When Alistair How LRPS picked up his camera for his children's weekend sporting endeavours, he had no idea it would eventually lead him court side at the World Table Tennis Championships, a hundred years after the very first event was held in London. As an RPS trustee, photographer, and sport enthusiast, Alistair's journey into the genre, and his experience covering this landmark event, offers a lovely story of persistence, curiosity, and a camera that opened doors he never expected.
How it all began
Alistair's interest in sport photography, he explains, "was born out of having three children, all of whom did various sports." What started as taking photographs to share among other parents grew into something much bigger once two of his children went to university and became involved in sports he had barely heard of. One daughter played korfball, a Dutch sport that combines elements of netball and basketball. His son took up lacrosse, and Alistair found himself photographing their university teams and, eventually, the prestigious Blues Championship.
From there, opportunities snowballed. He approached his local football club, Harrogate Town, for media passes, reasoning that smaller clubs often need to demonstrate community involvement and are receptive to that sort of approach. "If you don't ask, you don't get," he says, a philosophy that has served him well across motorsport, basketball, ice hockey, and a regional table tennis competition in Huddersfield.
What keeps him drawn to the genre is the combination of action and connection. "It was nice to be at my age involved with something that was fast moving... without me having to play the sport," he reflects, adding “it’s great to take a love of watching sport and be able to turn it into something that you can then share with more people afterwards.” He has also found real satisfaction in photographing disability sport, describing it as a way of putting something back into the community.
Getting accredited for ITTF London 2026
Alistair's route to accreditation for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) championships was refreshingly straightforward. A contact from the ice hockey world flagged the event to him, and he approached the organisers directly. Having his own insurance and an established website and social media presence helped give him credibility. After submitting examples of his work and mentioning his experience with the regional table tennis event, he received his accreditation.
There was, he notes, a real sense of occasion around the centenary. The organisers made much of the fact that the championships had first been held in London a hundred years earlier. Branded London 2026 (akin to the 2012 Olympic Games), the event carried a similar atmosphere to the other major sporting occasions Alistair has volunteered at over the years, including the Commonwealth Games, the Olympics, and the UCI World Championships.
Behind the lens
Shooting indoors under television lighting rather than photography-friendly conditions was, Alistair says, one of the biggest challenges. The arena was dim, and cameras struggled where his eyes had already adjusted. Space was tight too. "There wasn't a lot of space for photographers," he recalls, describing how photographers were often confined to a single corridor between matches. The days were also long, with morning sessions running from half past nine until half past two, followed by an evening session finishing as late as ten at night.
Managing depth of field and background clutter proved just as demanding as the lighting. Alistair worked hard to isolate players from teammates or reflections in the background, and to find the right combination of a strong backdrop with a player positioned so their face, rather than their back, was visible to the camera.
Despite the challenges, the event gave him some of his favourite images to date: unguarded expressions, unusual angles, and small idiosyncrasies players may have been entirely unaware of, from a fierce competitive stare to a shock of hair caught mid-jump. He particularly enjoyed photographing a broad mix of nations he hadn't expected to see competing in table tennis, a reminder of just how far a small number of dedicated organisers can take a sport.
Bringing it back to the RPS
Since joining as a trustee in September, Alistair says the relationship between his photography and his role runs both ways. Discovering activities within the Society, such as the Contemporary Group's work around the theme of impermanence, has pushed him to try things well outside his usual sports work. At the same time, his own experience as a photographer means he brings a member's perspective to the table.
His hope is to encourage other members to get out and try sport photography themselves, insisting it needn't require expensive equipment or elite access. Volunteering at a local sports day or a small club match is, in his view, a perfectly good place to start, and sharing your photographs generously with the people you photograph often opens up further opportunities. As he puts it, being part of the RPS instantly gives you a bit of credibility to make that first approach, whatever the sport.
Alistair How LRPS took photographs at the World Table Tennis Championships in London, held to mark the centenary of the first championships in the city one hundred years ago. A selection of his images from the event, alongside other sport photography, accompanies this article.
