Shot selection
When Trueman looked lost at Harrods
Yorkshire's finest feature prominently in 17 years worth of archival photographs that turned up out of the blue
Philip Brown
26-Sep-2015
I've recently been reunited with thousands of photographs that I took during the last century. That makes me sound unquestionably old, doesn't it? I'm not. I worked for the Daily Telegraph between 1989 and 2006 for whom I supplied thousands of sports images during this period. All of them were taken on film and then converted into either a large print or a digital file. Anyway, happily, most of these digital files survived in the Telegraph library and recently a very helpful man named Brian sent me my photographs on a couple of CDs.
I received over 8600 images, including probably 3000 cricket-related ones. There are photographs of Fred Trueman, Matthew Brimson, Sachin Tendulkar, Dickie Bird and Andrew Gale. I had completely forgotten about most of the images. They are not all brilliant by any means but they record a period of British sport before T20 cricket came about and a time before everybody had the internet in their pocket.
The Telegraph had a most impressive Monday sports section that was 12 pages, six of which had colour photographs. David Welch and Keith Perry were the men behind the supplement and at the time it was groundbreaking.
Full postSeventy-eight frames of Mitch
It called for eight seconds of trigger-pressing to capture the fast bowler's celebration of Joe Root's wicket at Lord's
Philip Brown
26-Jul-2015
Why is photography like gambling? Let me attempt to explain. You're going to have to concentrate because we are going to dip our toe in the water of camera technology and number of frames per second.
Professional cameras have changed remarkably over the last 15 years or so. In 2001, I was still using a film camera and each roll of film had a maximum of 38 shots available. It should have been a maximum of 36 frames but if you were experienced in loading the film then you could manage to get a couple of extra ones out of the roll of film.
Full postWhen I ditched the Aussies for England
A once parochial Australia supporter decided to switch sides in 2005 - for a good reason
Philip Brown
29-Jun-2015
There is just over a week to go until the Ashes begins in Cardiff. Excitement is building here in London - well, I'm looking forward to it anyway.
I've worked out that I have photographed exactly 55 England v Australia Test matches since 1988 and 11 Ashes series. Australia have won seven of these series and England four.
I must admit that I was a fairly parochial Australian supporter for the first half of my photographic career. I loved watching Allan Border, the Waugh twins, Merv and Warney stuff the opposition on their trips here.
Full postA bat, a graveyard, a photograph
If the gentleman's game is dying, how do you portray it in a picture?
Philip Brown
11-Jun-2015
Recently a friend who was making a film about cricket asked me to help him out and provide a photograph that would be suitable for the poster promoting the film. Sam Collins has taken four years to complete his project with much assistance from Jarrod Kimber and cricketer Ed Cowan. The film explores the state of Test cricket and the administration of the great game around the globe. It is called Death of a Gentleman, and after a few chats with Sam we agreed that I would attempt to take a photograph in a graveyard.
I also supplied photographs for use in the film itself. One of these was from a quick stopover in Kolkata in 2011. A group of photographers and journalists who were covering the World Cup, and were headed to India, had an unexpected diversion to the city after our flight from Chittagong had basically failed to happen. At most airports you get a good idea that your flight is not on schedule when a "cancelled" sign appears on a board or a screen. In Chittagong the staff just kind of vanished, doors stayed closed, and you had to work out that the lack of anyone behind the counter or in the vicinity meant that you are staying put. Anyway, to cut a fantastic and interesting story short, hours later we had somehow managed to get to Kolkata.
I took the opportunity to get up early the following morning and have a look at Eden Gardens. On the way to this massive and impressive stadium I saw a group of young men having a game of cricket on some wasteland, so I asked the driver to let me out of the car. It was early in the morning and with some fog about it was suited to a silhouette-type photo against the light. I was fairly happy with the shot but not ecstatic.
Full postWhen Punter went mental
The Australia captain lost his rag when Brad Hogg failed to respond to him in the heat of the 2007 World Cup final
Philip Brown
19-Mar-2015
I've been to three World Cups. For the first one, in 1999, I was representing the Daily Telegraph; I covered the 2011 one for Reuters; and I went off to the West Indies in 2007 as a freelance photographer.
I enjoyed the 2007 World Cup. I turned up for just the final two weeks of the competition as I had decided that it would be far too expensive to cover the whole thing.
One of the matches I decided to cover was the semi-final in St Lucia between Australia and South Africa and I spent many hours in a government office in Bridgetown, Barbados, obtaining the appropriate visa for my 15-hour flying visit. Imagine my disappointment when I arrived in St Lucia and there was no one at all checking visas or even passports of the incoming flyers. It was straight out of the airport and then on to a bus to the cricket ground.
Full postThe sleeping Cat
Photographing the very colourful Phil Tufnell in a colourful armchair on the sidelines of a county game
Philip Brown
08-Feb-2015
It's that time again. The time when I suddenly feel guilty for not producing a Shot Selection post and put my finger (the index finger on my right hand to be precise) on an Apple keyboard.
