Photo blog, tag: sport pictures  

Rugby VII Torino vs Rugby Bergamo 40-0

Pictures from the match between Rugby VII Torino and Rugby Bergamo. Click here to see all pics.








Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

... and another few photos from Rugby VII Torino vs Parabiago

Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Images from Rugby VII Torino vs Rugby Parabiago

A few group pictures from the match between Rugby VII Torino and Rugby Parabiago. Snow fell on Settimo Torinese before the match, but most of it had gone by the time the teams started playing.













Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Rugby VII Torino vs Parabiago 23-24

U.S. Rugby Parabiago visited Rugby VII Torino in Settimo Torinese, and got away with victory after a closely fought match. 24-23 was the final score, after a last second kick by the hosts bounced off the bar.

More pictures to follow.

Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Triathlon is so photogenic: more pics from Aviva Ironman 70.3 in Singapore

There was no live rugby for me last weekend, therefore I have been doing some digging in my "pics that should be published" list. And the result is ... more pictures from the 2010 Aviva Ironman 70.3 triathlon competition, held in Singapore on 21st March 2010.








Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, triathlon

More pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia

Last chunk of pictures from the match between VII Rugby Torino and CUS Pavia. More pics from the same match available at "VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia", "Pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia" and "Preparing for the scrum".



Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Preparing for the scrum

Another couple of pictures from the match between VII Rugby Torino and CUS Pavia played on 14/11/2010.





More pics from the same match available at "VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia", "Pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia" and "More pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia". All pictures are available in larger format.

Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia

A few more pictures from yesterday's match between VII Rugby Torino and CUS Pavia. Please look at the copyright notes in you plan to fiddle with these pics...








Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia

Another Sunday taking rugby photos, another Sunday watching a victory for VII Rugby Torino. This time it was 40-16 on CUS Pavia, on a dry-ish day in Settimo Torinese.

Before the match


During the match


After the match


More pics from the same match available at "Pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia", "Preparing for the scrum" and "More pictures from VII Rugby Torino vs CUS Pavia". All pictures are available in larger format.

Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

My first Oval Ball Weekend, the other match: Rivoli Blacks vs Lancieri Novara

As I said a few weeks ago, in October I had the opportunity to follow an American football match from the sidelines. In 2010. Two-thousands-and-ten. That's about thirty years after the first NFL match I saw on tv. Well, yes, I did wait a bit. And thanks to the Rivoli Blacks press agent - and to coach Gianni Brena, I suppose - I have been welcomed on the sidelines of the Blacks complex in Grugliasco, near Turin (that's Turin, Italy, not Turin, Georgia, USA).

Guess what: it did rain a lot. And it was a dark Saturday night. It looks like I am bound to take sports pics in near darkness, lately...

Not. Enough. Light. Did I say that already? Light is really the most important thing one can ask for, when taking pictures. The light I found in the American West was great. The low, wintry light I encountered in New Zealand was almost magic. Taking good pictures with that kind of light was a pleasure and almost a guarantee of good pics.

Whatever the excuse, the 8Gb of pics I took during the Blacks-Lanceri match were mostly unusable. Which is a pity, because the match - valid for the Under 21 FIF championship - was exciting, despite being quite one-sided. Very one-sided, in truth: the Blacks won fair and square, beating the Lanceri Novara 50-0. Most of the points came from #28, a Mr. Roagna who seems to be quite apt at running wild along the sidelines. This is Italian American football, and Roagna is no Chris Johnson, but on that night, he certainly looked like the Tennessee Titans standout.

A few pics below. #27 is a very young promise for the Blacks team, playing for their Under 13 squad.









Tags: American football, pictures, sport

A few more pictures from a rainy rugby match (Settimo vs Borgo Poncarale)

Keeping the camera dry on such a rainy day was just not possible, so I am glad the camera did not die on me. And a brighter lens would have been in order: the Sigma 50-500mm offers a range few lenses can match, but it is not the right lens if you have to work in overcast weather. And talking about this... if anybody has a Nikkor 80-200mm/2.8 to sell, let me know.

Despite the above mentioned limitations, I took many pictures at the match. I am publishing them in case some of the players fancy having a memento of this well fought match.










Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Always protect your head

Another image from the Rugby VII Torino vs Borgo Poncarale match played on 31/10/2010. The player on the ground was initially hidden by a forest of legs; I took this picture after most of the players had moved away.
Quite remarkably, he appeared to not having been hit while laying on the ground.

Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

In rugby, your age doesn't matter

Despite watching rugby since the early Eighties, I have never seen a live rugby match before this, in October 2010. Rugby was not the most common sport in my neighbourhood in Italy, and even in the years I spent in the UK I have never seen people playing rugby. So all the rugby players I have ever seen were in their 20s or 30s. I am glad to see that there are exceptions, and that age, sometimes, does not matter: the gentleman wearing the yellow and blue jersey in the pictures below is not in this 30s, and most definitely not in his 20s. And he played as good as any other player on the field in the two Rugby VII Torino matches I watched, with Borgo Poncarale and with Rugby San Mauro.





Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Rugby VII Torino vs Borgo Poncarale: It's raining, it's pouring...

The location: Settimo Torinese, near Turin, in Italy. The event: a rugby match between Rugby VII Torino, the home team, and Borgo Poncarale from Veneto. The unwelcome guest: rain constantly pouring down on players, umpires and yours truly.








Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

More rugby pictures

Another few pictures from the VII Torino Rugby-San Mauro match of the past weekend.

Keep your eyes on the ball

Like flying

We can't lose this match

I. Will. Not. Give. Up.

Grit

Intensity

Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport, sports portraits

My first Oval Ball Weekend: VII Rugby Torino vs San Mauro

The first time I watched a Six Nations match on tv was around 1982, and back then that rugby competition was still known as the Five Nations. The first time I watched an NFL match on TV was in the early 1980s, and the Oakland Raiders were playing with Jim Plunkett as quarterback. American football has been one of the enduring passion of my life, and rugby is a sport I appreciate a lot.

And up to the past weekend I had never seen a live rugby match or a live American football match, despite spending two years in the USA and five in England. Well, that's sorted now.

Thanks to the Blacks Rivoli (football) and to the VII Rugby Torino, I have been allowed to shoot two matches from the sidelines: Blacks Rivoli vs Lancieri Novara, a match valid for the Italian Under 21 American Football Championship on Saturday night; then, on Sunday afternoon, the VII Torino Rugby vs San Mauro, valid for the Seniores Championship.

Well, here are a few pictures taken Sunday. Thanks to Graziano Destro of VII Rugby Torino for providing me with sideline credentials. The team's name is a wordplay, since the Roman ordinal VII is read, in Italian, as "Settimo", which is also the name of the city where the team plays, Settimo Torinese.








Tags: pictures, rugby, Settimo Torinese, sport

Car racing near Marina Promenade

Sunday morning. You plan to sleep well into the morning, and maybe even reach that long-sought after goal, waking up at noon, to make up for a long backlog of lost sleep.
And at ten o'clock an unbelievably loud noise, akin to somebody switching on all the 100,000 Toyota Corolla recalled in Brazil, wakes you up. It comes from the other bank of the river, a few hundreds meters from your flat.

You have two options:
1) earplugs, sleeping mask, and you will yourself back to sleep;
2) camera, long lens, bicycle, and you ride across the bridge to see where all the noise is coming from.

I took the second option, and rode on the Benjamin Sheares Bridge towards Marina Promenade. And surprise... it wasn't Toyota testing 100,000 cars. 'Twas just a simple car race. Very simple, actually: sports cars started in couple, ran for a few hundreds metres in a straight line, then accelerated sideways through three bends, often bouncing against each other, and made it back to where they started from. There was a ticket a queue, designated areas, designated footpaths. No thanks, just give me the cars.

And indeed they gave me - and everybody else, paying audience and freeloaders on the bridge - the cars.











A green car, but is it a green car?


Tags: car racing, pictures, Singapore, sport

Six-a-side in Singapore

Tags: football, pictures, Singapore, sport

Faces of triathlon

A few more pictures taken at the 2010 Aviva Ironman 70.3 in Singapore, on 21st March 2010. Sport portraits, if you want, bearing in mind the obvious: these are not portraits taken in a studio, with makeup and lighting designed to enhance the model's features. These pictures were taken hours into a triathlon race, when the athletes had already a long swim and many miles of cycling on their back and, most importantly for a portrait, on their faces.

















