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I thought given Australia's recent success and my last photo was of Australia losing, that today's photo should be of an Aussie looking happy!

This photo was taken during the Third Test between Australia and India a couple of weeks ago. As is probably still fresh in most cricket fans memories, David Warner made a blazing century off only 69 balls. Warner is the sort of cricketer that is a photographer's dream. Big hitting, fast scoring and it is always obvious how much he enjoys playing.

I wasn't covering the Test in Hobart against New Zealand, where he scored his maiden Test century, but was watching it on TV and saw my colleagues’ photos of his amazing leap when he reached three figures. I was covering T20 Big Bash League match at the MCG a few days later when he scored another century, also celebrated with a big leap. I wasn't quite on the right angle for that one, so when he neared his century in Perth I wanted to make sure I got it right.

Continue reading "Warner's leap of joy"

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It's been too long since my last blog - not as much cricket in my working life for a while - but I'm back again.

For my first blog in a long time, I've picked a photo from the end of the 2010-11 Ashes. As an Aussie photographer, particularly during the final Ashes Test in Sydney, I had a lot of time to think about the fact that Andrew Strauss and the England team would, during the post-series presentation, be celebrating on the podium as the Australians looked on.

I wanted to try and sum that up in one photo. Video, as opposed to a still photo, can change focus or pan from one subject to another to show two different subjects over a few seconds of footage. There is always the opportunity to show winners and losers in two separate photos, but I was hoping for one photo that told the whole story.

Normally, for these presentations, the standard position to shoot from is head on, looking straight at the winning team to capture the celebrations straight down the barrel of the lens. The losing team normally stands to one side. I was fortunate as I had a few Getty Images colleagues with me, a couple of them were shooting the 'straight' shot, giving me the freedom to try something different.

Continue reading "Ashes emotion: jubilant England, dejected Australia"

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Today’s picture is of Harbhajan Singh from the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, during an Indian training session at Centurion, ahead of their pool match against Australia.

Covering a cricket tour involves photographing a lot of training sessions. Newspapers and websites are always looking for fresh photos and with games not being played every day, training sessions provide opportunities to get some new photos. Also, something newsworthy, such as player getting injured, may happen during a training session, so it is important to be there whenever possible.

The photos I take at training sessions vary enormously depending on the ground where it takes place and what the team actually does during the session. A light session might only involve a few fielding drills and bit of running around, sometimes with only a few of the players in the team’s squad present. However, a heavier session might go for four hours or more, with time spent on warm-ups, fitness, fielding, batting and bowling. Warm-ups, fitness and fielding usually happen out on the field, but the practice nets for batting and bowling may be on the outfield or sometimes in a separate area outside the ground.

All of this impacts greatly on the photos I am able to take. If a training session is a bit of running around and throwing a few balls, obviously that’s all I can photograph, which may not produce very exciting pictures! However longer sessions can also be tricky, as depending on the setup at the ground, access can be very limited. Practice net areas can be small and difficult to get around. It is important not to get in the players way, but I also have to watch out for stray cricket balls. During a match there is only one ball to look out for, but at training session there can be a number of things going on at once and speaking from experience, it hurts when you get hit!

In short, getting a good photo from a training session can be quite difficult. The practice area at Centurion during the World Cup was just outside the ground. A temporary grand stand had been erected between the ground and this area, to allow for the extra fans the World Cup brought in. By climbing to the top of this stand, I could look over the back and down to the practice nets below. This provided the unusual angle for this photo, looking almost straight down at the players practising instead of the usual ground level, side on view. The angle of the sun also helped, with the players shadows stretched over the grass.

This photo was taken with a wide angle 35mm lens. As it was a sunny day the ISO was low at 200. The shutter speed was 1/1250th of a second to freeze the action. The aperture is f7.1, which gave enough depth of field to have everything in focus. I like this photo as Harbhajan Singh’s flowing, animated bowling approach is exaggerated by his shadow. The high wide angle also shows the worn pitch, broken up with the paint of creases as well as the shadow from the nets.

	© Getty Images

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I managed to escape the cold in London for a few weeks of sunshine!

This photo was taken after the first Test of Australia's 2003 tour of the West Indies. Australia had a good match, winning by nine wickets inside four days. Justin Langer was Man of the Match, scoring 146 in the first innings and finishing 78 not out in the second.

When travelling with the Australian team I often try to get some photos in the changing rooms at the end of the match, particularly after a win. This can produce some different photos from the action out the field such as the players relaxing or celebrating after the match. I usually try and get a photo of the entire team celebrating together. Also, depending on what has happened during the match, I will try and get photos of the player or players who have performed well.

Sometimes, it is a matter of getting in, quickly getting the photos and the getting out to transmit them to meet deadlines. Other times the players and in particular the captain (Steve Waugh in the case of this photo) are happy for me to stay for a bit longer which can lead to more interesting photos. When time is rushed the photos are often over posed and don't always look as good.

Continue reading "A moment of clarity"

	© Getty Images

Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time to read my last post and thanks again for all the comments.

I’ll start by answering a few of the questions I’ve received from the previous posts.

Firstly, someone said they’d heard on radio I always wear a pink shirt when I’m working at the cricket. Not quite sure where this comes from! The only thing I can think of is the bright vests Cricket Australia give the photographers to wear at the matches to identify them. Most photographers wear yellow, but Getty photographers wear orange to identify them as Cricket Australia’s official photographers. I know orange isn’t pink, but that’s the only thing I can think of! Even so, I’m not in Australia at the moment, so I’m missing out on wearing shirts and vests of any colour to the cricket for the time being!

On to another question, there have been a couple of requests for more technical details of the shots such as shutter speed and aperture etc. Where I still have this information I will try and include it in the future.

For those who do not know a lot about the technical side of cameras and exposure, I’ll try and give a quick crash course. A photo’s exposure is determined by three variable settings; shutter speed, aperture and ISO rating.

Continue reading "The David Shepherd hop"