This time I've chosen a photo of Middlesex players Phil Tufnell and Mike Roseberry that I took many years ago during a County Championship match at Southgate. I'm not sure exactly when I took it and I could spend an hour or more looking through some old press cuttings to let you know, but to be honest, I cannot be bothered. At best you would just read the exact date that the photo was taken and forget that information within 14 seconds. So what is the point of all that? I'm not going to find out exactly when I took this photo and that is final. It's roughly 1998, I reckon.
Middlesex's worst fielder Tufnell has, against all expectations, gone on to have a very successful career as a television and radio "personality". He has been on UK television screens as a dancer on the BBC show Celebrity Come Dancing, he is a team captain on A Question of Sport. He has been king of the jungle, he has been a specialist nun interviewer on the The One Show, and is currently on TV partaking in a competitive snow-based reality show called The Jump.
Full postAn unpredictable subject
Off the field, Phillip Hughes was too shy to photograph well, but on it he was exciting - which too made the photographer's job difficult
Philip Brown
28-Nov-2014
I must say from the outset that I didn't know Phillip Hughes really well. He first seemed to burst into the cricket world after scoring two centuries for Australia in a Test in Durban. It was a real statement of intent. Against an impressive South African attack he hit 34 fours and five sixes in that one Test. Australian Test player number 408 had arrived.
Soon after, Hughes signed to play for Middlesex. It was a controversial signing, as some thought it was ridiculous to give this young Australian a chance to play in English conditions just before the important 2009 Ashes series. I'm sure Hughes just wanted to play cricket. He was a quiet country boy from New South Wales and his father grew bananas.
I travelled to Lord's, my 13-year-old son Rory in tow, with the intention of taking a nice portrait of Hughes. I managed to grab the friendly but very shy opening batsman after a Middlesex net session. I must admit that in photo terms I had a complete shocker and didn't actually get a photograph of him that I was at all happy with. It was the photographic equivalent of being out first ball.
Full postKP among the beasts
No matter where you stand on the various controversies surrounding him, there's no denying Pietersen was a photographer's delight
Philip Brown
03-Nov-2014
Well, that was basically like living in a house with a couple who are going through a horrendous divorce. Kevin Pietersen is no longer an England player, and nearly everyone believes that he will never play for the country again.
There are two sides to every story and I suspect there may be at least 73 sides to this particular tale. Kevin, of course, has his side, coach Andy Flower has his. So do Matt Prior, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Giles Clarke, the ECB media team, journalists, broadcasters etc.
I first photographed Kevin at Loughborough early in 2005, before he played his first Test match. We got on well at the time and have got on pretty well ever since. I must have taken thousands of photographs of him over these ten years, and he is particularly photogenic in cricketing terms. For me there have been three cricketers who have almost demanded that the lens be pointed their way since I started clicking away on the boundary in the late '80s: Flintoff, Warne and Pietersen. I've mentioned this before, I know.
Full postSix, six and ouch!
Remember when Stuart Broad got his nose broken earlier this season?
Philip Brown
29-Sep-2014
Please allow me to send a special welcome to you if you've never read a Shot Selection before. Welcome. There are plenty of older articles on this site, so please feel free to read. I might be giving a massive prize for the best comment left before the end of the year, so get reading now and commenting now.
I've talked before about luck in sports photography. You can have a big slice of luck and get a special photograph, or be unlucky and get nothing out of a major moment. Big moments during a long day of cricket can be and usually are few and far between. You need to be incredibly patient to be a successful cricket photographer.
Getting good photographs matter to most of the photographers who are on the boundary day in and day out. To most of us it is a competition to get the best photos and to get those photographs used as many times as possible on websites, in newspapers and magazines. A few probably turn up just to get their pay cheque and a free lunch but most snappers are there to compete wholeheartedly with the other photographers, and at the same time have an enjoyable day.
Full postThe beard that's feared
There's something about Moeen Ali's long, dark beard
Philip Brown
07-Jul-2014
Another England season is well underway and England have apparently begun their latest "new era". No more Andy Flower, Kevin Pietersen or Graeme Swann to photograph, but lots of new faces.
It's refreshing to have some new players representing England, including Gary Ballance, Chris Jordan and Sam Robson, and I am especially pleased to see that Moeen Ali is now in the Test team as well as the shorter forms of the game.
Moeen seems to be a really friendly and also incredibly modest guy. He has just played his second Test match for England and has attracted quite a lot of attention. He played fabulously at Headingley in the second innings and scored his maiden Test century for England. Unfortunately for him he could only watch as James Anderson hit the penultimate ball into the air and, as the catch was taken, Sri Lankan players partied like it was 1999 (remember the Prince song?) after they unexpectedly clinched the two-match series.
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