© Philip Brown

There was a lot of excitement before Australia visited England in 2005. England hadn’t won the Ashes since 1986-87, but I for one thought that this time they had a very good chance of reclaiming the famous urn. Growing up in Australia, I was a massive supporter of my national team and my support for Australia was still very strong for about 15 years after I moved to England. There’s also a part of me that loves it when there is an upset, when an underdog comes out victorious and around this time my support for Australia had decreased ever so slightly. It was probably also a case that I knew the England players and coaches far better than I knew the Australians as I spent about half the year with the ‘poms’ and on the whole they were a nice, friendly bunch.

The big question before the first Test at Lord’s was whom England would pick to bat at No. 5. Graham Thorpe was the man in possession but Kevin Pietersen had played magnificently in some one-day matches in South Africa and the Australian ODIs that preceded the Ashes. The England selectors would have to choose, and just before the Test it was announced they had gone with the man with the skunk hairdo – that’s Pietersen by the way.

An Ashes series can mean early starts for the keenest photographers. Nowadays we have a meeting 90 minutes before the start of play of all international matches, with a priority system in place for positions, but back then there was a basic “first come, first served” system. It meant if you arrived at a ground early with your tripod you could place it in the spot that you wanted and reserve that position for the day. Some of the photographers covering this series were so keen to obtain what they saw as the best positions for photographs that for this Lord’s Test some tripods were in position well before 5.30 in the morning. With the match not starting till 11, that meant a really long wait. I don’t miss having to get up at ‘stupid’ o’clock, but I’d like to put on record here that I do not personally hold the record for placing down the earliest tripod at Lord’s.

Continue reading "The astonished MCC members"

© Philip Brown

In the 1990s I worked a lot for the Daily Telegraph newspaper and during the summer covered quite a lot of county cricket. I was sent to Edgbaston one Friday in September 1996 to get photographs from the last day of a county championship match between Warwickshire and Essex.

I’d been at Edgbaston on the previous weekend when England had defeated the touring Pakistan team easily in a Texaco trophy one-day match. I arrived just before the start of play and I took up a position on the city side of the ground and prepared for about three and a half hours of taking photographs.

This was a time when photographers had to drive their films back to the office, so I knew you had to get your photographs to the sports department by about 6.30pm. The Telegraph was in Canary Wharf in London, so I’d have to leave Birmingham around 3pm.

After sitting down I noticed that the sightscreen from the Texaco trophy match was still in place and showing a colourful ad with large stumps and a ball. I immediately thought this was a really interesting background for photographs. I also thought someone might be sent along to change the sightscreen as the batsmen would object to this as it was pretty much in their eyeline. I was amazed when the game continued with the sightscreen untouched.

Continue reading "Unconventional backdrop, stand-out photo"

© Philip Brown

For the past three years I have been shooting quite a bit of cricket for the agency Reuters, which has been great. I usually shoot all the Test matches and one-day internationals that are played in England during the summer months, and I also get to cover quite a few tours and tournaments overseas.

Reuters have sent me to the West Indies, UAE and South Africa to cover cricket for them.

Last year I was really fortunate to be asked to go to the 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. I was away from home for almost seven weeks. After arriving in India I covered matches in Nagpur, Bangalore and Chennai before travelling to Chittagong for an important match between Bangladesh and England.

During the entire tournament I kept myself really busy, and if I had any spare time at all, I would generally jump in the nearest tuk tuk and try and find a game of cricket to photograph or anything else interesting enough to shoot. Hotels are fine but I think I’d be doing myself a disservice by not capturing the surrounds of these cities as well. I find it liberating shooting in these parts of the world as nearly everyone is very happy to be photographed and the colours are amazing.

Continue reading "Bullseye"

© Philip Brown

The photographs of India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik diving and stumping England’s Michael Vaughan were taken on September 5, 2004 at Lord’s during a one-day series.

The shots were taken with a Canon body with a 500mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter. I had in 2004 changed to Canon equipment as I believed Canon had overtaken Nikon with their range of digital cameras. In 2008 Nikon overtook Canon again and I changed back. Both very expensive decisions for me! Anyway Nikon and Canon both make great cameras and lenses while both charge thousands of pounds for most items. I would estimate that well over 99% of professional photographers who turn up at sporting events use one of these two brands. I still question how a 600mm telephoto lens, which is basically just some metal and some glass can cost the same as a brand new car. Answers on a post card please. (No, I’m not going to be diverted again and explain what a post card is.)

Photographers are very well treated at Lord’s and normally have a large choice of positions from where they can photograph major matches. Usually I sit at the Nursery End of the ground underneath the media centre but occasionally I may choose one of two positions beside the famous Lord’s pavilion.

