Prince Charles & Camilla Visit Mosque Plus Film Awards

This proved to be a very welcoming trip to the Dawoodi Bohra Mosque in Northolt, where I was served tea, given food and granted access inside the Mosque to photograph Prince Charles and Camilla's visit. It made for some interesting photos too.







Later that day I covered the London Critics' Circle Film Awards at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. Not one of the better know awards ceremonies, but there were a few names worth shooting including Dev Patel, the lead in international hit move, Slumdog Millionnaire and Dame Judi Dench (both below)




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The Duchess Of Cornwall Visits RAF Halton

A bit of a wasted job this one, due largely to the army not allowing us to get close to Camilla - despite numerous security checks and the fact that the photographers were well know to the Clarence House, who look after Charles and Camilla's visits. They also seemed overprotective about how close she could get to army personal, which was a shame as some of them were wearing gas masks and undertaking drills, so it could have made for a fairly interesting shot.
Instead we were basically left to photograph HRH walking around a hanger. All this on my Birthday too, not great.
It was at least over by lunchtime allowing me to enjoy the rest of the day.




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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.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

Prince Harry Visits Royal Norfolk Show

This job involved a long trip out to Norfolk for potentially interesting photos of Prince Harry, who, we were told, would be walking around Norfolk show grounds meeting locals and checking out the prize animals on show. Unfortunately, like the Crown Princess of Denmark job it didn't work out as it could have - namely because the accredited photographers had to battle their way through crowds of people to get shots and any official positions to shoot from didn't really allow us to get any amusing photos of Harry with animals.
The photo below was as good as it got, with Harry shown how to use an old fashioned lathe.

Crown Princess Mary Of Denmark Visits Summer Fair

I had a last minute call to rush down and cover Crown Princess of Denmark who was over in London visiting a summer fair at the Excel Centre in east London. It turned out to be a bit of a scrum, with the few accredited photographers running around from stand to stand trying to get clear shots of her, as she made her way through unsuspecting visitors to the show.
The job wasn't helped by one of my flashes failing to work, meaning that I could effectively only shoot with one lens and as a result wasn't able to get quite as wide a range of shots I'd hoped. However, hopefully the pictures I did get will be picked up by the European media, especially in Denmark.

Royal Ascot - Ladies Day

Ladies Day lived up to expectations - sunny weather, weird and wonderful hats and some celebs. Dame Helen Mirren, Cilla Black and Bruce Forsyth all made an appearance and were only too happy to be photographed. The only downside for me was having to leave early to cover a Venus Williams private party (bottom photo), therefore missing Autumn Philips, who is demand at the moment following her Royal marriage to Peter Philips.