Football photographer who saw 1,500 games to retire

Warren Page captured former Ipswich player Shefki Kuqi during his dive celebrations

An Ipswich Town and Colchester United photographer who attended almost 1,500 games will hang up his cameras as he retires "on a high".

Warren Page has been capturing the two football clubs in Suffolk and Essex respectively for the past 30 years, covering 1,456 games so far.

Mr Page will finish up his career just before Ipswich Town moves up into the Premier League.

Despite this he said he felt it was the right time.

"I've been thinking about it for a few years, it's not the easiest of lives," Mr Page explained.

"I've spent an awful lots of Saturdays photographing both Colchester and Ipswich away and it was hard on the family life.

"It's about the timing - we finished at Hull and got home at 4am so there's a lot of late nights.

"I take longer to recover at my age," he joked.

Mr Page said the emotions of retiring hit him during Ipswich's game against Coventry away in April.

"That was the first time it really sunk in that I won't be doing this anymore," he said.

"It's been a major part of my life."

Warren Page has been capturing Ipswich Town and Colchester United for the past 30 years

Mr Page started off his career as a press officer for a local team, taking photos of the matches and writing up reports before he moved into sole photography.

He said the industry had changed a lot in his career partly thanks to advances in digital photography.

"My lovely wife used to sit in the car outside the old Layer Road ground and 10 minutes before kick off I would run into the ground and photograph as much as I could for the first 15 minutes because we had no processing facilities in Colchester," he explained.

"I would drive back to Ipswich, run into a dark room and we had the whole black and white processing by hand, film on a spool in the dark and I look back now and wonder why there were only five or six photos for any particular game.

"Whereas now for a game, like the Coventry game, I sent 59 pictures through."

While Mr Page will miss Ipswich Town's most recent Premier League promotion, he was able to capture the previous one

His career has provided many brilliant moments to look back on.

"Shefki Kuqi was brilliant as he did his swan dive and leap in the air - it was great knowing it was coming and being able to capture [the goal]," Mr Page explained.

"Lomana LuaLua who played for Colchester was probably the best player I had ever seen.

"He used to do somersaults and all manner of stuff when he scored."

Mr Page was also the first person to capture former Ipswich Town chairman and owner Marcus Evans.

He also was able to capture when former Ipswich player David Norris celebrated a goal against Blackpool with a handcuffs celebration that ultimately saw him fined.

"They were the two big [moments]," Mr Page added.

Mr Page captured former Ipswich player John Walters during a game against Leicester

For aspiring sports photographers, Mr Page shared the industry secret to getting the perfect shot: "Anticipation, knowing the game and your timing.

"Timing is split second especially with things like goals.

"I've had trouble with Ipswich this year because their build ups are so good and they'll cut the ball back with someone on the end of it to tap it into the net.

"You have to predict where that player is going to be and it is not easy.

"I hate missing goals, all the people that travel with me will know I don't take it lightly and if I miss two it's even worse."