MTV Staying Alive Party

Coco Sumner, daughter of Sting, was performing at MTV's Staying Alive party at The Proud Gallery in Camden so I went along to get some shots of her and the other bands playing. Still only 18, Coco has signed been signed up and is due to release an album next year. That coupled with the fact she's a major rock star's daughter, is a party girl and has been modeling a lot means you'll probably be seeing a lot more of her next year.
The other band posed below are Operahouse, another up and coming group.

Estelle Plays IndigO2

The IndigO2 is a purpose build venue inside the O2 Arena, meaning the light and sound are spot on. I was very pleased with the images I shot tonight - one of the best gigs picture wise I've done all year.

Flawless Premiere

After a very brief and dull job photographing Prince Charles arriving at Mosaic Talent Awards for Excellence (as I'm in a rush it's not really posting these photos) I rushed to Shaftsbury Avenue for Demi Moore's latest film Premiere of 'Flawless'. This wasn't deemed a big enough film its premiere hosted in Leicester Square, so instead 30 or so photographers were given a pen to shoot from outside this small Odeon Cinema, right on Shaftsbury Avenue with passing traffic and the public swarming around us.
Given that Demi Moore was arriving with her husband Ashton Kutcher, this was never going to work. And sure enough when Demi's and Ashton's car drew up, the waiting public and paparazzi surged forward, largely blocking our way. It was incredibly messy picture wise and their entrance to the cinema was over very quickly with barely any posing from the A-list couple.
However, I still managed to get what turned out to be a few great frames because after the two of them walked past me, totally out of the blue, Ashton tapped Demi on the shoulder turned her round to look in my direction before pointing at me (see photo below). Could he hear me shouting among all the other photographers and public? I doubt it. Perhaps he thought he recognised me.

The Queen Meets New Zealand Rugby Team

The Queen visited London Bridge to meet the New Zealand Prime Minister and the New Zealand rugby team, who are over touring Europe.
Below she is seen feeling the freezing cold with the Prime Minister John Key and Kiwi captain Richie McCaw.

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.

Madagascar 2 Premiere

This was a long way from how I'd like to spend a Sunday afternoon, thanks mainly to the pissing rain and freezing temperatures, but Leicester Square it had to be.
The big names to show up were Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett-Smith, wife of Will Smith (all below). The rain come in bursts and it as a battle keeping my equipment dry, but despite this I got some stong photos. It helped that the stars made some kind of effort to pose up despite the weather, although Chris Rock couldn't stand still for a second in the cold. Apart from these American stars who all the voices in the film, Danielle Bux (2nd from bottom photo) showed up with boyfriend Gary Lineker to much attention.

Barroso Visits Downing Street & Bunch of Amateurs Premiere

This was my second job inside of No. 10 Downing Street on a commission from the EC, whose President, José Manuel Barroso, was meeting Prime Minister Gordon Brown for talks.
No. 10 is much larger inside than you'd imagine and I was given access to photograph Barroso and Brown walking though the Prime Minister's home before they undertook a press conference in one of the many grand rooms on show.






Later in the evening it was down to Leicester Square for the Royal premiere of 'A Bunch of Amateurs'. The film doesn't feature any particularly big names, but the Queen was in attendance. This date had originally be put aside for the Royal premiere of the new Harry Potter film, but that had to be put aside as the release date was put back to next year, which is why the Queen was now attending a fairly low-key film now.
Of the cast, Camilla Arfwedson (below), attracted the most attention.

Little Noise Sessions - Kasabian

After a job shooting Prince Charles on today, his actual 60th Birthday, it was back to the Union Chapel for another of the Little Noise Sessions. Tonight The Edge from U2 was a special guest host with Reverent And The Makers plus Kasabian making up the main acts.
I'd never previously been a fan of Kasabian, but it has to be said that tonight they were terrific and the potential of their music really hit home.

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.

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.

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).