I discovered the old Clapton FC in 2014 (one of my friend was a Clapton Ultra) who brought me to their (iconic :-)) pitch the Old Spotted Dog in the middle of Forrest Gate a couple of times a year (including a very strange afternoon in 2015).
Fast forwarding a couple of years (life decided to take the upper hand for me and the Clapton Ultras were boycotting their home games for 2 years), we meet again in 2018. A new club is born, run and managed by its fans. Welcome Clapton Community FC. The same friend drags me and I’m getting involved in helping the communication team running the club’s website.
2019, the 2nd season. The club photographer reaches out. He’s looking for more team members to help him covering the growing number of the the club’s teams.
Here I am, late august, dusting out my old camera on the sideline of a football pitch. Having shot live music for a long time, I thought moving to sport photography would be an easy move for me. It was not :-).
A football pitch is way much bigger than a music stage (even on a music festival) and 22 players makes it so much unpredictable to shoot. The action in happening everywhere. I also had to get more familiar with the rules to understand more the teams dynamics. Shooting the same players again and again over the weeks makes it also really interesting: you get more used to their style and pay much more attention to details.
Still a long way to go still, and I am learning at every game I am shooting. But it is a lot of fun and I am quite happy to get back to photography. I had some gear issues during most of the winter which kept me away from the sidelines and the season is now over because of Covid-19 but I can’t wait to be back next September!
TL;DR: please find my favorite photos from Clapton CFC this season. I have some free time these upcoming days so I may dig some more from my archive.
