The Worst Job I've Done

I travelled back from France today and headed straight to Wimbledon in South London, travel and camera bags in tow, to cover arrivals to a special theatre production called 'We Are Not Amused' for Prince Charles to mark his 60th Birthday. The night played host to several giants of comedy, including John Cleese and Robin Williams at the South Wimbledon theatre, peforming in front of the Prince, Camilla and Prince Harry.
A big group of photographers were at hand as Charles' Birthday was obviously expected to get a lot of coverage and as we stood around in the cold for a couple of hours waiting for Royals to arrive. Several discussions took place with officials and TV cameramen about where photographers and TV should be stationed to get the best angle on proceedings. Everything seemed ready.
But as the Royal car pulled up, the TV crew, filming for a special show to mark the Prince's 60th, walked straight in front of the Royals and didn't move, blocking photographers view for whole of the entrance. The photographers errupted with anger, but it was all over too quickly leaving us snappers nothing worth filling. Considering I'd rushed back from France for this and we got nothing worthwhile of the comedians or Royals I'd have to put this down as just about the worst job I'd done.
Below is the one photo I got of the three Royals arriving.

The Times usage

My photo of Carla Bruni and the Duchess of Cornwall from the remembrance service was used by The Times today.

Royals Attend Commemorations of The 90th Anniversary of End of WWI

The commemorations took place at a small town called Verdun, a 3 hour drive outside of Paris, which meant leaving at 4am. Horrendous driving conditions ensued as heavy rain lashed it down the whole way. Thankfully a friend of my parents, Angie, was kind enough to make the long drive there and back to give us, but it wasn't at all easy for her, especially leaving at such an early hour.
The rain did finally clear as we reached Verdun and the hour-long ceremony itself provided good opportunities to capture the main royals along side President Sarkozy and Carla. Amazingly, despite a police escourt, the President was actually late arriving to mark the minute silence at the 11th minute of the 11th hour, so that had to be put back.
All-in-all though, a good day's pictures, but a very tiring day as we didn't get back to Paris till later that night. Tomorrow it's back to London for another Royal job as Prince Charles begins one of the many events to mark his 60th Birthday.

Royals Attend Private Banquet In Paris

I spent the day in Paris, which included an excellent lunch, including oysters, before going to the Elysee Palace for Prince Charles and Camilla arriving for a banquet with President Sarkozy and Carla Bruni.
There were the usual minor scuffles between the French and English photographers as we took our positions, but most people got the shots they needed. I stay in France and travel to a WWI remembrance service tomorrow again involving the British Prince and French President and their wives.

Camilla, Katie & Finley

A busy day today with three jobs all over town. I braved the rain to photograph Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall leading a charity dog walk in Green Park before travelling to east London for Katie Melua's performance at the O2 Arena. It was then back to Camden to meet some friends for a night at Koko, where Finley Quaye was headlining. He certainly lived up to his reputation by being a bit out it, but even during his ramshackle time on stage there were were still plenty of glimpses of the great talent and he was when he sang songs of his debut album 'Maverick A Strike'.

'Body of Lies' Premiere

Leonardo DiCaprio was the only draw for this one and there was barely anyone of note who showed up. All-in-all it was very low key premiere, which meant just getting head shots of Leonardo was the order of the day.
This is because newspapers and magazines tend to you headshots of male stars, rather than full lenghts normally reserved for the more glamarous looking girls.

Prince Harry Visits Plymouth

After a long drive down to Plymouth this looked like being a disappointing job as we were led to a gym at HM Naval Base to photograph Prince Harry. He was there to launch Khumbu Challenge 09, an adventure training expedition for wounded Service personnel to the base of Mount Everest, and we were taken to the gym to get him meeting amputees who were part of the expedition. The set of photos was from it was pretty dull, but things got better when he left as there was a tank ready to pick up Harry and drive him away.
Suddenly we were able to capture him getting into a tank and driving off, which made for some unusual photos of him and some excellent pictures to add to the library.

Seu Jorge Plays The Roundhouse

Like the Vampire Weekend gig recently this was a real pleasure to shoot and I enjoyed hanging around to watch the whole gig as Seu Jorge got the crowd dancing along to his Brazilian rhythms and tunes. I saw the concert stood right by footballer Deco of Chelsea and Portugal, who was there with his girlfriend.

