On the road – Day 4

Day 4 of ?? – Tampere/Helsinki, Finland

Another day – day started in Tampere with a Game Day ahead of us at the World Cup qualifying campaign (no -I am not playing 😉 ). Light morning shoot around – then for me, installing a remote camera to the catwalks above the court. Unfortunately arenas in Finland rarely have the catwalks right above a basket – so the angle wasn’t quite what I wanted and it did show in the end results of the photos… but, got few decent ones as well.

To try and keep my weight down, I am NOT dining with the team as one ends eating up as much as the players, and moving about 5% as much as they do… Good example of this was a ‘Covid bubble travel’ – where in six days I think I put on about 4 kilograms in weight!! Not easy being a team photographer 😉

Although, Thursdays lunch was quite a disappointment – I do like my own home made Ramen. So gave that ago in Tampere .. and, sorry to say that the stock on the ramen tasted a bit like dishwashing water… so weight definitely stayed down.

Main thing on Thursday was the game!!! Finland vs Israel in FIBA World Cup qualifying, almost 12.000 fans, tight game… almost everything a sports photographer can dream of!

After the game, pack up gear – the Wolf Bus was quite full, so I opted to make my own way to Helsinki after the game – by booking a train from Tampere to Helsinki. Nice and relaxing travel, as I had booked myself a cabin for myself.. so got to do some editing (and watch the evenings other FIBA games on my laptop!)

Back in Helsinki at 23.30 – 20 minutes brisk walk to the hotel, arriving just ahead of the team. Last bits of editing and late night Social Media posting… before hitting the hay for few hours. Friday is another travel day, as we head across the gulf to Estonia and Tallinn – where we have a game on Sunday evening vs Estonia.

So, the we are on Day 4 of goodness knows how many, perhaps lacking a little on the sleep side of things at the moment, but work is going well and there is enough of it – at least another 20 days to before POSSIBLY getting home.