Football Focus at EEP

A look behind the lens of the Club photographer Craig Brown

Craig loves East End Park ....and clouds

1. How did you first get started at Dunfermline Athletic?
I first started helping out with the fans website dafc.net. It was a great opportunity as a Pars fan to work more closely with the club. I was taken under the wing of Neil Farrell who showed me the ropes and it all snowballed from there.  My first season taking photos was during our first season after our last relegation.  Before that I had been a season ticket holder since 2004 (Davie Hay's first season) and had been in regular attendance during the latter part of the Jimmy Calderwood era.

2. Had you been working as a photographer before that?
I had been a keen amateur - with a passion for photographing "fast things" from motor sport, air shows, sports. However working with the fans website gave me my first real chance using a DSLR and that ignited a passion. From there I gave up studying politics and took a photography course. I then set up my own business 'Craig Brown Photography' and now I provide all image based content for the club, as well as supplying the Dunfermline Press the match images too.

3. What's a normal day like for you?
Being a freelancer no two days are the same. One day you could be photographing kids in the studio, the next you are covering a news story. One thing that is constant however is the amount of editing - hours worth!

On Match days, I usually arrived a good 2-3 hours before kick-off. This is for a number of reasons.  Firstly, just to get all my kit set up including a couple of cameras, lenses, laptop etc.  Secondly, there are often special guests around pre-match, for instance former players, and these guests are usually photographed for stories in the match programme.  Directly before the game kicks off you have the match mascot to photograph - then the game takes care of itself.  Post match its straight back to the photographers' room to edit a batch of match photos to go online with the match report which is followed by the man of the match/sponsors photos.  I also need to allow time to edit the match photos for the club programme as well as the Dunfermline Press.

4. What's been the best moment in your career so far?
Last year I photographed T in the Park. I got to photograph so many brilliant bands that weekend including Coldplay, The Foo Fighters and not forgetting The Saturdays. On the Football pitch photographing the clubs promotion was amazing!  Also, the Raith Rovers game for sheer atmosphere, result, everything... !  And the Falkirk game with the trophy presentations was a fantastic experience.  Being able to take photographs in the changing room with the squad celebrating, from a photographers perspective and as a fan, was an amazing experience.

Craig Brown and Joe Cardle

5. And the worst?!
One thing that does stand out was when our goalkeeper Greg Paterson broke his leg during a game. It's one of those moments where you physically feel sick looking, but at the same time you have to be professional and still photograph it.

6. Any funny stories?
There are a couple of incidents that stick out in my mind. The first was at an away game in Airdrie, it was one of those awful nights weather wise, well below zero, sleety showers, so cold I'd lost the feeling in my feet... we won a penalty so I decided to shift position to get a better angle and because I had no feeling in my feet I fell flat on my face, yet tried to gracefully make it look like I'd been getting down on my knees to photograph the penalty!

The second was a home game and Calum Woods Swung in a cross-come-shot. I was watching the ball thinking "this is a good ball, it's coming right at me, down the lens, perfect for a striker to get on the end of it"... Only it didn't, and the realisation soon hit that I was still watching the ball, at some serious pace, still making a b-line for me! So it was a case of dropping the camera into my lap and getting my hand up just in time to block it from skelping me in the face!

Another time, a Hamilton sub was warming up just in front on me and while doing sprints stamped on his water bottle which exploded and covered me! There was a row of 3 or 4 photographers and I was angled so that I was the only one who got soaked!

7. Who is your favourite player?
We have a great bunch of lads in the current squad, so they're all good to work with!  I have a lot of good banter with Paul Gallacher. He hates getting his picture taken and always lets me know it...!  Plus I'm a keeper with a 9`s team so I'm always lamenting my teams performance to him!  From my days in the stand, one player I have always admired is Andrius Skerla - he is a top professional and his goal against Celtic will be a moment I'm sure all Pars fans cherish.

8. And your favourite football highlight?
Of course last year's promotion was brilliant both as a photographer and as a fan!  This year too, getting to work in some very impressive stadiums like Ibrox and Celtic Park.  As a Fan it would have to be our survival under Jim Leishman, the home game against Dundee and the away win against Dundee Utd - without a doubt the best footballing experience of my life!

9. If you could pick any one person, who would you most like to photograph?
Not so much one person, but one band - I'm a massive fan of Muse, so I would love to photograph them both gigging and in a portraiture sense.

10. Do you have a favourite photographer / photograph?
Photographer wise there's plenty of top guys up here in Scotland- too many to name in fact. Down South I love the work of the Arsenal photographer Stuart McFarlane.  His work is top notch, he is brilliant at capturing match action, but it's the stuff from behind the scenes where he really shines - from training, travelling and working with the squad he gives a really good in depth coverage of the football club.

Away from football, Danny North is someone's work I aspire to - he's one of the top music photographers and like the Arsenal photographer gets access to places most people can't!  I mean the shots pre and post gigs, those intimate moments most of us never get to see, and he captures them so well.
As for my favourite photograph, there are plenty I could list off!  One footballing photo would be an image of Milan Rivals Marco Mazzerati and Rui Costa, leaning on each other, very relaxed and pally, during a pause in play of one of the world's biggest derby games as flares are thrown onto the pitch making the scene almost like a war zone.

11. Is this your dream job then? What would you like to do in the future?
Absolutely!  Having grown up a fan, and being able to mix work and pleasure is a dream!  As for the future, I'd love to stay in football and do more music, more festivals, big competitions like champions league, that kind of thing. However to do so I'll need to consistently keep producing the goods with Dunfermline and hopefully have hundreds more goals and celebrations to capture!