Guardian Online Usage

James Bond 'Quantum Of Solace' World Premiere

This was probably the biggest premiere of the year in London, with anticipation even eclipsing the Batman and Sex and the City screenings. James Bond of course needs no introductions, but the fact that this was a Royal world premiere with Princes William and Harry walking the red carpet for the first time added to the build up.
The whole of Leicester Square was taken up by the premiere as a huge crowd gathered from early in the day.
With all this in mind, outside of the cast there weren't really any huge names who turned up to attend the screening. I also had problems with my flash quantum battery, meaning by the end my flash was only firing in about one in four frames. This was particularly annoying as it was the Princes who were last to turn up. However, I got one good frame of the only time they looked up at photographers (below).
Other than them, the main centre of attention was Bond himself, Daniel Craig, and the bond girls including Olga Kurylenko (seen below).

Easy Virtue Premiere

This was the final of the BFI London Film Festival premieres I was covering and it was all fairly straight forward. Jessica Biel was the main draw, but director Stephan Elliott bought along Fizz the dog, who apparently also stars in the film, and made sure the dog was given a lot of attention by kissing it in front of photographers.

Pierre Lewis & 'The Brothers Bloom' Premiere

This sunny Monday morning I went down to a cafe in Soho to get some shots of Pierre Lewis, an up-and-coming singer who's taken the dance chart by storm and model turned DJ, Lauren Pope, who's done a remix of one of Pierre's tracks.
I spent an enjoyable hour or so over a coffee with them at Cafe Boheme, a great spot in the heart of Soho to get away from the madness of central London (it's even open till 3am if you fancy some decent late night food), before getting some candid shots of the two of them.




Later that night it was back to Leicester Square for the premiere of 'The Brothers Bloom' as part of the BFI London Film Festival. Rachel Weisz was the star attraction.

Saturday Night Fever At The Roundhouse

Catchy as it may be, spending a night watching a performance of The Bee Gees' soundtrack 'Saturday Night Fever' is not how I would normally choose to spend my Saturday night, but with several guest stars appearing throughout the hour and a half show I was asked to stick around and photograph the whole performance at the Roundhouse. The guests included The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb, Boyzone's Ronan Keating and Stephen Gateley, Sam Sparro, Sharleen Spiteri and Gabriella Cilmi and to be fair, although I'd never claim to be a fan of any of these artists, most of them put on a spirited performance.
This was another of the BBC'S Electric Prom nights and just as I'd finally made it home from shooting and editing I turned on the TV to find the show being broadcast on the BBC. It seems there was no escaping The Bee Gees best-known songs tonight.

Vampire Weekend Play The Forum

I had great fun shooting this one. Vampire Weekend have, in my opinion, produced one of the albums of the year so it was great to hang around and watch them play it live having finished shooting them.
Looking back at my shots arter a few pints I wasn't hugely impressed, but the Forum rarely produces well lit shows and having had such an enjoyable night I was happy enough not to be too critical of myself.

Bodyworlds, Trafalgar Square & The Streets

The Bodyworlds exhibition, 'Body Worlds & The Mirror of Time' was both amazing to witness and photograph. The man behind it, Gunther von Hagens, is no stranger controversy but I found his latest and biggest exhibit, which shows the body living through time – at its most radiant and as it changes, grows, matures, peaks and finally wanes - compelling and totally different to anything I've seen before. To think these are real bodies takes some getting used to as they look more like wax works, but the show as a whole shows a lot - not just about how our bodies function and age, but also about life in general.






Later that evening I had a busy schedule as firstly I clambered up in blustery and rainy conditions to the roof the National Gallery on Leicester Square to photograph an outdoor screening as part of the BFI London Film Festival.
I was taken up to the roof by security man who'd come out of retirement to continue his 20-year career at the National Gallery. He was a real gentleman, but it took him an age to get me into position on the roof through a host of reasons (lift not working, picking up the wrong keys, rambling conversations), by which time I was already late for my next job of photographing The Streets at the Roundhouse. I'd have begun to lose my temper if he hadn't been so a kind, aimable guy. I quickly got the shots from the roof of the outdoor crowd braving the rain to watch 'High Treason' on the huge screen before rushing back down to get more shots from ground level.




I made it with absolutley no time to spare to The Streets headlining the second night of the Electric Proms, so barely had time to set up my camera before Mike Skinner and his boys hit the stage. I still got some good results. Sometimes I think it's an advantage to have to start shooting with no preparation or thought about how you're going to photograph a subject. You just react to the situation and shoot from instinct.