Following last week's post about my 7 mile endurance test around Twickenham, I thought you might find it useful to read about what my typical match day looks like.My most excellent client runs the O2 sponsorship account, and O2 are rather obviously the shirt sponsors of the England rugby teams (inc women). Therefore my day is focused around shooting their extensive brief of all things O2 in and around Twickenham. If you've ever been to Twickenham you'll know that there is a lot of branding going on, hence the mileage covered on a typical day. And even then I still won't be able to cover absolutely everything.Arriving at the stadium at about 10:30, I collect my accreditation and then park my motorbike in the North car park, which is a short stroll away from the photographers' room under the stands. I've already been on the lookout for branding, crowds etc. on the way in so I have a good idea about how the day is going to pan out. I'll typically dump my trusty Peli case in the photographers' room and head straight out to start lapping the stadium and ticking items off the brief as I go.As the previous weekend was so horrible and wet, everyone had jackets on so, with the sun showing its face it was time to get some shirt pictures. Fans in England shirts are high on the "top trumps" shot list, but they have to be the right shirts i.e. from the current kit manufacturer Canterbury. The number of people who still have Cellnet sponsored shirts is quite incredible. And of course I will ask their permission to take the picture, often asking for them to put their pint down or whatever to get a nice clean shot. A bit of motion blur from a slow shutter helps to add some motion to what could otherwise be a fairly standard picture.A lap of the outside of the stadium is usually followed by a sprint up the stairs inside to shoot the bowl before there is anyone in it. Getting the scoreboard and branding in shot, with the teams playing shown, is another key picture that is needed, but knowing when the big screen will be showing the right thing is tricky so I may need to get up there a few times to make sure I get the right shot. I can't really waste time hanging around as there's so much else to capture as well.Then it'll be back out and another lap of the stadium, probably in the opposite direction for a bit of variety. Showing business, lots of people, preferably enjoying themselves and so on is the order of the day. O2 also has a very cool Blueroom, which is a big inflatable dome in the west car park. There they will have special offers for O2 customers (pie and a pint - always well received) so I need to ensure good coverage inside and outside of that as well. A big theme of this Autumn Internationals series and going into the 6-Nations is the "Wear The Rose" campaign, so covering that is essential. Again, trying to get some decent variety of the same scene is what's needed, with the branding in the right place.With much more of a focus on people due to the better weather, I was on the lookout for anyone looking interesting, and especially trying to marry up an England supporter (in the right shirt) with a South Africa supporter. This usually entails some sensitive negotiation with the two parties who generally won't know each other to pose for a picture for me with something decently recognisable in the background. It's all quite a laugh generally as the vast majority of people are absolutely up for it, especially as I always offer to send them a picture by email.Time is usually marching on by this point, and I need to shoot the team warm up, and the associated branding that is included. Different player kit is used, plus there are tackle bags, ballboys and coaches kit to capture as well.Oh, I should mention at this point that for this autumn series I am teamed up with the great Eddie Keogh who is shooting some very specific O2 pictures, so we tend to ensure that we're not both standing or sitting next to each other and generally split up those common bits of our brief between us. I've always admired Eddie's work so it's great to be working alongside him on this job. I'll of course take a sneaky look at what pictures he's shot to see if I can improve what I'm shooting. Here's an example: for image rights purposes O2 are restricted on using specific on-player pictures, so Eddie last week shot some close and anonymous detail shots. I did the same this week for some of the training pictures.I'll normally upload a selection of these pre-match pictures before the game starts, so it's off into the photographers' room to do a quick edit and send between the players finishing warm up and the match itself starting.Then, there's a game to cover. I have a specific brief for the match itself, plus any decent action pictures get sent live to Focus Images for the newspapers. Juggling these two aspects of the match could be quite tricky, but the O2 brief has priority obviously. This time, I took up a East side roaming position so I could move up and down the length of the pitch to follow the play. This is an effective, though very tiring, way to get some different pictures compared to shooting from the classic end-of-pitch positions. And on that east side the ground is tarmac so it's bloody painful on the knees!There's usually a raft of things to do at half time as well, including shots of the scoreboard, the England mascot, O2 Angels and so on, then the rest of the game, then at the final whistle the scoreboard, player reactions (oh dear!), crowd reaction, and any presentation that takes place.I've usually then got 20-30 minutes to do a quick edit of match pictures to send up to Focus, dry everything off (it rained AGAIN), and then head over to the Blueroom for the post-match player Q&A. Amazingly, 3 of the players, freshly showered and spruced up after smashing their bodies about on the pitch, turn up in the Blueroom for some light hearted banter with the punters. This really is brilliant - what superb sports they are to do this. Can you imagine this happening at football? No way. Last week Chris Robshaw himself was with Rob Webber and Joe Marler. This week it was Danny Care, try scorer supreme David Wilson, and tall man Courtney Lawes. As well as shooting the Q&A and the players interaction with the fans in the Blueroom I had some very specific ball signing pictures to do as well.I'm exhausted just typing this. Well done if you've read this far. But we're not quite finished yet. After extricating myself from the merry throngs of the Blueroom I then head into the extremely drunken throngs of the upstairs bars in the stadium to get more fan reaction and general mayhem pictures. I've done plenty of parties and events so am a dab had at slinking through a crowd of lashed people to get some hopefully interesting pictures. Again, looking for shirts and happy faces.Then, finally, it's back into the photographers' room to pull all the pictures off my cameras as a backup, send any remaining match pictures that I've forgotten about, and pack my gear away. I'll clamber into my bike gear, haul off to the car park and extricate my bike from the chaos of the mixed motorbike/bicycle parking "pen", and head home trying to work out why I'm so knackered. But it is very rewarding - as long as my client is happy, I'm happy. I'd never want to finish the day thinking that I could have got more if only I hadn't been sitting eating a sandwich under the stands.And the front page of today's Daily Telegraph Sport always helps...