This photo of England captain Steph Houghton was among Lynne Cameron's favourites from France
To mark #WorldPhotographyDay, official Lionesses photographer Lynne Cameron has picked out her favourite photos from this summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“It was a privilege to work with such an amazing group of players and staff to document the Lionesses’ time in France,” said Cameron.
TICKETS: ENGLAND WOMEN v GERMANY
“There were so many special moments and it was really hard, almost impossible, to narrow down my favourite photos from what was an amazing few weeks.”
Arrival in Nice. When we came out the airport the players had to walk past this ‘Welcome to Nice’ sign. I somehow managed to get the players to stop and pose next to it – it’s never easy rounding up the players! I like this image because, although it’s a team shot, it’s more relaxed than the usual formal ones.
Shadow puppet Steph. While I was watching Steph Houghton’s press conference before the Scotland game I noticed that the lights were creating a shadow behind, so I waited and hoped that Steph came off the stage towards me. She did and not only that gave me a thumbs up which I took as a good omen for the start of the tournament!
Squad goals. Nikita Parris scored our opening goal of the tournament against Scotland and she immediately ran to the dugout to celebrate with the rest of the team. I ran round to the bench as well and got this shot of the players going crazy. It was a really sweet moment as it shows the whole squad’s pure joy.
All White on the night. The Cameroon match was one of the most bizarre matches I have ever seen, but Ellen White’s cool finish was one of my highlights of the tournament. Although her ‘goggles’ celebration became iconic, this is actually my favourite Ellen celebration from the World Cup.
Bike in a pool? Two of the challenges of moving around at a World Cup is having to find a location for fitness work and recovery. England’s strength and conditioning team are very resourceful, and the friendly people who ran the stadium at AS Cannes were happy for us to use all the changing rooms. I happened to be passing and saw Rachel Daly on a bike and took a few frames. I knew it would look good as it was different to the usual warm up. And people have said it looks like she is in a swimming pool!
Steph’s technique. When you are covering training every day, you are always looking for something different and this training session was in a stadium which enabled me to walk up four flights of stairs to shoot. Shooting from high not only gives a different perspective it shows some lovely shadows. I think this image is typical Steph Houghton: she has a very distinctive way of striking the ball – almost like a ballerina.
Frozen out. The players have the best recovery procedures in place, including the dreaded ice bath. The players were usually winding me up about something or other, and on this occasion it was about the lack of pictures of this trio: Lucy Bronze Mary Earps and Jade Moore. Their hand signals represent the number of pictures they thought I had taken of them! This really wasn’t the case though: I don’t have favourites!
Silhouettes. With that beautiful blue sky and the players slightly in the shadows I got down low and took these shots of the warm up again trying to get something different to give a bit of variety to the trip.
The boss and the bench. The team spirit and togetherness in this group is amazing. I don’t usually like to get too close to the coaches as they are very focused pre-match, however I couldn’t resist taking this picture because it shows the bench linking arms and standing together during the national anthem. What is even nicer about this shot is that the other members of staff who are not on the bench can be seen just above.
Taylor made. Jodie Taylor scored the winner against Argentina and, like the goalscorer that she is, ran towards the corner flag to celebrate! This picture shows both her joy and the despair of the Argentina goalkeeper.
Album cover. The beach in Deauville was amazing and just on the other side of the street from our hotel. Training can be hard and the backroom staff keep things fresh with a variety of different activities. The beach was the perfect location for a game of giant Twister and nerf competitions. Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright, Beth Mead and Leah Williamson struck a pose which they said was going to be their album cover but then joked that Fran Kirby didn’t get the memo!
