The Davis Cup at the Manchester Arena in September 2023 was my first effort at photographing indoor tennis. On arrival the venue looked superb with the tennis court bathed in good light - just what photographers want to see. I had a super court side seat in full view of all the action. It was a different story when the action started. Inside the white lines of the tennis court was the green playing area - the part that was brightly lit,  however, it seemed the players never went there, they stayed for 95% of the time on the grey area behind the baseline hitting long balls over the ne ..read more

A two week international multi-sport event spread over several different venues can seem quite daunting as a photographic challenge. However, there are dedicated media suites, manned by very competent helpers at every venue designed to help you succeed. The communications technology also works extremely well with one wifi password enabling you to get up and running across all the venues and they also have ethernet cables trackside at the main Athletics stadium.   My experience involved only three days. I wanted to cover the Athletics, table tennis and Rhythmic Gymnastics - the latter two ..read more

Night time football presents its own set of photographic challenges particularly as you go down the leagues and the quality of floodlights deteriorates in terms of output. At Premier League level the floodlights are usually superb, they basically turn night into day and you can shoot quite easily and well within the capabilities of your camera settings e.g 1\1600th sec, f4, ISO 2000.   If you go down to Championship level and below and particularly at non-league grounds you can encounter all sorts of difficult lighting situations which really stretch the performance of your  camera a ..read more

It pays to know your patch, have a sense of the crowd and the strength of feeling about the issue underpinning the gathering. The supporters protest at Old Trafford against the ownership of the club by the Glazer family is the only such event that I have ever photographed - so I claim no expertise at this type of photography.   Being a regular at Old Trafford, I know the place well - the entrances, exits and the streets around the ground. I also know the history of the supporters feelings about the Glazers who are despised for what they are doing to the club. There is real anger about the ..read more

If you shoot a lot of football games you can get into a ‘normalised’ way of doing things. You sit in roughly the same spot, getting the same angle, taking the same sort of pictures - it can all become a bit of a routine.   If however, you want to learn, you have to do new things, look for different ways and find unusual features. The top sports photographers have a creative mind that sets them apart. They are continuously thinking about adding a different level of ‘value’ to their images. It certainly pays to look at their work as an inspiration to your own.    Thus, as the gran ..read more

There are good bits and bad bits to shooting football during these tough Coronavirus times and in my book the bad bits far outweigh the good bits.   The good bits are all about making your job easier. It’s easier to get to the ground as there are not as many cars on the roads, you get a parking space allocated at the stadium as there are no VIP or hospitality guests and pitch side there is plenty of space to work in as only a handful of photographers are allowed in. Added to that the stadium wifi works perfectly as there are not thousands of fans blocking the airwaves, and if it rains you ..read more

At Premier League level, photography is highly competitive. There can be over 20+ photographers at each game producing thousands of photos. However, the interest is global so the demand for good images is high - particularly for games involving the top six teams in the country.  Including travelling time to and from the ground it can take between 8 - 9 hours to shoot a football game. You arrive at the ground three hours before kick-off. Not just to avoid match day traffic but also to reserve your pitchside position. Those three hours before kick-off seem to go very quickly. They usually i ..read more

Snooker is a slow moving sport so in theory it is not difficult to photograph as things move at a walking pace and players stay still on their shots for enough seconds to enable good quality sharp images. The major challenges are the quality / colour of light and the repetitiveness of it all - it is hard to get much variation in your shots and you have to be alert for anything that might be just a bit ‘different’. Seating position You are normally sat behind the roving TV cameras so expect that for about 30% of the time you are going to be blocked out from your shot. You just have to accept it ..read more

I photographed The British Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham Arena in February 2019. An excellent venue that allowed for some good photography positions both in-field and on the perimeter of the track - low down on the ground and high up in the grandstands. The arena was only about half full which meant that I could take up seats in the stands gaining many different vantage points.   The arena is well lit which makes you think that you should be able to get some high shutter speeds for relatively low ISO’s shooting at wide open f2.8, however, you quickly begin to understand tha ..read more

When you photograph a new sport for the first time it is always advisable to start at junior events so you get to understand the nature of it, the way they do things and the type of shots that may be possible. However, there was no time to plan ahead for my visit to Glasgow for the European swimming championships in August 2018 and thus it was very much a 'deep end' learning experience at a major international event with global interest. But, it's good to challenge yourself and stretch your capability once in a while. Although it is a marvellous opportunity to see and photograph some of t ..read more