By Stuart Franklin Getty Images at Hoylake

Tiger Woods taken on the 11th on day one using a Canon EOS1DMkII on a 70-200mm lens with polarizing filter. Exposure 1000th sec at f8.

Golf photography is sometimes like taking landscape pictures. You pick your spot, set up your camera and just wait for the player to put the ball in the right place.

Yeah right. If only it was that easy. Either he'll carve it onto a different fairway, or a bunker raker wanders into the frame at the last minute.

Working at the Open this week is pretty full-on. When there are golfers on the course, we're on the course. For Thursday's first round we began with the first tee shot at 0630 BST and I took my last picture at about 2100.

Being a photographer is a bit like being a golfer - you have to be patient and wait for things to happen

The light is best early in the morning and then after 1700, but we have clients around the world who need pictures of 'their man', so we have to shoot throughout the day.

There are 204 officially accredited photographers here, so it can be a bit of a scrum, particularly when Tiger Woods is out. It's not aggressive though. Not yet anyway.

But our clients have different needs, so it's not all about Mr Woods.

Some may want pictures of a player using their new driver, or sporting their corporate logo.

And then you have the papers and other media who will want something more newsworthy or quirky.

Taken using a colour correction filter on the 17th. I changed the colour correction balance in the camera to make it more orange. (24-70mm lens at 1,000th sec, F8. 100 ASA.)

We also need to get amateurs or past champions early in the week in case they miss the cut, such as Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros who both had their sons as caddies this week.

For me, sport is as much about emotion as action, so I'm looking for pictures that convey the drama and atmosphere of the event.

I followed Sergio Garcia for about 12 holes on Thursday, but although he was playing reasonably well, making fairways and hitting greens, from a dramatic point of view there wasn't much happening to provide a good picture.

Being a photographer is a bit like being a golfer. You have to be patient and wait for things to happen.

When people are playing badly or hit a loose shoot and end up in the thick stuff, that tends to make a good picture.

A poorly thought-out background can ruin a good picture

Tiger hits a few loose shots here and there and gets quite excited occasionally, but someone like Retief Goosen doesn't get excited at all.

Here at Hoylake, pictures late in the day on the back nine tend to be the best. I got a good silhouette of Tiger on Thursday, while the celebration of his eagle on the 18th looks good, too.

He was wearing an orange shirt, which was great. Players wearing green, or white in the middle of the day, is a bit of a nightmare.

You need a bit of luck and for the elements to come together, but you always need to be thinking.

Sometimes you find a hole and it's really good for bunker photos. We've got some great bunker shots in beautiful late light with sand splashing up.

The red shirt of John Daly and the shape of the bunker on the 12th makes this a nice picture. (70-200mm lens at 1,000thsec, F5. 100

But the next day the pin might be over the other side of the green and the angle makes it no good for bunker pictures.

In sport it's not all about using long lenses either, you need to mix it up with wide angles to show sky, scenery and atmosphere. And you must always be observant.

With the hot weather this week, spectators crashed out asleep under the grandstand with their tops off illustrates the story. A different picture that stands out from the crowd will get people's attention.

The basics of good photography in any field are background, composition, focus and exposure and one of the main pieces of advice I can give is to pay attention to the background. A poorly thought-out background can ruin a good picture.

With today's digital cameras it's easy - and cheap - to take loads of shots hoping you'll get a good one, but if you don't apply the basics it will be fruitless.

Ian Poulter was walking head down to the 12th green. The grass in the foreground is a nice shape and makes a good composition. (500mm lens at 2,000thsec, F8. 100 ASA.)

As a professional, carrying two cameras and four lenses (17-35mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 500mm and 300mm at the weekend), I'll take about 800 shots a day at Hoylake, with runners ferrying the full memory cards back to our temporary office.

On Thursday, for example, we sent 380 pictures out to clients from six photographers.

My count was 115, which is pretty good, and, despite having been in the business 25 years, it's still nice to think that there are people out there who consider your pictures worth buying.