PICTURES: 20 years of capturing The Open championship

Andrew Redington has been photographing The Open Championship for Getty Images for more than two decades and was hard at work yet again at St Andrews ahead of this week’s renewal in the Auld Grey Toon.

Having captured Tiger Woods during his pre-tournament press conference yesterday, Redington spoke to The Irish Examiner about some of his favourite work from a career covering the sport’s greatest icons, from Seve Ballesteros to Rory McIlroy.

“I’ve been coming to The Open since 1992 and in terms of enjoyment you definitely want to be out with the stars. But week in, week out you’re required to get the leaders, do corporate stuff or branding, things like that.

“I enjoy all parts of it but the tournament stuff is my favourite. And if you do get the opportunity to do one of the top five guys in the world it’s fantastic. It’s a different atmosphere and excitement around them.

“It’s funny, the pictures in anybody’s portfolio, they’re generally all of the stars. You don’t tend to have a lesser light because it’s usually a better picture with a star and it’s definitely a thrill to photograph the Seves and Tigers.”

There is clearly more to golf photography than capturing a swing in motion, as Redington’s work, showcased here, displays.

Take the beautifully framed, silhouetted figure of Jimmy Walker exiting a bunker on the 10th hole during the 2014 Masters, which was converted from colour to black and white for extra impact.

“I was walking down to Amen Corner from the top of the hill and saw Jimmy Walker in the bunker and thought it might make an interesting shot but then thought again that when he strides back up the hill he’s going to be silhouetted. So it was a bit of anticipation but in many ways I hadn’t thought it all through. The key though was thinking the great picture was not the actual shot but what happened next to get the contrast.”

Asked for his favourite picture, Redington thinks long and hard before replying: “The Seve one (during the 1996 Irish Open) would be up there. There weren’t that many trees down the right-hand side on the 18th at Druids Glen but he managed to find one. He got there and started doing all those typical Seve movements and so I waited eagerly to see what would happen. With that bright red jumper and no cap I knew it could be quite a nice a shot.

"I also like Faldo in the rain because it’s just such heavy rain but to have a great shot of Seve is special.”