Winter Olympic Gold Medalist Amy Williams

Amy Williams the Winter Olympic Gold Medalist in the skeleton returned home to Bath this afternoon and was welcomed with an open top bus parade through the city centre.
I grabbed my camera and dashed off to try and grab a good spot in amongst the thousands of well wishers. This proved more difficult than I first thought. There were literally thousand of people on the streets, union jacks being waved with a fair amount of enthusiasm. I felt it was important to make the flags part of the image as it really somed up the mood and feeling of the event.

Amy was surrounded in the bus by members of the media each competing for her attention, so unfortunately a lot of the time she was look back to the cameramen.
I think the shot the press will use will be of her up in the bus with the crowds behind her. I'm not expecting to make the papers this time but I was after a differnt image.

I waited on George street where the bulk of the flag wavers were waiting. I thought a great pic would be of the people and flags to the right of the frame out of focus with Amy in the bus to the left. In my mind it seemed the shot but when the bus came around the corner the scale seemed to be a bit wrong as she was quite small in the frame. Dam!

Its also important to get tight head shots/smiley face with the medal. I managed to fire off a few frames when Amy was looking directly at me which was good. I did have to crop quite a bit but as I was on a 200mm. I shot in RAW so still ended up with a big enough file size.

Published in Reveal Magazine

Forgot to say that from the lottery winners shoot a couple of weeks back I got another image used in the glossy gossip magazine.."Reveal" ..happy days.

Published in the Daily Mail

Having checked the newspapers again this morning I came across one of my pics in the Daily Mail of the couple who scooped the 56 million pounds lottery win! Even though I was hoping for front page Its still a nice feeling to see your image used in the nationals.

Lottery winners

Nigel Page, 43, and his partner Justine Laycock, 41, celebrate with champagne, in Bath, England, on Monday, after it was announced that they had won 56 million pounds in Friday's EuroMillions lottery draw.

Yesterday lunchtime I attended the press conference of the lucky couple who won an amazing 56 million pounds in the Euro lottery. It took place at the Bath Spa Hotel which was a bit strange seeing as they come from Cirencester! A huge mass of press assembled in one of the large function rooms and made final checks of their lenses and video equipment. The happy couple emerged and didn't seem the slightest bit fazed buy the clicking and flashes of the cameras, happily posing on stage. These shots were fine but the real photo-shoot for the photographers was outside after the TV crews and radio had their pound of flesh.

I must of counted around 15 photographers waiting for the couple in the garden of the hotel. Two thrones were prepared and situated in the center of the garden. A slightly cheesy concept but I thought It made for a nice photo. Before the couple emerged each photographer seemed to have his own ideas as to how the shot should be set up and positioned. It really is every man for himself when it comes to snapping a picture. I had my foot trodden on and was barged in the ribs by a very rude photographer who informed me "I've been up since 7am!" up at 7..ouch what a hard life! I politely informed him that I was up at 5am..his response was...silence.

Throughout the shoot I was debating whether to use flash or crank up the ISO to use natural light. I was on a 200mm lens and so opted for the available light. I pushed the ISO high enough so as to get myself a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the champagne. This turned out to be around 400th of a second at f4.5.

I ended up with some decent shots...and a few bruises!

Snow in Bath

Well the snow has finally stopped which has given me a chance to post some photographs I took of Bath under the white blanket.








One of my favorites was the one above of the Royal Crescent. Again this landmark is really great for photographs. I wanted some foreground interest and so included the snow covered branches of a tree to frame the image. The only thing left was to wait for the dark figure of the man running into the shot. This really gives the image a strong focal point.

Snow

Its been a frustrating time for me since the snow arrived in Bath. Ive been nursing a bad case of man-flu which has meant missing out on a host of great photo opportunities. Throwing the cough medicine to one side I managed to get myself out this afternoon to take a quick shot of the Royal Crescent. The architecture is simply amazing and still causes me to stop and stare when I walk past it every day. I made sure I cropped fairly tight to ensure the emphasis is taken away from the plain white sky and onto the crescent and people playing. The boy at the front throwing the snowball really draws the eye into the frame.
I converted the image to greyscale and inserted a black border to add contrast.

Melanie Hall Funeral

On Friday afternoon I attended the funeral of Melanie Hall at Bath Abbey.

Melanie went missing from a Bath nightclub 14 years ago. Her remains were found a few weeks ago dumped next to the M5 slip road in Bristol. As I was part of the press pack I wasn't allowed inside the Abbey and so was herded like a sheep with the rest of press into a small area to the side of the main doors.

I really wanted a different perspective of the situation. I wanted to show the attention that the case has received and the media glare that follows such a sad story. With this in mind I walked away from the press area and took a place on the far side so that the press would be in the background when the coffin and family made their way into the Abbey. Taking a decision to move away from the main bunch of photographers isn't easy as you feel you may miss a great shot. It's a catch 22 situation, either you snap almost identical pictures as everyone else or you take a risk and try something different. Seeing as I didn't have a prime position my mind was made up.


Funerals are very sensitive photographic assignments and require careful judgement when deciding how close to get to the subject, whether to use flash etc. On the one hand you need to get a shot and on the other you have to respect the situation and relatives. I waited outside in the freezing cold for over an hour for the service to finish in which time the light had faded making exposure tricky. I ended up having to raise the ISO so as to obtain a fast enough shutter speed to hand hold a 200mm lens. I found this testing seeing as my VR reduction was playing up! Also when you raise the ISO you run the risk of too much grain which could affect the quality of the print.


I like this shot as you can see the parents emotions and the coffin clearly. It would have been better if the person in white robes from the Abbey had not been there as it's slightly distracting. Shame.
All in all a very sad ( and cold! ) occasion.