Euro 2016: Group Stage Part 1

I’d been hoping to blog every day before coming out to the Euros but we haven’t stopped since we’ve arrived so here’s the first part of the group stages. I’m out here shooting for my agency, phcimages.com, but sharing the travelling with my Dad who is shooting for Focus Images.

France v Romania

Our first game was the opener between France and Romania at the Stade de France. We headed out on a ferry the night before the match and then went to Paris early to pick up our accreditation. For the tournament, you receive an accreditation to get you into the stadiums and then a separate accreditation for each game to get pitch side or in the tribune.

Thankfully this all went smoothly and we were in the ground early to shoot fan pictures and security around the ground, which was a major story due to the Paris attacks last year.

I then chose my pitch position, borrowed a 1DX Mk II and a 200-400 f/4 from Canon (shiny!) and headed out to the pitch. Once there I discovered that I’d somehow damaged the USB lead on my one and only card reader (top tip: bring a spare of everything!). Thankfully, a very nice Canon technician lent me a spare cable for the match.

I decided to forgo the usual team line-up photos and head up into the stands to shoot the finale of the opening ceremony. I knew the French air force were flying over and the shirts of all the teams would be displayed and hoped it would be a nice photo, and something a little different from a typical manager photo or team line up which hundreds of photographers would all get.

I shot the whole ceremony from the stands and then very nearly missed the finale! I saw the planes before I heard them but thankfully I grabbed my fisheye just in time and got a few photos I’m quite pleased with.

For the match I decided to go France attack first half and Romania attack second half, hoping that France might score early and Romania would come back. The plan nearly worked as Romania equalised in the second half from a penalty after a France goal and the cele ran my way. However, in my rush to get a better angle for the goal, I tripped over some hidden wires and dented the front of Canon’s £8,000+ 200-400! Thankfully Canon understood and let me (and my bank balance…) off. France then went on to score a late winner at the other end thanks to the outstanding Payet.

England v Russia

After the France match, we headed down to Marseille early for England’s opener against Russia. The journey was a mere 9 hours, not helped by road closures due to the trouble developing in the port area and a couple of wrong turns.

At the grounds, there’s a priority system designed to give priority to photographers from the nations involved, then photographers from the nations in that group, then French photographers and then everyone else. Each position has a specific seat with ethernet and power points and you’re not strictly supposed to move, although you can if it’s not too busy.

I picked a good position in front of the Russian shooting England attack first half, with the intention of moving in the second half. During the first half, one Russian fan was ejected from the ground, another burnt an England flag and a few more made racist monkey noises at a steward. Charming.

On the pitch it was fairly uneventful. I moved to the other end, down the side of the pitch for the second half. Dier scored a great free kick but then ran to the opposite corner, straight down the lens of the 15 photographers in that corner. Frustrating. Russia then scored an equaliser in the dying moments at the other end.

Not long after the equaliser I noticed a few scuffles with stewards and Russian fans, so I focussed on that for a bit. This quickly developed into the Russian fans breaking through the handful of stewards separating the fans and storming the England end. I knew this was going to be the story and stayed on the ensuing chaos in the stands, watching helplessly as England fans were attacked and tried to get away.

Northern Ireland v Poland

Next up was a (relatively..) short trip along the south coast to Nice for Northern Ireland’s match against Poland. A completely different atmosphere greeted us with both sets of fans dancing to a band outside the ground. Great fun and it made for great photos too.

I’d opted for a tribune position, which was basically a few seats at the front of the stand reserved for photographers. I’d never shot a match from up there before but I wanted to try and get something different, and I hoped a 6pm kick-off would provide some nice light.

The match ended 1-0 to Poland and the cele worked out quite nice for me and I got some action photos I’m pleased with too. More tribune positions in the knockout rounds I think!

Belgium v Italy

Up next was a trip to Lyon for a few days, starting with Belgium v Italy. We’re generally staying at places on Airbnb when we have a couple of days in one place and we arrived at a lovely country house on the outskirts, complete with a very noisy dog.

After discovering the joys of Lyon at rush hour (a 20 minute journey turned into an hour…), we saw Italy play very well and win 2-0. I got the first goal ok, but the celebration ran away and then I was at the wrong end for the second goal – a familiar theme!

We eventually arrived back at our house around 2am where I had to kick the neighbours cat out before hitting the sack.

Portugal v Iceland

The next day was Portugal v Iceland in nearby Saint-Etienne, only about 45 minutes drive from our place in Lyon. A late kick-off meant we could have our first real lay-in of the tournament and get a bit of editing done in the morning. I’m sending my main set of photos at the ground but I still have stock to edit as well as photos from 6 different agencies that supply us which can be very time consuming.

I started feeling unwell in the morning and by kick-off I had developed a full on cold, or ‘Media Centre Flu’ as it’s also known. I didn’t shoot any GV’s or fan photos and even contemplated not shooting the match. I decided I’d come too far to not shoot a match, and so I decided to sit away from the main pack of photographers (for their benefit and mine!) and I sat down the side, roughly in line with the edge of the penalty area.

Nani scored for Portugal after half an hour and looped around to celebrate right in front of me which was arguably better than any cold remedy!

Iceland deservedly equalised in the second half and held out for a draw, their first points at a tournament. The Iceland fans were fantastic and very colourful, by far the best I’d experienced to date.

England v Wales

Next up was England v Wales all the way up in Lens. We’d decided to head up there the day after the Portugal match, stay near Lille and head into the city to look for any fan trouble.

I was feeling absolutely awful and ended up as a passenger for the entire 7-hour journey. By the time we arrived I was feeling even worse and decided to stay in and relax, and watch a bit of the tournament. It’s surprising just how little of the tournament you actually get to see so it was nice to watch a bit of football at least.

The next morning we headed into Lens early for the match. Still not feeling great, I forced myself out to shoot some GV’s of the ground which paid off with one published on the Sun’s website.

I decided to sit in front of the Wales fans to shoot England attack first half and Wales second half. This meant I was at the wrong end for all 3 goals and celebrations, including Sturridge’s last minute winner. So far, everything has ran away from me in the England games, very frustrating!