‘Ali’s not going to knock him out again if you didn’t get it’: what makes a great sports photo?

“Y ou make your own luck in this game, kid.” That was the mantra of the celebrated photographer Eamonn McCabe, who died last year. McCabe made his name as a sports photographer, and the saying couldn’t be truer of his specialism. Talk to any top sports photographer and you’ll discover the huge amount of work and knowledge that goes into capturing a microsecond on camera.

Sports photos can be memorable as action shots, portraits, art, comedy, news. They move us because they capture emotional extremes, historical events and the wonderful – occasionally tragic – chaos of live action.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with two of Britain’s greatest sports photographers, McCabe and his protege Tom Jenkins, when interviewing athletes. But the real sports photography – capturing the action at an arena – is a solitary pursuit. No matter how many fellow snappers are there, sports photographers are alone behind their lens, hoping that their angle will be the unique one.

Jenkins dreamed of being a professional sportsman. When he realised he wasn’t good enough to make it at any sport (snooker was the closest he got), he turned to photography. McCabe visited his school to talk about sports photography, and Jenkins discovered you could get the same buzz from taking photos of great events as competing in them. “It’s as close to being a sportsperson as you can get because, like them, you’ve got no second chances. Ali’s not going to knock that guy out again if you didn’t get it first time. There are no action replays here.”

McCabe and Chris Smith revolutionised sports photography in Britain. “They showed me it didn’t always have to be peak-of-the-action stuff,” Jenkins says. “They made sports photography more featuresy.” For him, the