Marc Aspland was poised beneath the water’s surface in a state of hyper-alertness, waiting for a moment that would be over in less than a second.

“You’re just standing there, really concentrating, totally focused on snapping the actual moment,“ says Marc who was a former photographer on our sister paper the Watford Observer and now works for the Times. “They could come in at any point – you’ve no idea when.“

Then – a splash and a snap – the result. The astonishing image, right, of Team GB’s synchronised swimming team on their path to Olympic Silver, an image that has just scooped the Times’ chief sports photographer second prize in the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Members’ Biennial Exhibition.

Like sport, sport photography requires being completely poised for a winning opportunity – and hours spent behind the scenes in preparation.

“I turned up during the practice heats, I’d done a bit of homework,“ says Marc, from Harpenden. “Amazingly Team GB were the only ones who dived in all together. I got myself down to that porthole really early.

“You’ve got no sound down there whatsoever. You can only just about hear the music they come out to. This is the moment they just split the top of the water, you’ve got the way the water distorts the skin and the air bubbles coming off their flesh. It’s pretty dramatic.

“There were lots of photographers down there – you’ve just got to have sharp elbows and the will to push people out of the way!“ In his role at the Times, Marc has covered World Cups, FA Cups, Formula 1 and Wimbledon. The London 2012 Games were Marc’s fifth Olympics as a photographer, one full of memories for the father-of-three.

Like Jessica Ennis’ complete concentration ahead of her heptathlon win. “I’d never ever seen her so focused, we hardly made any eye contact whatsoever, there’s normally a nod, a wink, a smile. There was nothing. She was so incredibly focused.“

Or Chris Hoy’s tears on the podium. “An awful lot of us were standing just a few feet away and we were gulping down those lumps in our throats as well.“

A second of Marc’s images features in the RPS exhibition, one of Brazilian Paralympian Terezinha Guilhermina crossing the line to take gold in the 200m T11 event.

Marc started his career at the Watford Observer, joining straight from a photo-journalism course, and it’s here that he cut his teeth, shooting “anything from golden wedding anniversaries to cheque presentations, to Watford FC when they were in the then first division, with the likes of Luther Blissett and John Barnes and all the excitement that brought to Vicarage Road.“ In 2009 he was given a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

“It’s more than just snapping away and hoping you’ve got a good pic,“ says Marc, “I’m always trying to put a story behind it rather than just record what’s going on in front of us. It’s the stories that go with doing our job that you remember.“

  • Marc’s images can be viewed in the Royal Photographic Society Members’ Biennial Exhibition which is on display in the Harlequin Gallery until February 17. Details: www.rps.org