Shot selection
You may smile at a six, but you'll cry at a seven
Six frames a second of Andrew Flintoff in despair will make you money
Philip Brown
04-Jun-2014
"The camera never lies." The phrase suggests that whenever you take a photograph, what is in front of the lens is exactly what you get. Photoshop can lie big style, but that's a very different chat and not one we are going to have today. Maybe tomorrow. Who knows?
One of my most successful images was taken in December 2006, when Andrew Flintoff's England team went to Australia for the Ashes. After a barren 18 years, England had won the Ashes back the previous year with Michael Vaughan as their captain. Vaughan was injured before the tour to Australia, so there it was a choice between two Andrews as captain. Flintoff was picked ahead of the unlucky Andrew Strauss. Freddie probably got the nod because the powers-that-be at the time thought he might well sulk if he wasn't made captain.
The Test series began at the Gabba, with Steve Harmison bowling that absolutely terrible delivery that went straight to his best mate, Flintoff, who was fielding at second slip. Australia won that first Test.
Full postBruises and babies
Aussie hard-case in smiling-with-infant shocker
Philip Brown
15-May-2014
Ricky Ponting was a fixture in the Australian cricket team for many, many years, but I think it's accurate to say he wasn't very popular with cricket fans around the world. I believe that fans, especially England fans, disliked him because he was simply a very good player.
One way of telling just how much talent a sportsman has is to add up the amount of abuse, insults, booing and name-calling he receives. If lots of people seem to dislike him, there is an excellent chance he is a good player.
Anyway, Ricky was, I think we can all agree, a very gifted batsman and a fairly good captain. He had a long career after an unpromising start, when the Australian cricket board lined him up in a press conference where he had to explain why he was sporting a black eye after a fight in the notorious Bourbon and Beefsteak pub in Sydney's Kings Cross.
Full postOutside the Grace Gate
You think MCC members have it easy when it comes to watching a Test at Lord's? Think again
Philip Brown
16-Apr-2014
Photographing cricket matches at Lord's in London means an early start. Parking around the ground is difficult to find and also stupidly expensive if you do manage to find it. With the amount of equipment that I use, I don't have the option of travelling by bus or train.
I arrive near Lord's at about half past seven to be sure of a parking spot nearby (up to £35), so this obviously means I'm there well ahead of an 11am start.
I will usually wander up the queue of the waiting Lord's members to get a couple of shots before they're all allowed into the ground at nine o'clock. It's quite amazing that so many of the MCC members are willing to line up so very early in the morning to obtain their favourite seat for the day.
Full postBaggy-green baby
What do you get when you combine a legendary Test cricketer's cap, a two-year-old and some pink zinc cream?
Philip Brown
25-Mar-2014
I've been taking cricket photographs for over 25 years and I'm often asked about my favourite photo. The photographs I'm most proud of usually have stories attached to them.
The boy batting on a Barbados beach early one morning and the lad bowling in Chittagong in 2011, which I've written about on this blog, are among my very favourites.
Another picture that springs to my mind is one that I took of my son just before the Ashes series in 1997. At the time I was working for the Daily Telegraph newspaper and covering a lot of cricket. I was asked to come up with a photograph to preview the five-match Test series and I thought of getting hold of two caps and shooting them on the field at Lord's with the pavilion in the background. It wasn't the most inspiring idea but the paper seemed fairly happy with it.
Full postThe joy of Cabbage
In Antigua, a cheering spectator makes for more interesting photos than the action on the field
Philip Brown
18-Mar-2014
England's recent six matches against West Indies was an extremely important tour and one that really had to be covered photographically by the excellent agency of Reuters. That's what I told them, anyway. Amazingly someone somewhere in the organisation agreed with me and I was booked to cover three one-day games in Antigua as well as three T20 matches in Barbados. Let's just take a moment to take that in, shall we? I was going to cover six matches in Antigua and Barbados. Antigua and Barbados - those places are in the Caribbean!
I've been to both these countries before. They are both beautiful. It's a fantastic place to visit and the people are very welcoming and friendly. I was, of course, going to miss dreary, rainy England, but there was work to be done. Well, a tiny little bit of work, anyway.
Having covered a training session the day after I arrived, it was straight into the first one-day international. One of the nice things about one-day and T20 matches for me is, I don't bother setting up a remote camera high up in the stands, so I can turn up to work literally a few minutes before play.
Full postWarner's Salmon leap
Philip Brown mulls over the anxieties a photographer faces when a player approaches a ton
Philip Brown
31-Jan-2014
If you're tired of reading about the Ashes then please look away now. I've had to sit through ten Ashes Test matches in the past six months so I've overdosed on this famous series. The five recent Tests in Australia were all very one-sided, which was a shock to all - even the Australian players I think. Australia won the series 5 - 0 and I don't think anyone at all predicted that. Okay, maybe Glenn McGrath.
