For the past six years he's been the designated Wallabies photographer, a job that has seen him travel to most of their big test matches, including the last two Rugby World Cups.
Working on this year's Cup has meant following the team throughout the build-up to the tournament, covering their training sessions, press conferences and other activities. Spencer also has access to the team's "inner sanctum", the changing room.
He won't get a chance to watch any of the games off-duty, but he is no less excited about the World Cup than those with front-row seats.
Spencer likes to run to keep up with the players, so he's in the right place when someone scores a try. "On the field, I'm well aware of what's going on. Even though you're shooting through a lens, you're keeping up with the action. Most of the time I rove the sideline. You've got to predict what's going to happen before it happens."
There's also a race to download images as quickly as possible. During the World Cup, he'll aim to get his images uploaded as often as possible, via a laptop on the sideline, so the picture editors can crop, caption and make them look as good as possible before sending them around the world. Spencer's photos will appear online minutes after they've been shot.
When he's not so pressed for time, Spencer has a knack for getting interesting angles. At the recent World Heli Skiing champs in Wanaka, he was dropped at the summit by helicopter with the athletes.
"You need to know how to ski and carry your gear, you have to wear avalanche beacons, do helicopter safety training - it's a safe environment, but you also have to know what you're doing. It really gets the heart pumping, it's not like skiing in a resort."
Sports photography has led Spencer to places far and wide, and opened his eyes to some of the most bizarre sports imaginable. Last year he travelled to the Asian Beach Games in Muscat, Oman. Unlike the Australian female beach volleyball teams, who play in bikinis, the Muslim players were mostly covered in T-shirts, shorts and leggings. Spencer was also introduced to the ancient sport of tent-pegging. Athletes ride a horse on a dirt track, scoop up a target and slice through an orange or apple suspended from a wire while at full gallop. Spencer grew up playing rugby, but photographing tent-pegging was challenging as he was unfamiliar with the rules.
"A lot of what I do is about knowing what certain players and certain teams are going to do, knowing how backlines work. If you sent me to a gridiron game, I'd have no idea. I've never shot gridiron in my life."
But it's not just about the action.
"It sounds cliched, but obviously you're capturing a moment. Rather than just shooting action, the obvious thing when shooting sport, you want to tell a story with your images. You want to convey the atmosphere to the viewers by showing the fans, the crowd, the stadium and obviously the atmosphere of the game itself."
Spencer says there's no right or wrong way to get into sports photography, but the main advice he gives is to get as much experience as possible. He says a degree in photography helped him get his first full-time job, working at a wedding and portraiture studio. From there he scored a gig working on the picture desk at Getty. Every weekend he'd go out with the other Getty photographers, who taught and mentored him. That gave him the confidence to shoot games, although he still admits to feeling nervous if he's not familiar with a sport and its rules.
He's been at it now for seven years and says his recent accolade at the Photojournalism Awards is the result of a big 2010. He covered the Fifa World Cup in South Africa, the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the Asian Beach Games in Oman.
"You never stop learning. That's the beauty of the job."
