The photographer who captured Bath Rugby's opening Premiership game on a roll of expired film

A photographer who has millions of 'likes' on social media for his work capturing sports matches on vintage cameras has spoken about how it all began in Cornwall.

Miles Myerscough-Harris uses rolls of expired film as well as vintage cameras that date as far back as 1894, to capture his other big passion: sport.

To his legions of followers, he is best known as the man behind the Expired Film Club and his work has been viewed around the world.

His social media accounts have proved so successful that being a content creator is now his full-time job, with 1.9 million people now following his TikTok page, which has just under 50 million likes.

He was recently asked by Bath Rugby to photograph their opening game of the Premiership, where the Blue, Black and Whites took on Northampton Saints at their home stadium, the Rec.

Miles said: "One of the things I did that day was use a 130-year-old panoramic camera, which was a lot of fun - because the Rec is an extremely old sports ground, it's been there for over 100 years.

"We thought fusing the two together could be a really fun thing to do. So, I took this panoramic film camera with some black and white film, took some nice panoramas of the Rec."

The home side beat the visitors decisively, winning 38-16 and Miles was so close to the try line that he ended up touching Bath player Ollie Lawrence as he crossed the chalk to score an emphatic try.

As with many of his projects, Miles also filmed the process of loading the vintage camera with the old film and shooting the game, a video which has been watched more than eight million times.

Almost half a million people have now liked the video, which produced stunning black and white landscapes that look as though they were taken when the ground was built.

• Watch Miles photograph Bath's opening game on a century-old panoramic camera

"I'm in a very fortunate position now where teams reach out to me to ask me to come along and do stuff for them", Miles said.

"When the Bath option came along, I said 'yes' straightaway because it was such a cool concept and Bath as a city I just love so much anyway - such a picturesque place to be.

"I was really happy with how that one seems to have gone down on socials, so really happy with the response to that and it was a lovely day", he added.

'That was the one that started it all': A photography career born in Cornwall

Miles, whose mother's side of the family are from Somerset, says he had already spent lots of time exploring Bath and travelling across the wider West Country.

His work now takes him right across the world, and he has just returned from photographing the New York Jets wearing classic kits in the Big Apple.

But Miles believes his success can trace its roots back to the West Country.

He said: "The first video of mine that kind of went viral I shot down in Cornwall.

"This was still during lockdown I think, in Covid, or in between, so there were lots of protocols in place and it was very quiet, so I think that helped. But me and my wife had gone for a little weekend away with our dog, Monty.

"It was one of those days where still a lot of the places you'd normally go were closed, so we thought 'Well we'll just go on a little stroll down the coastline'.

"So we were at Kynance Cove [on the Lizard] and we were up on the top of it and looking down."

At this point, Miles had only been posting his photographs for two or three months, but he had a box of Kodak film that had expired in the early 1990s.

He said: "I thought it would be really cool to... I got my wife Catherine to film this for me, so she can take all the credit for my career. But I said, 'Oh would you mind filming me loading this roll of film above the cove' because it was such a gorgeous viewpoint where we were.

"So, that's what we did. So she filmed over my should as I took the load of film out the box, put it in the back of the camera and showed the view of the cove through the viewfinder."

The video surged in popularity on TikTok and received more than two million views.

"It was that moment that I thought, 'okay, this concept seems to work', so I kept doing this more and more", Miles added.

"So that video back then was kind of the formation of my style, if you can call it that - those first person videos wherever I am with a weird roll of film or a weird camera in a weird situation; you know, loading the film and then showing the results through the lens. So, that video specifically down in Cornwall was the one that started it all."

Since then, Miles' content has gone from strength to strength and he now uses a whole range of different film and cameras.

'I feel like you pour more of your soul into film photography - it's a bit like musicians and vinyl'

Miles has always loved using film to take photographs and said used to wander "into the woods" before beginning to bring cameras to matches.

But his interest in expired film - film beyond it's expiry date - is more recent.

"A roll of film is layers of chemical emulsion, so it's a bit like medicine in that it's best kept cold," Miles said.

"It has a certain amount of time where its potency is at the recommended level and after that time, it can tail off and the film can become less sensitive to light.

"The colours can go a bit weird, it can go really grainy and I just kind of fell in love with experimenting with old rolls of expired film and how the effects might come out on the photos that I take at sports games."

Although he admits it can be "quite hit and miss" with how his photographs turn out, he believes people enjoying seeing pictures presented in a different way.

Miles said: "I think it's quite refreshing now in the modern, digital age to see someone keeping alive all these very authentic and real ways of creating content and media.

"What I liken it to in the music world is vinyl, because vinyl records have made such a come back. Rather than just clicking on Spotify or tapping on your phone and streaming something in two seconds, having that feeling of taking a vinyl out of the sleeve and putting it on the turntable...

"I think [my photos] feel real, it's literally a chemical reaction of light hitting an emulsion. I feel like you pour more of your soul into film photography somehow?

"And some of these cameras that I'm using use are so strange and old and weirdly beautiful that I think people find it interesting, when they see a video of mine pop up they get interesting in seeing how the results come out in using a camera that old."

• Miles now gets to travel the world thanks to his career - which all began with one video in Cornwall

"Apart from that, I think it's just a unique approach to shooting a fast-paced environment like sports is, in the modern world." He joked: "I make life very hard for myself".

He has said the best place to find expired film is usually on online markets, though Miles also believes thrift stores, antique shops and even older relatives can also be safe bets.

England winning the World Cup Final? 'Let's aim for the stars'

The committed Manchester United fan got to enjoy photographing his team winning the FA Cup last season and has also worked for Real Madrid and even Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia.

"I've done so many things I never ever thought I'd ever able to be do", Miles said.

But he would love to be able to film the Red Devils winning the Champions League, an idea he jokes is "extremely unlikely right now".

But top of Miles' photography bucket list is being able to capture England winning the football World Cup Final in America in 2026.

That would be "a real dream", Miles said.

"So why not, let's aim for the stars."