Sports photography is what really kickstarted my photography again in September 2023, especially rugby. I’ve played rugby almost my whole life and I love the sport, so I just love to shoot it. At university I also shot hockey, netball and lacrosse as well, but I didn’t grow up playing those sports and they’re not my passion, so I find them a lot harder. It isn’t only that I don’t love them in the same way. From a technical point of view I can’t predict what’s going to happen as much.
In a rugby match I can much more easily see where the ball’s going to be, where the play might end up, where people are going to end up, and the photographs are so much better for it. Hockey is like a different language, and I’m always a step behind.
It’s similar with wildlife. I love wildlife, so I can bring more out of it, because I understand the subject more and I understand their behaviour. I know how fascinating they are, how interesting their lives are, all these facts about them that most people never hear, and that knowledge sits behind the picture even if the viewer never reads a caption.
With lions, leopards, cheetahs — the animals that get named, the ones people already know a story about — I love knowing the name. I want to know who the individual is, because I want the story. I want to know their parents, who they are related to, whether they’ve had cubs before, the whole picture around them, because that’s how you start to create a story through an image. You can tell people more about it, you can explain more, but that only works if you love the subject enough to learn it in the first place.
