6 ways I improved my sports photography: Marc Aspland

The thing Marc Aspland likes most about sports photography is that he has absolutely no control over the events unfolding in front of him. "I cannot ask Jonny Wilkinson to re-drop that goal for England in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final because someone ran in front of my lens," says the Canon Ambassador. "That's part of the challenge of doing this work."

Marc has been rising to that challenge for the past 30 years as a sports photographer. He has been the Chief Sports Photographer at The Times newspaper in the UK since 1993. During that time he has photographed major sporting events around the world, including six summer Olympic Games and four FIFA World Cup Finals. He has won the Sports Photographer of the Year award four times.

Regularly shooting everything from football, tennis and swimming to horse racing, Marc also likes photographing sports that push him out of his comfort zone. For example, winter sports such as speed skating, curling and snowboarding challenge him to think afresh about what he does and how he wants to capture it. However, his enthusiasm for sports photography hasn't been fuelled just by the unpredictability of what he's photographing or capturing the moments that hit the headlines.

Here, Marc looks back at his work and offers the top techniques and approaches that have helped improve his sports photography the most.

2. Use shutter speeds creatively

One way Marc has given his images an eye-catching look is to use either ultra-slow or ultra-fast shutter speeds. A very fast shutter speed, such as 1/4000 sec, will freeze everything and show things the human eye can't see: the wall of water sprayed up by a water-skier, or a cloud of dust kicked up by a tennis player on a clay court. Alternatively, a very slow shutter speed such as 1/15 sec can make the same action shot an abstract blur of colour and movement.

"If a horse is whizzing over the last fence in a major race, there could be 20 photographers lined up and taking exactly the same picture," Marc says. "But there might only be one taking their picture at 1/15 sec and panning with the action. I'll prefer those pictures all day long, because they're different and show that the photographer has seen a picture before the horses have even got out of the starting gate."

3. Shoot wide, shoot long

Marc has captured his own perspective on sporting events by varying his kit according to the story he wants to tell. Sometimes he uses a long telephoto lens such as the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM. This lens, with its built-in 1.4x extender, reaches a focal length of 560mm. Long lenses like this have enabled Marc to close in on key details that other photographers often don't see.

"Things are going on all around me and I'm looking at a small part of the scene through the narrow tunnel of a telephoto lens," Marc says. "I might be focusing on the tattoos of a football player who's had a great game, his undone bootlaces or the face of someone in the crowd. Other photographers next to me can hear my camera clicking away and they wonder what I'm seeing. But it's already gone by then.

"Alternatively, I aim to capture the wider picture, even if the main player in a football match is just a small part of the frame. For example, I might use a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM for shooting a wide view of Centre Court at Wimbledon or the whole of Wembley Stadium when the winning team is clapping the fans after a match."

5. Experiment with multiple exposures

Striking sports images can be made by shooting a rapid burst of exposures, such as the 14fps possible on Marc's Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, and combining them into one image in post-processing. It's not a technique Marc has used often because it becomes over-familiar, but it can create unique images that record multiple moments in time in just one frame.

Marc recalls: "I recently photographed the former Olympic sprinter Darren Campbell, who was recovering from a bleed on the brain, at Celtic Manor golf course in Wales. I wanted to sum up his life story in one picture – he had started as a kid from a rough area of Manchester – and had an idea for doing that.

"We went onto the 12th green on the course and I lay down on the grass. I asked him to do the starting blocks position and then run through my frame. I shot a multiple exposure and we put one picture over another in post-production. Again, in this situation I had to put on my photojournalist's head and think, 'what way can I best sum up this story?'"

6. Be patient

As well as having a range of techniques in your armoury, Marc says he's learned the importance of taking your time to put those techniques into action. Photographers' lives are made easier by the technical sophistication of the latest generation of digital cameras, which allows greater opportunity for creativity, but Marc believes you have to allow yourself the "thinking time" to make the best of that technology.

"Digital cameras have made capturing the moment so easy and so immediate – sports photographers know the autofocus is unbelievably good and they're going to get a fantastic frame-rate," Marc says. "Cameras are so good now that it's easy to take the same pictures as everyone else, so you have to work harder as a creative photographer to set yourself apart.

"Today's technology should make you step back, look carefully at your subject matter and refine that moment you're looking for. You need to think: 'I'm going to move now because the light's changed,' or 'I'm going to put on a different lens or change the exposure because this isn't what I want to see.' For me, sports photography is about having that ability to find your own pictures and be true to yourself and your own photographic style. It's about being individual and being unique."