The Plaza Group wo are part of The Supermac’s Family have become the new sponsors of The Galway Women’s FC soccer club for 2022.

“The connection with Galway Women’s FC is a natural fit for us and the future is certainly bright for this group, from Senior to U19 and U17and they are going from strength to strength with the appointment of the new senior manager, Alan Murphy. The increased focus on the game through the coverage by TG4 and the success of the national team has certainly led to an increased awareness of the women’s game in general,” said Pat McDonagh of Supermac’s.

To highlight the sponsorship deal I was commissioned to photograph some images for editorial and public relations purposes. The shoot took place at The Galway Plaza on what was a dull and over cast Saturday morning in December. A series of images were requested, traditional group shots combined with more energetic press and pr images for media purposes. When it comes to these types of photo shoots it is vitally important to be prepared and have a rough plan in mind as to what way you are going to approach the shoot. Being efficient is key as more often than not you will get a maximum of fifteen to twenty minutes if you are lucky. While it is good to have a plan be aware also that when the shoot starts things can progress left of field from the plan that you had in mind and as a photographer you need to be adaptable. Luckily for me I have done a lot of these types of photo shoots and I have gained a lot of past experience to ensure that I can cope with whatever that is thrown at me.

Mind you I did have an experience in my very early days as a professional photographer with a photography agency in Dublin where I was a staff photographer that still gives me the shivers. The famous Irish Folk singer Christy Moore was being presented with a platinum disc by Sony Music Ireland I was sent to photograph him. The tool of choice was a very old Hasselblad medium format film camera and when I say old that is an understatement and because I was down the photographers food chain it was the camera that I was given by the agency. Anyway the photoshoot with Christy seemed to go off without a hitch and I returned to the studio and dropped of my film to be developed and printed by the darkroom technicians. I was on my way the another photo session (it was a very busy photo agency) when I got a call from one of the darkroom guys asking me where the film was? As a running joke sometimes, just make an overworked photographer sweat even more and for the ha ha’s film would sometimes be hidden. Luckily for us back then Fitbits didn’t exist as they would explode upon receiving such calls. However unfortunately for me this wasn’t a case of the ha ha’s the film had gone through the film processor and came out blank on the other end. There and then I though !&^( %£ that’s the end of my photography career. It turned out that Hasselblad cameras had spring mechanism within the lens which operated the opening and closing of the shutter, the spring had broken and there was no way that I could have known there was an issue, thanks John (you know who you are ) you brought down my heart rate that day by letting know there was an issue with the camera. Christy Moore the one that got away. Ah the days of film a time when you never really knew what you had shot until it came out of the film processor long after the shoot was over. 

Things have moved on a lot since then and in the digital age at least heart rates can be a little lower when it comes to fast paced photo shoots.

Back to this particular photo shoot everything went very smoothly and the client was very happy with the range photographs that were supplied.

Below are a selection of images that were captured.