My sporting life . . .

Dan Sheridan is a sports photographer with Inpho. He recently returned from Chicago, where he joined the Irish rugby team at the start of the November series

I am with the Irish team all week and there could be something different on every day, be that training, press conferences, gym work, or even doing recces on the locations.

I was in Chicago with the team for their game against Italy, so that involved capturing some on-pitch training, press conferences or features, which are individual portraits of players. On their down day, we went to see the Chicago Bulls and I brought a camera along to capture some of that. On the day of the game, I was at the stadium from 9.30am, even though the game wasn't till 3pm. I'm always early for those big games, to mark corners and have my laptop ready to send the images.

I love that I get to create things in this job. I get on very well with a lot of athletes – they trust me and it gives me access to them and they let me do stuff they might not do with other photographers. I get to tour and see places too, which is great.

The Lions tour was amazing to cover, as the players and coaches are the best of the best. You get into the inner circle, and I recently won an award with a picture of four lads absolutely knackered in the changing room after one of the big games. To be able to be a fly on the wall and capture that is so special. They’re raw.

In 2006, my first Heineken Cup final was Munster's first win against Biarritz. I got a really good picture of Peter Stringer celebrating after the final whistle, with the whole team jumping behind him. I was there as a very junior photographer but that photo got used the next day, which was a big deal for me.

Another stand-out image for me is the picture of a little girl on top of Brian O’Driscoll’s shoulders in a township in South Africa. There were loads of photographers mingling around that day but when they dispersed I said to Brian, throw her up on your shoulders. He did and the smile that came out of both of their faces was really special. It’s about trust between the two of us.

I have a wife and two kids and you could be away for eight or nine weeks at times which is hard, but my wife loves rugby and is supportive. She travels with me too and that’s important to me and you have Skype too.