Et Al Pics: Before the Punch

Philip Brown gets up close and personal

Former England captain?

The shock of the unexpected. Let’s think about this carefully. England cricket has had no drinking stories, zero players have been spotted out drunk, and no misbehaviour tales have hit the news for …. well, exactly five months. From January 8 when a story broke about Harry Brook being hit by a bouncer - man not ball - till June 8 is a good run, yes? That’s got to be a positive, doesn’t it?

Then at six pm London time (June 8) a message appears on my WhatsApp feed. Gus Atkinson and Ben Stokes have ‘broken team protocol’. It’s a cross-code affray as a rugby player was involved. I needn’t write anything, but the story demands illustration: I must rifle all yesterday’s images for something that expresses the idea of a captain at bay. It happens that I spent a good six minutes photographing Ben Stokes as he was interviewed very close to me.

I like taking portraits on a 600mm lens and although Stokes was kind of too close I took dozens of frames in the time he spent answering questions. The fixed focal length lens left no zooming option for me to adjust: I had to really concentrate in order to get his whole head in the frame and to make sure at least one eye was sharp. Fortunately, in the age of digital photography, you can take as many pictures as you like; there’s always a chance that one frame will stand out. It happened in Grenada in 2022 when Joe Root was interviewed, dozens of almost identical photos but just one frame where he looked quite down and disappointed. The difference between published and unseen.

But that was the former England captain. Stokes yesterday had just won a Test by 115 runs. There were no images that suggested he was not happy in the 234 images I’d took in those six minutes. But sometimes he looked away, constructing his next answer, and in doing so looked momentarily reflective, contemplative - as he must be feeling now. So that’s the image for the moment. I’m not claiming it’s exceptional but it works - and who knows when I’ll next point a lens at this great cricketer?

Nikon D5; 600mm lens; 1250th sec; F4.5; ISO 500