From time to time I am asked by aspiring funeral photographers how to begin. I normally suggest they start with photographing weddings and christenings but perhaps I should suggest they also take up sports photography.

In my experience, as funerals become more secular in nature, so do the events surrounding them such as drive-byes by motorcycles, the release of doves and recently, the scattering of a woman’s ashes at sea who was deeply involved in her surf club.  Her husband and son took her ashes out to sea in an Inflatable Rubber Boat and then as her son lit a marine flare, her husband scattered her ashes in the ocean.

Being able to photograph fast moving subjects isn’t easy so why not practice as I do by volunteering to photograph events at your local sports club? Below are some of my ‘practice’ photographs.