The Orange RockCorps Concert

This was the first time a RockCorps concert - where the concept is for the audience to volunteer to get their ticket, rather than buy or win one - has been held in the UK following a series of successful concerts in the US. Beforehand all the talk was of whether headliner Busta Rhymes would be able to perform having been detained by British customs who said he was not allowed in the country. However, upon arriving the PR told us he'd been cleared to play this charity concert, which only seemed right from what I know.
Rumours also surfaced that Amy Winehouse would join him on stage, but there no sign of the disturbed soul singer all night. Other acts were a strange mix of hip-hop, soul and rock taking in John Legend, Feeder, The Automatic, The Guillemots, Ludacris and Lethal Bizzle.
I don't think these types of night's work too well - there's many different styles and most of the acts only playing for 3 songs, meaning there ends up with lots waiting time between acts. Picture wise the stage was very back lit, which although looks bright and good, makes it difficult for the camera's metering system to pick up the faces of the acts because it gets confused by the bright lights behind making for more muzzy shots than normal. Still, overall there was enough opportunity to photograph the acts well.

End Of Summer Ball In Berkeley Square

This was another example of the PR's press release suggesting an event would have bigger stars attending than actually was the case. The likes of Mischa Barton, Rod Stewart and Peaches Geldoff were all on the list, but didn't show to the ball. Some of those who did arrive, and who were at least wearing striking dresses for the occasion, included Tess Daly (top photo), Tamsin Egerton (middle) and Naomi Harris (bottom).
I later heard that Amy Winehouse performed at the ball, but unfortunately we could get no access to that, and unsurprisingly it was the disheveled-looking singer who made the papers the next day.

Joe Brown Plays 50th Anniversary Show

I must admit, I didn't know much about Joe Brown before this, but soon read up on him and found he was huge in the UK in the late 50s, early 60s, around the same time Cliff Richard was making his mark.
This being a celebration of his 50th anniversary in the business, he had a number of special guests to bring out, but we had to finish photographing by the time he got the likes of Mark Knopfler and Jools Holland out on stage at the Royal Albert Hall. Brown seemed great with his audience too, spending time between each song to chat and joke away, which the older crowd clearly loved. As the photographers left he looked at us and joked we must be Cliff Richard fans...

London Fashion Week

I do enjoy photographing fashion, but fashion week inevitably ends up being very tiresome with the sheer amount of shows all over London taking place which need covering. Then there's keeping an eye out for celebs on the front row - such as Mischa Barton (pictured below) - to see the catwalk fashions which the papers and magazines are full of through the week.
My week took a turn for the worse on Wednesday when I had my lens stolen from the photographer's area by the catwalk in the BFW tent. It was only out of sight for less than a minute, but to make matters worse it must have been a fellow photographer who took it as they were the only ones with access. This spoiled my week and it was hard to get any enjoyment from my work as I fretted over the cost of a very expensive Nikon 70-200mm AF 2.8 VR lens.
In photography and fashion terms the best event of the week for the Fashion For Relief show, which featured numerous high profile figures and models on the catwalk. Naomi Campbell, Cilla Black, the Sugababes, Daisy Lowe, Cheryl Cole and Tyson Beckford were just a few of the names who donned top designer's outfits.

Vodafone Music Awards

I was covering this awards show at Brixton Academy for the PR. It was fairly straight forward as the Press Association had exclusive coverage of the live performances, so I was shooting arrivals and the winners of awards.
The after party proved to be one of the better ones I'd been to. It was held at Dex in Brixton and featured a huge roof terrace with BBQ, and a projection of film footage onto nearby buildings (see second from bottom photo). Free drinks flowed, celebs showed up and two girls played up to the camera by kissing each other (bottom photo).

Righteous Kill Premiere

I was quite excited about shooting two legends of the screen, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, appearing on the red carpet together. Unfortunately, rather than the two of them posing together they were joined for a group shot by 50 Cent, who also stars in the film and the director. It meant we couldn't really get a strong shot of just Pacino and De Niro together, which was annoying, but there was still quite a few good photographs to be had of Pacino in particular.
He looked the part as usual whereas De Niro seemed a bit disinterested at having his picture taken.

Stevie Wonder Plays The O2 Arena

60 seconds. A single minute to shoot the legend that is Stevie Wonder - by far the shortest amount of time I've had to shoot an artist. Even Madonna gave us three songs.
To be fair I was quite grateful for the minute after missing out on photographing on his first night here yesterday, due to having a series of misfortunes.
Having had the advantage of seeing the photos from other photographers of the show, it became clear they couldn't get a clear shot at him at the piano, so we spoke to Stevie's brother, who was briefing the photographs and he arranged for us to get a higher vantage point to shoot from to capture him at the piano. 60 seconds actually proved enough time (if you can get a clear shot, it doesn't need much time to get some decent frames), but it was vital we got him at the piano, so in some ways it worked in my favor missing the opening night's show.

UK Commemorative Service for Northern Ireland Operations

A good turn out of Royals and Politicians, past and present, for this UK Commemorative service for Norther Ireland operations.
I missed out a couple of times photographing Margaret Thatcher, so it a relief to get some shots of her, all the more useful as I got photos with Tony Blair as well.

Guardian Usage

Despite having big problems getting my Amy Winehouse photos out from Bestival, pictures still got used, including this on online on The Guardian site.

Bestival - Day 2

Saturday turned out to be a very good day of music and shooting, but a bad day for my equipment and the weather, which continued to chuck it down in buckets.
My laptop died hours for Winehouse (the main reason for shooting the festival), which means despite a lot of time trying to fix the screen I couldn't file my photos on the same night, which will mean a loss of potential sales.
The surprise acts turned out to be The Specials (bottom photo) - who were a lot of fun - and Grace Jones, who proved excellent to photograph, changing costume for every song! She was followed by Hot Chip, who got into the spirit of things by wearing fancy dress (second from bottom photo) and they got the whole crowd at the main stage dancing away. Winehouse followed and was hugely disappointing. She was simply awful - not only was she 45 minutes late, she could barely sing and the huge crowd soon dispersed. I've seen and photographed her a few times and she's always produced the goods but here she looked and sounded a wreck.