Another start to the season – DONE!

Start of any season is always busy times for a photographer, trying to get to all the clubs as quickly as possible, taking all the profile and action pictures. Profile pictures on a training day – so visit to each venue – and then games on the shortest time possible (maybe I should make the fixtures for the opening weeks next season 😉 ).

So, basically from the 25th of September, until the 3rd of November. It has been all systems go all the time. It’s either been a photoshoot day, or it has been a game day. So about 40 days of work straight on…

Has it been a lot of work, of course. Has it been tough, sure… But have I enjoyed it? Hell yeah! It’s one of the great things about doing all the teams, you get to meet the staff and players.. get to talk to them in a more relaxed settings. And getting to know them just a little bit.

So what have these last 40 days included :

• Photographing 21 teams (couple of them twice)
• Working for 40 days in a row
• Covering 21 games
• Driving approximately 9000 kilometres
• Spending 14 nights away from home
• Sleeping 2 nights in a hotel
• Sleeping 12 nights in the camper van (Susimobiili)
• Taking about 25.000 photos (editing&archiving them)

This is now around the tenth year in a row that I have done these kind of images for a league or another. And I sure hope there is another ten in the horizon… but that, as always – is up to the clubs and league and whether they see the value of having these images taken and if they have enough use to justify the costs of it.

Each year I think there have been improvements on the images – I don’t even really want to look at the results from the first time I took these kind of photos…they look bad. And each season we incorporate something new to the shoots.

Big thanks to Korisliiga and Suvi Hakkarainen and Tom Westerholm for trusting me for the second season in a row to take this images. It is greatly appreciated that I am allowed to do these photos.. hopefully you and the teams find them useful through out the season.

Now – it is time to already start to plan for next season. Looking at what has been done in other leagues, can we do something similar to those next season?? And of course – now it’s time to take more of the ‘artsy’ images at the games..

And – also a big thanks to ALL the clubs in Korisliiga and Naisten Korisliiga. You were all very welcoming – thanks for the help in carrying my equipment, the free drinks and buns, and in general just being really open for the photoshoots. I know it is not always your main priority .. I’ll see you all during the season!!