Since early 2016 Marc Aspland has been working with the 20.2 Megapixel EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR, covering many of the major events in the sporting calendar and shooting portraits of top sports celebrities in his role as Chief Sports Photographer of The Times newspaper. In an exclusive interview he spoke to CPN writer Steve Fairclough on how he uses the camera and how it has helped to push the boundaries of his photography…
Having an EOS-1D X Mark II is the only major change in Marc Aspland’s kitbag this year as he currently uses: “…all of the same EF lenses that I used with the 1D X – ranging from my 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye all the way through to the 70-200mm f/2.8L and the 200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXTENDER 1.4x. In fact, at the [English] FA Cup Final I used a 2x Extender on it so I had an 800mm [focal length]. So, it’s anything from 15mm all the way up to 800mm, which is probably the stock choice of any sports photographer.”
Marc has been a lifelong user of Canon cameras but his style of sports photography is usually more about capturing the essence of an event, often in a creative way, rather than the key single ‘action moment’. He explains: “I don’t need to be constantly pressing that ‘send’ button on the back of my camera to send everything – as the agency guys might do because their market is so vast. I know what my sports editor is after and I know what players the writers in the press tribune are specifically writing about – a manager or a player – so I can be a great deal more selective about the pictures I send. I don’t need to plug my camera into the ethernet… obviously I can but it’s not a difference in speed to me – it’s a quality rather than quantity issue with my photography.”
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