the jump.

Dundee's Gavin Rae (8) scores the equaliser - Greenock Morton v Dundee - IRN BRU Scottish Football League First Division at Cappielow

I’ve been neglecting the remote a bit recently, didn’t bother using it at a few games, I’m glad I did here.

Camera geek stuff;
Remote shot was taken with a Canon 40D and 17-40 F4L lens at 17mm and F5.6, 1/500 shutter speed and ISO 1600 – pic cropped in to about half of frame.

My point of view shot was taken with Canon 1d Mkii and 70-200 F2.8L lens

Remote camera was triggered by my Ghetto Remote – the Yongnuo RF-602, transmitter on the 1d Mkii and receiver on 40D – both cameras fire when I press the shutter.

Note: I was going to change to a set of the newer RF-603, but they won’t fire a remote camera in this way

More pictures from the game at www.davidyoungphoto.co.uk

Raith Rovers' goalkeeper David McGurn reacts as Dundee players race away to celebrate Ryan Conroy's goal

A late goal decided the Dundee v Raith Rovers match I photographed on Saturday and scorer Ryan Conroy ran exactly the way I didn’t want him too – he’s been telt (as they say in Dundee) and he knows which way to celebrate when he scores at that end of the ground from now on.

On the plus side while I was trying to track him racing away with his back to me the autofocus caught Rovers’ goalie David McGurn reacting to the goal, the ball actually went through his legs as Conroy scrambled it home – accidents will happen but it’s nice when one produces a nice pic.

Sadly Calum Elliot, who I photographed after he signed a month’s loan deal at Dens on Friday got a nasty looking injury from the first tackle of the match – hopefully it’s not as bad as it looked at the time.

24 year old striker Calum Elliot joins Dundee on loan from Hearts

Shot signing pics of Hearts striker Calum Elliot as he joined Dundee on a month’s loan, he’s been out injured for a while and is desperate to get back playing. Hopefully he’ll be running my way after scoring this afternoon – More pics at www.davidyoungphoto.co.uk

Launch of 'It's all about the memories" - Authors Kenny Ross and Jacqui Robertson with Neil McCann, - My picture of McCann celebrating his injury time winner over Raith Rovers is the cover photo.

Miles out of focus shot of Steven Milne's header beating the Ayr keeper #fail

A glance at the back of the camera seemed to indicate quite a nice image of Steven Milne heading the final goal of the afternoon, and having got a reasonable set of pics from my hand held cameras and also avoided rain for the 20th game in a row this season I was quite happy with my days work – but upon ingesting the card into the macbook pro it was apparent I’d cocked up big time with the remote – the pic was miles out of focus.

A wise old photographer told me once to celebrate your big screw ups – they are the ones you learn from – so lesson learned (hopefully) – first and last time I’ve been so careless – Some (hopefully) sharper pics from the match can he seen at www.davidyoungphoto.co.uk

Edit: Coincidentally, just after publishing this , I noticed a post at http://biglensfastshutter.com/2011/10/24/always-be-shooting/ – which also has a sports photographer showing some mistakes and how he learns from them – good read.