Eamonn McCabe and David Hockney

Very sad news that Eamonn McCabe, the Sport and Portrait Photographer and Picture Editor has died.

A few years back we were due to shoot David Hockney at the Royal Academy…As I, aArt Director Nick Booth and camera assistant Ed Marshall arrived, the PR announced that due to space and time constraints we would need to share the space with another photographer -  from the Guardian.

Of course this isn’t ideal, it’s hard enough shooting with several people in the room, let alone another photographer. Then she told us it will be Eamon McCabe.

My heart sank -  I feel imposter syndrome at the best of times, let alone when one of the most revered photographers is able to watch you stumble through a job .

As it turned out, he was relaxed, kind and understanding as we shuffled our kit to one side for him to take the simplest of pictures in a small pool of daylight. This polaroid is a nice reminder of how lucky I was to watch someone with so much experience put someone at ease and nail the shot.