Bristol City Women Sign Canadian international - Sarah Stratigakis
Bristol City Women asked me to capture some imagery for them to announce the signing of Sarah Stratigakis. Sarah is a Canadian international football / soccer player. She signed for City after previously playing for Vittsjö GIK, Oakville Blue Devils FC and Aurora FC. Upon meeting and introducing myself to Sarah we took a look around Ashton Gate stadium, deciding what parts we would use for the photoshoot. We started pitch side and got a few shots showing the stadiums seating and some of the roof architecture in the background. With the pitch being played on the night before it was being looked after with LED grow lights, this was something I had to take into consideration with backgrounds as although they are massively important to the upkeep of the pitch they are unfortunately rather ugly in the background when doing portraits. We moved into the stands, using the wall of red seats as a background. With a single light and grid I directed the light source onto Sarah to give a bit more of dynamic look with sunlight fading away in the January afternoon. Moving to different parts of the stand we used safety rails and a checkered flag to give some more options to the photos. We proceeded to move indoors, something I’m sure was welcomed by Sarah and the rest of the team on this shoot as it was getting bitterly cold as the evening drawn closer. Using a board covered in Bristol City logos as a backdrop we continued to get some more shots of Sarah in her new teams jersey. Raising the light higher and directing it down, as I shot from a lower angle was an idea to use shadows to create a sense of mystery behind who was in the jersey. The highlights picking up on the Bristol City badge but leaving the face in shadow, this would allow the club to use it as a teaser image to help create interest to the supporters. The videographer set up his lighting to get the clips he needed for the announcement video and then we went back into the changing room to do Sarahs welcome interview. I captured a few photos from this incase the club wanted to use any behind the scenes shots.
All these photographs where taken on a Nikon Z9 combined with either the NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S or the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S. For the light I used a Godox V1 with a grid attached. All photos where captured in RAW and edited on Adobe Lightroom.
