The Pro Interview
With the Rugby World Cup kicking off in Japan on September 20, Dave Rogers is the perfect photographer to speak to for the inside knowledge. Keith Wilson meets the man from Getty who hasn’t missed a single World Cup…
Pro sports photographer Dave Rogers talks about his expansive photographic career
Dave Rogers is just back from holiday when I call him on a mid-summer’s morning. He’s sitting in his garden when we talk, because he gets a better signal outside. Luckily,
the sun is out. As a sports photographer for Getty, Dave is used to the outdoors, always with an eye on the weather and prepared to shoot in any conditions. His next assignment is at Lord’s for the England v Australia round-robin match in the cricket World Cup. “I did the first week, then I went on holiday for the last ten days, so now I’m catching up,” he says. Cricket might be dominating the sports pages, but our focus is on the rugby as 20 nations, including England, and the other Six Nation stalwarts prepare for the start of the Rugby World Cup in Japan. “England are picking their first training squad today, so it all starts next week, which seems amazing when you think the matches don’t start ‘til 20th September!” Dave has covered every Rugby World Cup since the first in 1987. Now, 32 years later, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the past and speculate about what might happen in Japan this autumn…
You must have seen enormous changes since 1987. From a photographer’s perspective has it mostly been for the better?
The thing that’s really changed is the access to the team. In the ’80s you could rock up to training and they wouldn’t mind. You could stay for the whole session and take photos, or even join in, holding tackle bags, collecting the balls if they go too far – maybe even keep one! So, it’s definitely changed in that respect. It’s been clamped down on and it’s a lot more secretive these days.
So, what access will you get to England’s training sessions this time around?
It’s really limited access now. Every team under the contract signed with World Rugby has to allow 15 minutes to the media every session. What they do in those 15 minutes is completely up to them. We could be on one side of the pitch and they might train on the other side, so you need a long lens for that and sometimes even a long lens isn’t big enough – they could be facing the wrong way, so all you see is their backs! That gets frustrating and we have a bit of a moan, but hopefully they’ll play ball.
Today’s restrictions must make it harder to get a picture that’s marketable?
Yeah, you need to get a relevant photo for every day. I’ll be in Japan for two months and you want to do a great job; you want to portray what’s going on. Fingers crossed we’ll get some good stuff.
How has photographing the actual World Cup matches changed?
There’s more photographers! That first one in Australia and New Zealand, if you had 20 photographers at a game that was a lot… The venues have changed too. In Sydney, the semi-final was held at the Concorde Oval, which is on the Parramatta Road where all the car sales showrooms are, and it was so small compared with where the semifinals are going to be this year.
How many photographers are likely to be accredited this year?
Hundreds. I think there will at least 200 to 300 for the semi-finals and the final, at least – a lot compared to the old days.
The gear has changed a lot over the last 30 years too. What were you using at the 1987 tournament?
Obviously, it was a film camera; the best you could get at the time; there was no autofocus in those days and being film it meant the more pictures you took the more it cost. You can always tell photographers who have done film and who hasn’t. I was sitting next to someone last week doing the cricket and they must have shot thousands and thousands of frames. Every ball, they must have shot five pictures – you wouldn’t have done that in film days! Every frame costs money. The speed of it too is incredible; back then you used to process your film and then try to transmit two or three photos, whereas now we just plug in our cameras and it goes straight to an editor.
Yes, it’s a sea change.
It’s a totally different profession in a way. It’s incredible how it’s all changed. It’s quite funny though because the newspapers were more lenient with time, whereas now, because of the Internet, they need to get pictures as quickly as possible to go onto their websites. So the deadlines have got shorter, not longer. You’d think that with modern technology you’d have more time to send your photos, but it’s less now. They expect it instantly. It keeps you on your toes! But if you lose the ‘comms’ you’re really stuffed, which does happen occasionally.
What will you take with you to Japan this time?