It is difficult to stay concentrated while photographing three long sessions of cricket in a day, and I think that is even harder when the match or series is not a tight one. As I've said time and time again, you have to be incredibly patient to capture some worthwhile pictures.
As a rule, photographers suddenly become much more focused when a batsman closes in on a century. Some players take a century well within their stride - off comes the helmet, a muted acknowledgement to the dressing room and back to position to await the next delivery. The player should be respected for being this cool, but to the hungry snapper, this player is a massive disappointment. The over the top leaping and clearly emotional player is much preferred by my colleagues and myself.
Full postA circle among shadows
Two photos from the Brisbane Test, taken at (nearly) the same instant, produce two different effects
Philip Brown
19-Jan-2014
I thought it was about time I provided a new post. I wrote this while being holed up in a decent hotel room in the centre of Melbourne waiting for the fourth Test of an extraordinary Ashes series. At that point, I don't think anyone expected Australia to win the first three Test matches and for the series to be over. By the way, it must have been a decent hotel room, as I had two sinks in the bathroom and two wastepaper bins under the desk. Such luxury.
I remember sitting behind the nets outside the Gabba two days before the first Test match and thinking that Mitchell Johnson appeared to be bowling pretty darn quick. I was right and in the first three Test matches Johnson took 23 wickets and was Man of the Match twice. England underperformed, and then there was the shock announcement that Graeme Swann was retiring from international cricket. Swann was pretty good to photograph, and I, for one, will miss him.
The photograph that I've chosen here is one that I took in Brisbane as Australia were closing in on a large victory in the first Test. Late in the day at the Gabba, the sun pops behind the stand and produces some interesting shadows. I was sitting at ground level with my 600mm lens, waiting for England's ninth wicket to fall, when I suddenly convinced myself that trying something a bit different from up in the stand would be the thing to do instead.
Full postGoodbye Sachin
A photograph from the previous time Philip Brown snapped Sachin Tendulkar, in tribute to the great Indian sportsman who'll soon be retiring from the game
Philip Brown
13-Oct-2013
I know, I know, I know.
I've been slack. I've let you down. I want to apologise here and now. The next exciting installment of "Shot Selection" has been long overdue. I can only beg for your mercy and promise that this will not happen till it happens the next time.
Anyway, I've heard that Sachin Tendulkar is to retire from cricket. It must be difficult for him. He's only 40-years-old, so he's obviously going to have to keep working. No one retires at 40. I mean, he couldn't have made that much money from hitting a leather-coated ball with a stick to just sit back on a balcony and relax, could he?
Full postCapturing Agar
The Ashes - I take it you've heard of them? Well the first Ashes Test match begins in (checks Sherlock Holmes style timepiece) roughly 97 hours
Philip Brown
26-Jul-2013
The Ashes - I take it you've heard of them? Well the first Ashes Test match begins in (checks Sherlock Holmes style timepiece) roughly 97 hours. It'll be the 10th series that I have attended as a photographer. (I started very very young.) Hey, just what are you sniggering at boy?
I'm quite excited! I expect it'll be hard work for the next, well, the next six months actually but it's what I do and pathetically I look at what I do as more than a job. Speaking of hard work, I've recently covered the Champions Trophy, which meant driving 200 miles most days and shooting long matches. I worked out that I worked 106 hours in one week. But I'm a survivor, a bit like a cockroach is.
I've got to sort out my wardrobe for the first Test at Trent Bridge, get all the equipment sorted and head up the road to my Travelodge outside Leicester for seven days.
Full postNasser's tearful resignation
I remember that it was a particularly silly day at Edgbaston in 2003 when England played South Africa. Towards the end of the day I was asked if I was going to cover the Nasser Hussain press conference.
Philip Brown
10-Mar-2013
Sitting on the side of a ground photographing sport is usually quite fun. It's a job and even a career for some and it can be an enjoyable experience spending long days with some like-minded photographers having a few laughs.
Many silly games have been invented to pass the time during long Test matches. I wonder if the ICC would crack down on photographers if they knew that they were having a sweep and betting on the exact weight of snapper Ross Kinnaird? Is that breaking ICC regulations? Yes, I think it probably is. I'm proud to say I won that competition that day after I managed to find a set of bathroom scales and brought them to our position in the ground during a break in play. By the way, I hope you've lost a couple of pounds, Ross.
Another game "Punch-a-clock" did not have particularly complex rules and regulations. If it was the "top of the hour" (something o'clock) you punched your neighbour's arm as hard as you could. Basically, that was it. I don't think it's going to catch on at the United Nations general assembly in New York but it sure makes you an expert at timekeeping.
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