When you cover as much soccer as we do in the UK and read countless stories in the papers about footballers only being in it for the money and ruining the “beautiful game”, which isn’t anyway the game it used to be….. it is refreshing when players do something which in some way redresses the balance.

Covering several soccer matches every week it can be easy to slip into a formula of action, goal and celebration pictures and while these images are our bread and butter, they are not the only ‘key moments’.

This weekend’s Liverpool v Arsenal clash at Anfield was a case in point.

The two teams played a thrilling game resulting in a 1-1 draw with both team’s star players, Steven Gerrard of Liverpool and Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal not only scoring the goals but also driving their their sides through the fixture.

Our photographer at the match, Darren Staples, will have been deeply frustrated that both goals were scored at the end furthest from him, but for me he nailed the key image from the match - the moment when the final whistle blew and Gerrard and Fabrigas shook hands and embraced in a gesture of sportsmanship and mutual respect.

Not technically challenging maybe, but these two frames encapsulate the spirit of the game perfectly. 

Another football season in Europe draws to a close taking with it a large chunk of weekend duties for Reuters photographers, certainly in the UK.

So (I hear you cry!!) what do we do with all this free time?

The answer is we swap the soccer field for the Cricket pitch and, to the bemusement of most of our colleagues based outside of the UK, we spend FIVE DAYS photographing a single match!! For many the idea of a game that lasts so long that it includes regular meal breaks, stops for bad weather and can still end in a draw leaves them scratching their heads, but I love it.

At its best there is no other game like it. It’s like a five day long game of chess with the captains using all their tactical expertise to wrestle momentum from each other whilst also battling the elements which can have a huge say in how the game pans out.

In terms of daily coverage it also presents many challenges. Condensing 8 hours of play into a concise set of pictures that sums up the day’s story would be difficult enough if you could sit down at the end of the day with a cold beer and edit everything, but to do this as the game unfolds around you is even more difficult.

Add to this the concentration factor of watching 8 hrs of action, never knowing what each ball will bring, and you get some idea of how challenging it can be.

For those of you who think that maybe a sport that lasts so long is totally mad, fear not, there’s always the option of watching that totally sane English past time of CHEESE ROLLING!!!

 You decide.

When you work in an industry where, as the old adage goes, ‘everything has
been done before’ it’s often a challenge to offer a fresh or different view
from an event or subject that has been photographed many times before.

One method employed by photographers is the use of remotely-triggered
cameras to offer a totally different angle, one that in most circumstances
would be almost impossible to capture by a photographer behind the lens.

In its most common use, certainly in the UK during winter months,
photographers use remotes as an extra man at soccer matches, positioning a
camera just behind the goal in an attempt to capture a different and often
more dynamic view of the winning goal or crucial save.

But this is a relatively simple use of the technique with the photographer
having easy access to the camera at the beginning and the end of the game to
retrieve the images.

For other events such as Basketball or Swimming where a camera may be placed
high in the ceiling above the hoop or in a purpose built housing at the
bottom of the pool, it may be necessary to secure the camera hours - or in
extreme cases the day before - the event and to run power and networking
cables to the camera to maintain its readiness for such a long period of
time.

For me though remotes really come into their own when the view they offer
really makes the viewer sit up and put down their coffee cup.

One such image is Desmond Boylans stunning frame of a bull careering through
the streets of Pamplona during the annual San Fermin festival. Such was the
impact of the picture across the world that a German newspaper published it
under the headline ‘How well is the photographer?’

He was of course fine having triggered his heavily protected camera
remotely from the ‘right’ side of the protective barriers on the route.

Moderator’s note: This post was initially mis-labelled as ‘filed by David Viggers’.