A few names:
#1026, Craig Johnson
#612, Meng LOH
#57, Pei shan SIM
#640, Andrew PEREIRA
#1431 (unknown)


Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, sports portraits, triathlon

OSIM International Triathlon 2010 - #3879

A picture of racer #3879 at the OSIM International Triathlon competition in Singapore. A hot day, as usual, I hope all athletes remembered to put as much sun cream as I did; I got sunburnt the day before, at the Singapore Soccer Sixes.


Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, triathlon

Singapore Soccer Sixes: there is not just triathlon, here

It was too rainy to watch triathlon, today, so I went the City Hall area with the idea of visiting Peninsula Plaza and Funan Centre, And I accidentally stumbled upon an international football competition at Padang, the sports field in front of City Hall. The Singapore Soccer Sixes is a six-a-side football tournament with many very short matches (see the rules).


Tags: football, pictures, Singapore, sport

Skaters at Somerset MRT - II

Other pictures taken last week near the Somerset MRT. Dozens of skaters on skateboards and on rollerblades, several photographers around, glorious sunshine (which disappeared too soon behind the buildings surrounding the area). As in every sport, you try to get as close as possible to the action without damaging the show: if skaters have to pay more attention to you than to their own line/speed/position, you are wasting their time and yours.



Tags: pictures, Singapore, Skating, sport

Extreme Sailing Series 2009, Singapore

December 2009, you wake up in the morning and what's out of the window? Catamarans racing in the Kallang Basin. On a sunny day. When there's nothing else to do.
As Mr. Wilde used to say, "I can resist everything except temptation". So out I went, with a bicycle, an overweight backpack and not enough sun cream. A few sample photos are below, mostly taken with the Nikon D300 and the Sigma 50-500mm.





Tags: pictures, sailing, Singapore, sport

2010 Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore: numbers 5, 1028, 1104, 911, 955

Another few pictures of the triathlon competition that took place in Singapore two weeks ago, the Aviva Ironman 2010.

Number 5, James Cunnama, who finished second:

Bruce Pye, #911, and #955, Andrew Thomson:

Number 1028, Steven Joyce, and number 1104, Niels Have:


Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, triathlon

Skaters at Somerset MRT

Spent a few hours next to the Somerset MRT station, taking pictures of skaters (on skateboards and on rollerblades).


The more sports pictures I take, the more I understand why pro sport photographers love their 300/2 and the other bright glass they have: there's never enough light! I took most of my pictures with a 18-105mm today, and I used a 50-500mm for a few others. I could have done with the 10-20mm, for images close to the ramps, and with a 50mm/1.8 for the others. Next time...

Tags: pictures, Singapore, Skating, sport

Beware: triathlete charging!

A picture of #29, Margaret Shapiro, at the recent 2010 Aviva Ironman 70.3, a triathlon competition that took place in Singapore in March 2010.


Margaret finished 3rd among women and 14th globally, with a time of 4 hours, 31 minutes and 37 seconds.

Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, triathlon

Other pictures from the 2010 Aviva Ironman 70.3 in Singapore (triathlon)

A few other pictures from the Aviva Ironman 2010, the triathlon competition that took place in Singapore on 21st March 2010. Below you will see pictures of competitors #49, #95, #314, #608, #808, #950, #967, #1117 and of another unknown guy whose number is not visible in the picture.



As said in my previous post, if you have taken part to the Aviva Ironman 2010 and you want a larger version of a picture of you (cycling, crashing, running, but no swimming), contact me at info AT claudiopiombetti.com; I will send your picture for free for non-commercial use (printing it and giving it to your friends is OK). If you do not appear in th

Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, triathlon

Triathlon pictures - 2010 Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore

I have enjoyed watching the Aviva Ironman 2010 triathlon competition, last Sunday. I did take quite a few pictures, these are a few samples:

Racer Dai Matsui (#866) of Japan:


Racer Domenico Passuello (#11) of Italy:


If you were at the race and you are interested in the picture(s) I might have taken of you cycling or running during the race (sorry, no swimming), contact me at info AT claudiopiombetti.com. I will let you have those pictures for free.

Soon online:
- The list of race numbers for which I have pictures;
- CSS (you might not care, but that's one of the main differences between a crappy-looking web page and a good-looking one);
- More sample pictures;
- Pics of the fencing competition that took place in Singapore in Feb 2010.

Tags: pictures, Singapore, sport, triathlon