I’ll be taking at least three EOS-1D X Mark II cameras. When it comes to lenses, I’ll be taking the EF 400mm f/2.8l, plus the 300mm, 70-200mm, 16-35mm, a 14mm fisheye for ground shots to make things a bit different, and of course some remotes to make things a bit easier.
What is your preferred way of shooting on the job?
Obviously, it varies. Every place is different and a lot depends on where you sit. I used to run up and down the line, but there’s no point these days because you have to transmit your photos, so you need to be near communications. You can still do that, but it makes life more difficult. I’m going to be based with the England team most of the time and pick up other games in that area. I’ll get the teams running out, hopefully, I always get one of those early pictures and then sit down and wait for England to attack.
Where do you think is the best place to be for that?
I’ll be sitting down near one of the corners. Getty has prime spots everywhere; we’re one of the four or five major agencies that get to sit wherever we want, this helps us massively.
That’s a huge advantage!
It helps the cause. As I say, when you’ve got 200 or 250 photographers there, you don’t want to be in the melee, which sounds awful, but you want to be set up, ready to go. What’s good these days is that they always tell you about 20 minutes before kick-off which way each team is attacking, so you can go and sit down in that corner and get ready before kick-off. Things like that are a real help, because if you’re in Japan and you’re down the wrong end you’ll see about 150 photographers running down the other end trying to get to their spot! We all have allocated positions these days, so we’re all given numbered spots.
If you’re down in the corner where England are attacking and you’re hoping Jonny May is going to sprint down to the try line, which lens are you likely to use?
Well, you start off with the 400mm to pick him up when he starts his run and then as he gets closer you should be on that 70-200mm zoom. The 70-200mm zoom is the best one for tries right in front of you. If not, I’ll stay on the 400mm and do it tight as they come in under the posts to make sure I’ve got something good.
What are some of the typical obstacles in the field of play that make it difficult to photograph the action on the field?
The difficulty in rugby is that the deadball area can be massive in some grounds
i probably overshoot, i must admit, but i think if you haven’t taken it you can’t have it later on, so you may as well take it
and small in others, so the try-line can sometimes be twice as far as it would be normally. I’ve only been to a couple of the stadiums they’re going to use over there, that was for a rehearsal last year, but that could all change. They could change the dimensions of the pitch.
It can be very frustrating, rugby. The play can be on the far side of the pitch and in the far corner and you get a lot of people in front of you. Obviously, there’s 30 players on the pitch, match officials and you can get the substitutes warming-up in front of you. That can be frustrating when you’ve been sitting there for 40 minutes waiting for something to happen and then there’s a try but you’re blocked by someone’s backside. Of course, that does happen occasionally! But for something like the Jonny Wilkinson drop goal, you don’t want that blocked!
That’s one of the iconic photos from 2003. I read it proved helpful that Jonny kicked with his right foot rather than his preferred left?
None of us knew what to expect, although we expected him to take a drop goal because there was only a minute to go. When Martin Johnson and Matt Dawson took the ball a couple of times and charged forward, we thought, ‘Oh my god, we’re in the wrong place here.’ We moved from where we were sitting, because they were
normally, Jonny kicks with his left foot. if he had done, all i would have seen would have been his backside!
going to set up the outside TV studio to do interviews on the edge of the pitch at the end of the match. They were setting those up in front of us so we had to move to make way for the TV. We went round to the tunnel side and it should have been the wrong side because normally Jonny kicks with his left foot. If he had done, all I would have seen would have been his backside! Luckily and incredibly, he kicked with his right foot.
That was lucky!
Even then, we had to move about four or five times because the TV cameraman was in front, or the ball boy, or the linesman, so we couldn’t sit there waiting – we had to keep on moving. You don’t have time to think, when you see it, you have to shoot it. It’s a bit like duck hunting, not that I’ve ever done that! There were two or three of us, and we thought we were going to be blocked, so it was a bit tense because England hadn’t won the World Cup before. It’s a big thing the World Cup, in any sport.
How do you rate England’s chances this time?
