down because I couldn’t drive yet so he
took me down to Wembley. I was so
nervous, but at least they won, 1–nil
against Norwich City.
And you got your pictures
published in the paper?
Yeah, we did four pages of picture
coverage. It was a very big thing for a
local club back then. I’ve done a lot of
football World Cups as well, I did 1982 in
Spain, 1986 in Mexico, Italia 90 and then
rugby intervened.
How many pictures do you expect
to take in Japan?
A lot! I probably overshoot, I must admit,
but I think if you haven’t taken it you
can’t have it later on, so you may as well
take it, have a look at it and if it doesn’t
work, it doesn’t work. It hasn’t cost you
anything. I probably end up taking about
2000 or 3000 a match, but that will be
everything I need, including crowd shots,
people outside stadiums, the line-ups and
head shots, portraits. These shots
encompass all of it.It must help that someone is at
the end of the line doing the edit?
We tend to do that now. Every week
that I do rugby I do my own selection
and Photoshop, but at a big event at
Twickenham, or certainly at the World
Cup, we will have editors based in various
places around the world, depending on
what time zone is amenable, so we just
send them the pictures that we want
them to see. Say you took about 2000
pictures in a game, you’d probably
send them about 100 photos.So, you’re doing that while the
match is going on?
Yes. That’s still not easy, just sending a
hundred. Normally, I do about 100
pictures myself by the side of the pitch on
the laptop, even if it’s raining, but I don’t
like pulling my laptop out in the rain. For
this World Cup we will be sending thepictures to editors in London or Sydney
and we will tag them because a lot of the
editors don’t know who the rugby players
are! It’s not as big a sport as football.With over 40 years of experience,
what is the key advice you’d give
someone wanting to become a
sports photographer now?
Perseverance. Everyone says you can’t
do it and that’s what they said to me at
school. I went to be an accountant for
a week, but packed that in because I
couldn’t stand it. You do have to give up
your social life because sport happens
while everyone else is enjoying
themselves at weekends, so it’s dedication
and perseverance. Photographers of my
generation came through local
newspapers and they don’t exist in the
same way anymore, but the Internet
exists so you can do your own blog.
Start off at the minor sports. Don’t
expect to get into Wembley Stadium or
Twickenham because you won’t get in.
Go and cover your local park football and
learn the craft there before venturing out- you may not like it when it rains and
gets cold in the winter. The glamour
drips off a bit then, I can tell you that!
(^08) Wolves sCore
Ruben Neves and Conor Coady celebrate
after Neves scored a second half goal for
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Lens Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM
exposure 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO5000
(^09) h e’s out
Jason Holder (right) and Andre Russell of
the West Indies leap after Holder takes the
wicket of Pakistan’s Imad Wasim
Lens Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM
exposure 1/250 sec. f/16, ISO800
(^10) s tiCks and PuCks
Gabriela Aguirre fires a shot past India’s
Deep Ekka im the women’s pool B hockey
Lens Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM
exposure 1/2000 sec, f/5, ISO200
09
10
getty is one of
the four or five major
photo agencies that get
to sit wherever we want
to sit
The Canon Magazine 73
DAVE ROGERS