My FRPS Highlights

Simon King: Hello and welcome to the Pitchside Eye. My name is Simon King. I'm a sports photographer whose work has been published in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. I'm also a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. In this episode, I'm gonna take you through my FRPS panel and drill down into three of my favorite photographs. First, here's a slideshow of all 21 photographs in the panel. I hope you enjoyed the panel. Let me know which one is your favorite. Achieving a fellowship with the Royal Photographic Society an FRPS is one of the highest distinctions a photographer can earn. The scrutiny from the assessors is intense and the standard required is absolute. For any distinction, a panel needs to show a coherent body of work. However, each photograph must be able to stand on its own as a high calibre image. My successful panel comprised 21 images in total. But today I want to take you behind the scenes of three frames that for me stand out. For rugby fans, these images will drop you straight back into the raw, gritty atmosphere of the Six Nations. If you're a photographer, I'm gonna break down the compositional choices that convinced the assessors to award me my fellowship. Let's look at the first frame. Photo 1, the captain's voice. This first image sits right in the middle of my opening row. Image number five, and it drops us straight into the world of international rugby. For rugby fans, you instantly recognize this face. This is Alun Wyn Jones, one of the most capped and fierce leaders the game has ever seen. But this wasn't taken during a match, this was taken during the captain's run. The final training session, the day before Wales famously won the 2019 Six Nations Grand Slam. You can see the absolute intensity on his face. He's demanding perfection from his team. Now, from a photography standpoint, the challenge here was isolation. Stadium training sessions are incredibly messy. There are coaches, water bottles, and sponsor boards cluttering the background. To win over the assessors, I had to strip all that visual noise away. By crushing the shadows into a deep black background, I forced the focus entirely onto the raw emotion of the moment. Look closely at the crisp texture of his hair, the strain in his neck muscles and the iconic three feathers catching the light. Choosing black and white removes the distraction of the jersey and transforms a standard sports portrait into a timeless study of leadership and grit. Photo 2 The Lone fan Moving from the intensity of the team to the raw passion of the stands, my second image takes us right into the heart of rugby's greatest rivalry, Wales versus England in 2019. Unlike football, in rugby there is no segregation, so you may find yourself deep in enemy territory. Look at the centre of this frame. A lone England supporter erupts in absolute ecstasy, fist clenched, beer in hand, screaming as his team scores a try. But the magic of this photo isn't just him. It's the sea of Welsh supporters surrounding him. Their faces are a masterclass in sports misery. Stone-faced, arms crossed, and completely indifferent. It perfectly captures the psychological warfare of the stands. From a photography perspective, this shot is all about breaking patterns. The assessors look for deep visual structure. Here the crowd forms a dense chaotic pattern of textures and faces. By isolating that one white shirt, explosive gesture right in the middle of the darker, stationary crowd, a viewer's eye is instantly pulled straight to the focal point. In sports photography, your intent is often to keep tracking the play. But when the play is a long way off, you need to look for the reactions, use your senses to feel the game and anticipate what is about to happen. Photo 3, The Joy of Victory. The final image brings this three photo story to its conclusion, serving as the punctuation mark on my panel at Image 21. This is Jonathan Fox Davis, holding the Six Nations Trophy aloft after defeating Ireland to win that 2019 Grand Slam. Now I've been taught that a golden rule is never take a sports portrait of a player's back. You want the face, the eyes, the direct emotion. But rules are meant to be broken. In this split second, shooting from behind Davies was the only way to truly capture what it felt like to be inside the Principality Stadium that day. By positioning myself here, we see exactly what the player sees. A wall of thousands of roaring ecstatic fans. Look at the technical details that made this pass the rigorous criteria of the FRPS panel. The rain was coming down hard and by using the fast shutter speed, I managed to freeze the water droplets in midair. They look like crystals or confetti suspended around the silver trophy, adding a magical cinematic texture to the gritty reality of the match. The number 13 stands out sharply against the dark jersey and the cup catches the lights perfectly. It's an image that moves away from the standard sports reportage and into pure artistic storytelling. Achieving an FRPS requires a narrative that holds together technically and emotionally. These three frames show that exact progression. From the intense focus before the match, the agonizing tension in the crowd, to the final glorious victory. If you study the panel of photographs, care and attention has been paid to each row. Frames on the left look to the right, frames on the right look into the left, and the middle frames look straight at you. The only minor deviation is the frame which acts as a punctuation mark to the whole panel. As mentioned before, each image has to stand on its own, but when shown as a panel, there has to be consideration for the position of each photograph within the layout. But I want to know what you think. Where does that 2019 Grand Slam rank in your favorite rugby memories? And to the photographers, have you ever broken a golden rule of photography to capture a better story? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. If you enjoyed this deep dive, hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. Next time, I'm taking you behind the scenes of the wildest horse race on earth, Il Palio di Siena. Thanks for watching and I'll see you soon.