They’re good! Of course, New Zealand,
South Africa and Australia will all be in there, but of all the northern hemisphere teams, England has an equal chance with anyone else. On their day, England can pretty much beat anyone.
It seems in 2019 that there are more teams this time who have a good chance of winning the Rugby World Cup…
I’m with you, and also because it’s in Japan, a different country that we haven’t been to before. The advantage England has is Eddie Jones, who has family background in Japan and he’s played there and coached there, so he knows the social setups, the etiquette and the climate. It’s typhoon season, I believe. It’s going to be very hot one minute and crashing down with rain the next.
Not many people have talked about the conditions
I don’t think people realize what we’re in for… A friend of mine went over last year for Sky TV and she stayed in the same hotel that England are staying in this year and on the 20th of September, which is the date of the opening match, they had a typhoon there! She sent a video and the weather was shocking, absolutely shocking. You wouldn’t be able to play a game in it.
With that bit of inside knowledge will you be packing extra wet weather gear?
You’ve got to take everything because we go backwards and forwards all over the country. The first game is in Sapporo which is in the north and can be quite chilly, but lucky for us it’s an indoor stadium. I don’t like working in the rain. No matter how good the cameras are it’s always difficult in the rain and it takes the joy out of it, but you have to pinch yourself that this is the World Cup and we get paid to go to it.
Looking back, was rugby your first choice sport?
No, I’m a football man at heart. I started in 1975 on a local newspaper in Birmingham. That first year I talked them into letting me cover Aston Villa as it was just on the edge of our circulation area, so we used to go there every Wednesday or Saturday. They got to the League Cup Final that year and won it. That was my first time to Wembley Stadium, 1975. I remember my Dad having to take me
down because I couldn’t drive yet so he took me down to Wembley. I was so nervous, but at least they won, 1–nil against Norwich City.
And you got your pictures published in the paper?
Yeah, we did four pages of picture coverage. It was a very big thing for a local club back then. I’ve done a lot of football World Cups as well, I did 1982 in Spain, 1986 in Mexico, Italia 90 and then rugby intervened.
How many pictures do you expect to take in Japan?
A lot! I probably overshoot, I must admit, but I think if you haven’t taken it you can’t have it later on, so you may as well take it, have a look at it and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. It hasn’t cost you anything. I probably end up taking about 2000 or 3000 a match, but that will be everything I need, including crowd shots, people outside stadiums, the line-ups and head shots, portraits. These shots encompass all of it.
It must help that someone is at the end of the line doing the edit?
We tend to do that now. Every week that I do rugby I do my own selection and Photoshop, but at a big event at Twickenham, or certainly at the World Cup, we will have editors based in various places around the world, depending on what time zone is amenable, so we just send them the pictures that we want them to see. Say you took about 2000 pictures in a game, you’d probably send them about 100 photos.
So, you’re doing that while the match is going on?
Yes. That’s still not easy, just sending a hundred. Normally, I do about 100 pictures myself by the side of the pitch on the laptop, even if it’s raining, but I don’t like pulling my laptop out in the rain. For this World Cup we will be sending the pictures to editors in London or Sydney and we will tag them because a lot of the editors don’t know who the rugby players are! It’s not as big a sport as football.
With over 40 years of experience, what is the key advice you’d give someone wanting to become a sports photographer now?
Perseverance. Everyone says you can’t do it and that’s what they said to me at school. I went to be an accountant for a week, but packed that in because I couldn’t stand it. You do have to give up your social life because sport happens while everyone else is enjoying themselves at weekends, so it’s dedication and perseverance. Photographers of my generation came through local newspapers and they don’t exist in the same way anymore, but the Internet exists so you can do your own blog. Start off at the minor sports. Don’t expect to get into Wembley Stadium or Twickenham because you won’t get in. Go and cover your local park football and learn the craft there before venturing out – you may not like it when it rains and gets cold in the winter. The glamour drips off a bit then, I can tell you that!
getty is one of the four or five major photo agencies that get to sit wherever we want to sit