Fantastic JK2011 Northern Ireland

[Freefall]

As nobody has specifically said so yet I would just like to say what a fabulous JK they held over in Northern Ireland. Harold (Coordinator) looked after me and I spent my time with the organising team seeing what was really going on behind the scenes. Usual politics, personalities and intrigue but I have to say the NI team themselves were wonderful. I look forward to meeting some of them again in Oban. I learned many lessons which I will take forward with my official hat on but I did go there as a "holiday". Cracked the sand dunes by Day 4 in my first race for FVO.

[EddieH]

Quite right Colin. The Irish never fail to put on a brilliant show - what courage to take it on with their numbers. They seemed to haul in helpers from everywhere - I saw no creeks at all.

[graeme]

Nah, it was a bloody disaster. (for those of us who have to maintain the standard next year )

[kedge]

I'd echo the praise above and add an extra thanks to Alan Gartside and his group of family and friends who staged the superb TempO/TrailO events over the weekend.

A brilliant course on the sand dunes at Murlough on the Saturday and an equally testing day at Castlewellan on the Sunday. The timed controls in the maze, viewed from the bridge above it, was a masterstroke.

A terrific JK, superbly staged.

The Queens sprint race round Botanic Gardens and Queens University on the Thursday was a little gem too - a great prelude to the weekend.

Thanks to all.

[Broken Ground]

Great JK, thanks ! Just wondering if anyone has any photos of the event?

[Happy]

I found some photos of the JK sprint on Flickr website

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailspiri ... 657326500/

What I think we lack in publicising our sport to our local newspapers when we get back home is some good action shots out in the field. If at major events BOF had an official photographer shooting away, a good moving shot sells the sport better than either photos on the run-in or on the podium.

[SeanC]

I agree about the action shots for publicity, but I don't think BOF have the money to pay for an official photographer when they can get paid hundreds for wedding pictures and keep their feet dry . It could be (yet another) thing for a big event organiser to sort out maybe (ie find a volunteer photographer from the many orienteers who take good pictures)?

A website with a few really good action shots that anyone can dip into and use whenever (rather than trawl through hundreds of run in pictures and action shots of feet and elbows) would be really helpful for publicity officers. It would need someone to organise it and orienteers to get into the habit of submitting their best pictures, maybe as part of an orienteering "photo of the year" competition? That might be something achievable by BOF or anyone reading this who fancies setting something up?

I spotted this on the SLOW website http://sloweb.org.uk/clubnews/top-slow- ... eparation/ which is the kind of picture I (and presumably Happy) are talking about.

[Simon E]

A few more photos here. Not the greatest set of action shots but you get an idea of the great race arenas and scenery if nothing else.

[AlanB]

What were the participant numbers like when compared to previous years? Did the stretch of sea that separates NI from the rest of the UK put many off? Or did competitors from the rest of Ireland make up for any absences?

[jk2011]

What were the participant numbers like when compared to previous years? Did the stretch of sea that separates NI from the rest of the UK put many off? Or did competitors from the rest of Ireland make up for any absences?

We've still to complete that analysis but broadly:

2,100 entries
500 entries from Ireland (North and South) and overseas
leaving about 1,600 from GB

.

EOD classes attracted about 80 competitors on each of Days 1, 2 and 3. The numbers for the String course seemed to be well in excess of 100 each day.

[bendover]

re. photos for publicity purposes

i think this merits a thread in itself. its something that moving forward i'd be happy to do some 'volunteer' work for - however getting good orienteering photographs is actually pretty hard to do!

i'm going to be at the British Long and Relay Champs and the Scottish Champs; I'll take some kit along and see what I can get. I'd be happy for these images to be used free of charge by British Orienteering/SOA - but would probably need some legal things tied up first, specifically:

In terms of using photographs for publicity purposes without asking the competitors in the images - is this covered by standard event entry terms and conditions? (as i said before, perhaps worthwhile starting a different thread?)

[Scott]

In terms of using photographs for publicity purposes without asking the competitors in the images - is this covered by standard event entry terms and conditions?

It doesn't really answer your question, but the BOF Child Protection guidelines do have an appendix on photography, which is the only place I can recall seeing it mentioned in the rules/guidelines (although I may be wrong). I know there are a few people on here who do regularly take large numbers of high quality photos at events - I guess they will know better than I do how this actually gets enforced.

The marketing pages of the BOF website also say "It is best practice to seek the permission of the person photographed", but again I'm not sure how that would work in practice.

[Freefall]

With parental permission, an action shot running into the finish of the relays.

Going for it

P1020288.jpg (49.04 KiB) Viewed 6252 times

Most of my photos were the usual around the assembly area, though by volunteering to carry out a casualty on a stretcher I did get out into Tyrella for some good shots in the dunes (if not actually good competitor shots)

[SeanC]

A small "official"/BOF repository of high quality action shots might be easier to manage for permissions. At local or district events it isn't normally too hard to work out who the picture is and contact them to ask for specific permissions (I normally do this). At the bigger events maybe they can be traced via their bib number? Another option is for orienteers to give permission to use all pictures of them in this repository - maybe via a simple web application? I guess many of the pictures will be of the elite runners who could easily be contacted and persuaded to tick the relevant box/send an email etc. What do people think?

Different rules/guidance must apply to groups shots such as relay starts presumably?

In case you're thinking this would not be worth the time/money investment, a quick story. "Womens Running" magazine recently contacted us as they wanted to include the Kent Night Cup in their article on "Top 10 night races". Of course I didn't turn down this great publicity opportunity and churned out some words which are in this months magazine. However they wanted some pictures and it was a struggle. If it had been "old men chatting at the finish or in the pub" magazine it would have been easy . After some searching I found some good ones via Rob Lines, however I've seen the published article and they've gone with 3 pictures from other races, and to be honest it would have had to be a really good picture to beat the competition. There was a great picture of night o in the BOF calendar a few years ago, perhaps that might have made it into their magazine?

[PhilJ]

As the "Publicity Man" for CROESO 2012 I have found it extremely difficult to get good 'O' action shots for flyers etc. It takes a very good photographer like bendover & Rob Lines to capture the whole 'O' experience. If BO invested in a photographer's time etc then this would make the publicising of the sport so much easier (for US - clubs/events etc). I have tried approaching BO for photos/help etc on marketing/sponsorship but got no help at all. Asked for intros into all their sponsors/partners on the BO website - nothing!!!

So what did we do - we organised a "staged" photo shot up at Teifi Pools with some of the welsh juniors and one of the photos now appears on the CROESO roller banner which you may have seen/will be seeing at events, a true action shot that hopefully portrays the sport and terrain/exhilaration of the sport.

There was a company that was taking photos at major events that could then be purchased, would it not have been an idea for BO to spend a few hundred pounds on these so that there was a gallery we could use, opportunity missed? To be honest I am not interested in the "elite" photos that appear on Focus as publicty - they don't do it for me, plus as much as I ask cannot get copies of them anyway so we are all left to our devices.

I want to create a short video for CROESO showing off the terrain and the fab setting of Aberystwyth (5 mins max) and post it on the website, but again this will be difficult to achieve without support.