Gallery: seeing sport in black and white

The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose
Ernie Banks, Former American professional baseball player

I’ve never been particularly good at sports, and I’m too competitive to enjoy the feeling of losing … or even coming second! But I do like to watch others excel at them. It’s exciting not to know what will happen next, and to cheer on a favourite individual or team to success.

The sports I most enjoy watching are football (soccer to US readers), notably ‘my’ team Newcastle United, plus tennis and athletics. I’m always happy when I manage to score tickets for the All England tennis championships at Wimbledon (which I’m fortunate to have done for this coming tournament). And when the Olympics came to London in 2012, we sampled a range of sports from cycling to table tennis, Taekwondo to volleyball.

As my photos below will attest, I’m no sports photographer! I don’t have the equipment to get great action shots very easily, and when I go to watch sports I prefer not to carry my larger camera, so often rely on my compact or phone. They’re fine for capturing memories but not ideal. However I do also like to photograph the scenes around me, including my fellow spectators. These sorts of shots provide context and help to create the sense of occasion that a big sporting event can generate.

So for Elke’s Monochrome Madness challenge I have a selection of photos taken at sporting events, only some of which are of the sport itself. I hope that together they build a picture of the excitement and even passion that sports can generate.

Editing these shots in black and white proved an interesting exercise. So much of sport is about colour: the team colours, the supporters dressed to show their allegiances. Something therefore is lost in these edits, but perhaps something is gained? It struck me that people stand out more as individuals, whether competitors or spectators. It’s more about personality and less about the team, or so it seemed to me. I’ll be interested in your thoughts.

My feature photo was taken at the parade to mark Newcastle United’s victory in the Carabao Cup last year, and like all the images below was edited with Nik Silver Efex Pro