It was a pleasure to recently be commissioned to shoot England Rugby coach Eddie Jones. An Aussie originally (which led to a bit of banter on set), Jones led England to the Grand Slam at last year's Six Nations. This followed on from an already impressive coaching CV which included when he led Japan to a victory against South Africa during the 2015 Rugby World Cup in what is widely regarded as one of the greatest upsets in sport.
The shoot was part of a promo for Natwest/RBS/Coutts who all sit under the same umbrella and took place in the Twickenham changing rooms. I can't show you photos of these but, trust me these are far from the one's you remember from your days at playing sport at school; they look more like a five star hotel and are equipped with plenty of high tech gadgets and facilities to ensure that players can perform at their maximum capabilities.
I chose to shoot Eddie away from all of the mod-cons though and found a quiet spot in the coaches area. I asked him to sit on a simple red cushion where instead of shirts hanging in lockers or fancy wall decals as a backdrop there was simply bare white walls. This gave me more of a canvass to work with. As I began taking some test shots for both composition light, I noticed some strong vertical red lines had been painted at one end of the room on the wall....perfect!! I could frame Eddie within these as if he was at the centre of the flag of St George. Eddie who, by the way was an absolute pleasure to work, with kindly scooted over a few cushions until he was just in the right place between these strong compositional lines. This hopefully imbues the end frame with some patriotism.... "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" which is the traditional and historical song that echoes around Twickenham to support the English Rugby Team was the only thing missing as I shouted wrap.
p.s. there was even time for a quick impromptu snap of Eddie Jones and the Six Nations trophy!
