Regrets, I've had a few.....

Honestly, a few maybe but that's it and I never dwell on them.

Until yesterday that is! Listening to a Podcast while driving to work I heard an interview with a sports photographer who was working in South Africa at the World Cup (it was an old Podcast!). He was telling stories of the excitment in his job, shooting 2000+ images every game, editing and sending the images to his editor at the same time, 400mm F2.8 lenses and suddenly I felt jealous and a deep sense of regret.

Roll back a few years, 1986 I think, and picture a young 16 year old wearing a new suit off to take an elimination exam in Cardiff of all places. The ultimate reward was enrolment at Sheffield University taking a Photojournalism Course, the ONLY course Fleet Street recognised. The train journey, nervous lunch at Burger King and finally a two hour exam.

The result? Well, I'm writing this aren't I so I don't need to tell you. I managed to find a positive from it all, 12,000 applications for only 26 places, I never really stood a chance and maybe I could have spent more time reading the papers and watching the news leading up to it but the killer question for me was, 'Explain the rules of Basketball to an alien from another planet,' really? Are you serious? What got me was my sport knowledge was good, not perfect (obviously) but I could have done the same for football, rugby, tennis, badminton, F1, MotoGP, snooker, american football, table tennis, athletics etc. the list goes on and on. One sport I had never played or even watched, bloody basketball (and I have never done either since).

So whats my regret? Why the hell didn't I push harder, ask more questions? Why did I give it up there and then? Should my parents have pushed me harder? That's an easy one, yes, but they had their own issues to deal with but I should have done it myself. Youth, wasted on the young!

Instead of shooting top flight football, rugby internationals and cricket tests I got a job in a camera shop, smiling at customers, telling them why they should spend all their hard earned cash on the latest gear and taking in Mrs Jone's holiday films for processing. Bugger.

So there I was 25 years later driving my faithful Landy thinking 'What if?' It hit me hard, harder then anything like that has ever done before but then something had to one day I suppose.

Of course if I had known about Basketball and passed that exam (and passed the other two that followed) and been successful on the course and managed to get a job on a national paper (lots of points to fail there I think!), I wouldn't be here now. I wouldn't have the done the jobs I have done, or met the people I have met or most importantly become a father to my two children. I can hear you all cringe but the parents among you will agree I'm sure.

I don't regret the life I've had or the choices I've made, but it would have been a good life as a sports photographer.