Amy Winehouse In Court

The world of Amy Winehouse is nothing short of crazy and her appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court on an assault charge proved just that.
Amy photographs are used worldwide so it was no surprise to find 50 plus photographers from different fields and news crews awaiting her arrival from 7am onwards. Showbiz photographers were out in force as well as paps and news photographers making a real cross over of different genres and a lot of snappers we'd not normally come across.
Her arrival was pretty straight forward - we were all behind a barrier allowing her easy access to walk with her father and solicitors into court.
However, mayhem ensued when she came out for a cigarette break as paps broke from the behind the barrier to sorround her and it was during this small time period that I got my best pictures of her. In seconds there was a media frenzy around her, with her security forming a ring around the singer as she stood against a wall and casually puffed away.
Thinking on my feet I climbed some stairs to the side of her to get a better view. The image below shows the scene.



Knowing I need her to look up in my direction to get a decent photo I called to her a few times, she heard me, looked up for a second and I got a couple of great images.




The next day, the picture of her smoking was used in the Metro (below) and I'm hopefully these two images will be used a lot more in the future.




www.samirhussein.com

Blake Fielder-Civil & George Sampson

Today was meant to be the day Michael Jackson appeared at the High Court to defend allegations that he owes an Arab sheikh £4.7m, but he settled out of court the day before he was due to arrive in London. I went down anyway as the sheikh was rumored to be appearing and because Blake Fielder-Civil, husband of Amy Winehouse, was appealing against his 27 month prison sentence.
I managed to capture Blake arriving before later going to photograph 'Britain's Got Talent' winner George Sampson.



He was doing a multi city tour of England in a day, which led to him getting delayed. In fact, when I arrived at the record store ready to photograph him I was told he was still yet to get on his plan from Birmingham to London. Two hours later he showed up and his management made sure he gave me plenty of opportunity to shoot him alone and with his fans given how long I'd waited.