Continue reading "A stumping to remember at Lord's"

© Hamish Blair/Getty Images

Hi everyone,

Firstly, I wanted to welcome my good friend Philip [Brown] to this blog. It’s great having him to be a part of it. If you don't already know his work, he's a fantastic photographer as you will see with his posts here. I've spent a lot of time shooting alongside him and his sense of humour and fun make an already enjoyable job even better.

The photo I've chosen for this post is a shot of Adam Gilchrist from the opening match of Australia's 2005 Ashes tour of England against the Professional Cricketers Association Masters XI. The Ashes tour traditionally opens with a match at the incredibly picturesque Arundel Castle ground in southern England. It is set in the grounds of the castle and is a perfect place to start a tour of England as it is a great example of the beautiful cricket grounds that can be found all over the country.

Shooting a tour match as opposed to a Test, ODI or T20I is a little different. While there is still interest in the result, the focus isn't always on exact incidents and highlights. It can often be a good opportunity to try and take some different and sometimes a little more interesting photos.

Continue reading "An action shot in the English countryside"

© Philip Brown

Hello, my name is Philip Brown (please call me Philip), and I’ve been photographing cricket for a long time, well about 25 years, in fact. I’m really pleased that I’ve been asked to share some of my cricket images with you in Shot Selection in the coming months.

I first photographed cricket in Australia before I moved to England in 1989. I received a lesson in covering cricket when I was sent to my first Test match at the SCG in 1988. Chris Broad (Stuart’s father) scored a century (139) but “lost it” after he was dismissed by Steve Waugh. He knocked over his stumps with his bat before leaving the field. I missed the photo, but the doyen of cricket photography, Patrick Eagar, a lovely bloke, captured this moment perfectly and was welcomed with open arms by my newspaper’s picture editor back in the office. Patrick’s images graced the pages of Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph the following day. Lesson learnt, concentrate Philip!

This black-and-white image is from June 1989. I was covering the Ashes tour for newspapers back in Australia (including the Sunday Telegraph who must have forgiven my earlier incompetence). The tour started in early May and the Aussie team didn’t leave the UK until the end of August so it was a long trip.

Continue reading "Shooting the PM"

© Getty Images

Hi again everyone. The next photo I've chosen to share is a bit different from the action in and around the matches of most of my other posts. I¹ve picked a studio portrait I shot of current Australian captain Michael Clarke last year.

Prior to the start of each season, all of the contracted Australian players gather for a player camp, to take care of number of meetings, media commitments etc. There are also a number of photos that need to be taken, headshots in Test, ODI and T20 uniforms, sponsor photos etc. There is also an opportunity to take some more creative portraits while we have them in the studio.

Photographing in a studio is almost the complete opposite of photographing a sporting event. Shooting a sporting event is about recording what happens. Obviously there is no control as to when and where the action happens. Most of the action in cricket usually takes place somewhere on or near the pitch, but the role of the photographer is one of an observer, anticipating and reacting to the action, with no direct input.

Continue reading "Capturing Clarke"

Glenn McGrath takes his 500th Test wicket, against England at Lord's in the first Test of the 2005 Ashes (shot from a remote camera in the stands) © Hamish Blair/Getty Images

The photograph chosen for this piece is from the famous 2005 Ashes series in England. Going in to the series Glenn McGrath was on 499 career Test wickets, meaning his first wicket of the series would be his 500th, a significant milestone. The first Test was played at Lord's and I thought that presented an opportunity for a nice photo to capture this moment.

This photo was shot using a remote camera. A remote camera is a second camera I set up somewhere different from where I am shooting. Normally, as I've mentioned previously, I shoot from ground level, usually at fine leg or long-off to a right-hand batsman. I set a remote camera up in the stands somewhere. A typical setup would be with the TV cameras looking straight down the wicket. This camera is set up with a shorter lens than the one I use to shoot action from ground level, taking in a wider view of everything happening on and near the pitch. It has a radio controlled trigger attached to it that links to another trigger attached to my camera, which means when I fire my camera at ground level, the remote camera fires too.

The exact angle etc of the remote camera is usually determined by what is available in the stands at each ground. Every ground is a different size with a different setup. The best photos from a remote camera are, usually, significant wickets; that is when a lot of players from the fielding team are likely to run around in the centre wicket area celebrating. It may be the wicket of a key opposition batsman, a wicket to win a match or series, or a milestone wicket as was the case with this photo.

Continue reading "A remote camera captures a McGrath milestone"

© Getty Images

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"

© Getty Images

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"