SC Farense vs GD Chaves
Last Sunday I headed back to the São Luís Stadium in Faro to cover the Portuguese Liga 2 match between the home team Farense and Chaves. I arrived about an hour before kick-off to set up my cameras and lenses, and to capture some shots of the players warming up.
Balle Sangare and Claudio Falcão
But really, the job starts long before I even get to the stadium. Preparation is everything — charging batteries, checking memory cards, cleaning the gear, and preparing the metadata for the game.
For those unfamiliar, metadata is written information that goes with every image I upload to the agency’s server. It includes details like player names, teams, and what’s happening in the photo. To make this process efficient during the game, I create “code replacements.” For example, if I type /fa5/, it instantly expands to: “#5 Farense defender, Franco Romero.” If I add /ch/ it might say: “climbs high and wins a header.” It takes a bit of work beforehand, but it saves me valuable seconds when the action is unfolding.
For this game, I was submitting images both to the agency and to Farense directly, while also working with three players as clients. I still remember my early days, when it could take me hours — sometimes even days — to finish editing and delivering a game. These days, I can usually wrap everything up within an hour after the final whistle.
Franco Romero
I started by capturing some warm-up shots and sending them off. Once the match kicked off, I positioned myself at the end where Farense was attacking. The first half was fairly even, and I focused on getting plenty of action shots of one of the attacking players I was working with, as well as two defenders on my list.
At half-time I decided to stay in the same position, which turned out to be a great choice — I managed to get some strong photos of one defender. Unfortunately, the other was sent off with a red card right before the break.
Playing with 10 men made things tough for Farense, and they eventually lost the game 0–2. Of course, I always prefer when the team I’m covering wins, but that part is out of my hands. What matters is the photography — and in that respect, I was really happy with the results, and so were my clients.