View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
June 1, 2007

‘Know your sport and have super concentration to capture the moment’

By Press Gazette

Winner

Times sports photographer Mark Aspland, winner of the Carlsberg FA Cup Road to Wembley photographic competition, tells Rachael Gallager what it takes to capture the moment…

Whether it is football, cricket or tennis, you have to have a good understanding of the sport. For example, if it’s tennis you’re looking for the forehand and the backhand; if it’s football it’s the moment of the goal.

More of the understanding comes from the moments which make that sport what it is: the winning try in rugby, the winning goal in football, the winning shot in a tennis match.

You have to capture that moment by knowing that a wining goal or try is coming. How you capture that is down to good experience, good timing and mega concentration.

When there are 90,000 people in a stadium, its 0-0 in the 89th minute and someone is on the attack, there’s an unbelievable amount of noise and pressure going on and you just have to block out everything else and concentrate.

The best example is when Manchester United won the European Cup final in Barcelona in 1999. Of 120 photographers there, only one got Solkjaer’s winning goal because it came out of the blue.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Aspland uses a Canon EOS camera with 400mm superfast lens taking eight frames a second.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network