Bradley says: Had a bit of a strange Saturday night, to be honest: firstly I can’t remember covering an FA Cup match at 7.45pm before, but I know I definitely haven’t covered a game where VAR was being used. The debate is still raging as VAR took centre stage with three big decisions being referred to the video assistant in the first half alone. I have never sent so many referee pictures to the office before; I have just counted 65 from Saturday’s file, which may be excessive.
Canon EOS-1DX mark ll, 400mm lens. Shutter speed 1/1,600 of a second at f2.8, ISO 2000
Bradley says: The game felt a bit stop-start but the main thing was that with VAR the big decisions were all correct. However it still didn’t stop the West Brom players Chris Brunt and Jonny Evans moaning about a decision.
Canon EOS-1DX mark ll, 400mm lens. Shutter speed 1/1,250 of a second at f2.8, ISO 2000
Marc says: I was doing a shoot for Henry Winter’s interview with the Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy at the King Power Stadium. I wandered down the tunnel and onto the pitch just as two members of the ground staff walked past, which was lit by the enormous artificial lights used to repair the grass. I used an aperture of f11 — the f-stop is the measurement used for the size of the lens opening, so a lens set at f11 means less light will pass through, giving a greater depth of field, as I wanted the foreground and background in focus.
Canon EOS1 D-X MKII using a 24-70mm wide angle zoom set at 38mm. 1/250th second at f11 for the greatest dept of field. ISO rating 1000
Marc says: Every Chelsea fan watched the path of Eden Hazard’s shot as it whipped past the post during the FA Cup match on Sunday afternoon at Stamford Bridge. Photographers can only work along the side of the pitch at Chelsea — not behind the goal — so by using a long telephoto 400mm lens, you are able to cover both goals. Reaction times and anticipating the action are vital for a sports photographer, but sometimes an image away from the obvious makes a more interesting composition. I am just rather glad that this shot was not the winning goal as I was focused on the goalkeeper.
Canon EOS1 D-X MKII using 400mm lens. 1/1600 second at f3.5 ISO 1250
Marc says: As it was the FA Cup fourth-round weekend, on Saturday I joined about 20 other hardy souls to watch Harpenden Town Development FC take on the league leaders and local rivals AFC Dunstable in the Spartans South Midland Football League. It was a miserable match with Dunstable receiving five bookings and their substitute sent off. Armed with just a tiny compact Canon Powershot G16 I took up my usual position behind the goal as Dunstable’s goalkeeper took a goal kick. The match ended 1-1.
Canon Powershot G16
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Marc says: On Wednesday, Oliver Kay and I spent a fascinating day with the Peterborough United manager Grant McCann. An alarm at 5am for a trip up the A1, then Grant having breakfast with his kids at 7.30am before the school run, then following Grant at Nene Park Academy as he prepared for the FA Cup match against Leicester City. I set my camera on “silent” so I could document the day as unobtrusively as possible whilst Grant was busy with match preparations. Here, Grant talks with the club secretary about what to do with the huge amount of helium balloons sent from a fan in the US to one of the players — the secretary tells Grant that they are not allowed to release balloons outside without a permit.
Canon EOS1 D-X MKII using a 24-70mm lens set at 24mm
Bradley says: The Manchester Velodrome hosted the National Track Championships at the weekend with three days of top class cycling.
Canon EOS-1DX mark ll, 16-35mm lens (used at 16mm), Shutter speed 1/4 of a second at f11, ISO 100
Bradley says: As well as taking the standard pictures of Jason Kenny crossing the finish line and waving to the crowd, I took time to mess about, shooting the cyclists at a very slow shutter speed, trying to show a sense of speed while being able to recognise they are athletes on bikes. I find this really fun to do.
Canon EOS-1DX mark ll, 16-35mm lens (used at 16mm), Shutter speed 1/4 of a second at f11, ISO 100
Bradley says: Shooting at such a slow speed there are far more bad images than good, but cycling is a really good sport to try this at, as some races lasted 80 laps so there is plenty of opportunity to get interesting pictures as well as the standard stock shots.
Canon EOS-1DX mark ll, 16-35mm lens (used at 16mm), Shutter speed 1/4 of a second at f11, ISO 100