Mayors Christmas Carol Concert

Highlight: Carols, mince pies and mulled wine in Southwark Cathedral at Christmas Time

Lowlight: As always in this Cathedral - very low light!

Fill-in: Brief - to document event and get a group shot. Sounds easy enough but getting a group shot of the key people who are all in different places at different times requires a little help from a black hole and a time machine. Fortunately Nikon does a kit that fits into a camera back for a very reasonable price.
Tech spec: I use prime lenses for this event as even F2.8 at 6400 ISO gives me a shutter of 1/60 which is too slow when doing long shots and as I have to shoot from quite a way back long shots are my only option. I used the fab Nikon 85mm F1.4 on the D7000 to get some extra zoom and the 135mm F2 on the D3. Oh, and the Nikon Black hole with time machine to get group shot.

MU Xmas Party at House of Commons

Highlight: Seeing Andy Parsons - one of my favourite comics

Lowlight: Having a mad fan moment with Andy Parsons

Fill-in: This annual event brings together the Musicians Union, Equity and The Writers Guild together under one roof for drinks and a bit of lobbying. Yes, that's musicians, actors and writers in a room full of politicians with lots of drinks and some rather superb fancy cakes and sandwiches.

Tech spec: Flash snaps! Turn on the flash, I tend to turn the ISO up to 400 to get the ambient light in. Although higher ISOs are often looked down on by purists, these shots are not going to be double page spreads and a bit of ambient light with a reasonable shutter speed means you can capture the mood of the party with asking people to pose every five minutes.

ERD and ESF Awards 2012

Highlight: Meeting Pet Bowl Shop - the end to my days struggling to Pets at Home and humping back sacks of wild bird food and kibble.

Lowlight: Not enough time to eat - again!

Fill-in: The brief was to capture the award winners, all the winners together, the ceremony itself and the reception after.


Tech spec: Shooting in City Hall in the Chamber sis a bit of a nightmare with floor to ceiling curved windows and lots of reflective steel. I try to not use flash and go for very wide ambient shots or tight close ups to avoid too many technical problems. Luckily the organisers were very photo-helpful and put the sponsors banners behind the stage as a background so I did not have to contend with glaring backlight.

Storytelling at WIndsor Castle

Highlight: Olivia Armstrong's story telling - I need her to read me to sleep every night. I feel like I have spent Christmas with Queen Victoria herself.

Lowlight: Yes - it was very low light. There were huge floor to ceiling windows and they were almost completely blocked by dark shutters.

Fill-in: Following on from my adventures at Buck house, I got offered a commission at Windsor Castle. My long suffering partner and my son accompanied me, and I had the idyllic notion they would visit the castle and get some culture stuffed into them - especially as Kyle is studying the Tudors at school. However they got as far as the first Starbucks, fell into two comfy sofas and whiled away the two hours drinking hot chocolate and playing on their Ipads whilst I slogged my guts out ducking between kids, under ropes and over cushions trying not to knock over priceless antiques.

Tech spec: The area I was working was very dark so it was out with the prime lenses, up with the ISO and open with the shutter. I arrived early and took the opportunity to take some photos of the story teller without the children just in case we had no children at all or if they would not be happy to be photographed. Olivia is a fantastic story teller and a pretty good model too...

More info

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/

http://oliviaarmstrongstoryteller.com/

Fairy tale in New York

Highlight: Seeing Nina Conti and Monkey - ventriloquism was never so good.

Lowlight: Not being able to join in the bidding for the auction.

Fill-in: This was a charity dinner for Vision, and the Theme was A Fairy Tale in New York. I donned a white shirt, black trousers and waistcoat hoping to be reminiscent of Fred Astaire, but with camera in hand was more like Yoko Ono. The party area was decked out like Studio 57, and entertainers with fluorescent afros wiggled round the tables. Up for auction was a shopping trip in New York, Ronnie Wood's Guitar and George Michael's leather jacket.

Tech Spec: It was just like doing a live gig with lights flashing into the lens, and lots of smoke but I had the added fun of having to crawl through the forest of tables to get the shots. I used F2.8 at 1/250 second at 1600 and lots of excuse me's to get through the evening.

Christmas carol concert for volunteers

Highlight: free mince pies and juice

Lowlight: no time to eat any

Fill in: The mayor decided to hold a carol concert to thank the volunteers of the London 2012 games. Trafalgar Square was a sea of pink and purple of people squashed in the barriers. I had chilblains however so my toes were also pink and purple and were similarly squashed but in my boots.

Tech Spec: Fill-in flash and lots of cheering to get crowd going. I also used open shutter to get the pink and purple fountains.

Christmas Tree Lighting up Ceremony

Highlight: Carols under the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Sqaure

Lowlight: Standing out in cold

Fill-in: I was booked by The Poetry Society to take Children reading their annual tree poem. I was stuck in the photopit at the exact opposite end to where I needed to be!

Tech spec:  If you are not sure where you will be shooting, always take the widest and longest lenses you own!

PPL - Christmas Drinks 2012

Highlight: The beginning of the Christmas Season

Lowlight: Being stood up by a building

Fill-in: It's still November, but Fran Nevraka, Chair of PPL had booked The Avenue and invited the Music Industry set of London for some Christmas Cheer. I have photographed this event for the last four years and I didn't even check the journey time as I set off to battle through the early Christmas Shoppers at Piccadilly. Getting out at the tube I swanked off down towards The Avenue. However as I got further and further down the street, all I could see was a a building where The Avenue had been, covered in scaffolding. I blinked and looked around, totally perplexed. Where on Earth had The Avenu gone? It was here last year. I scanned the street again and was met by the same unyielding wall of scaffolding. I walked further down, but I was coming to the end of the street and still no Avenue. People were starting to stare now as I looked like I had been stood up as I peered anxiously  up and down for an answer to this conundrum. Then the penny dropped - I was in the wrong street. Feeling very foolish I beat a hasty retreat down the back roads and arrived just in time at the right place!

Tech spec:  The brief is simple - a few corporate groups and then casual groups of the party. The Avenue is a long narrow venue with large airy windows at one end, so the light drops off fairly rapidly, even though it is painted white and has a high ceiling. Getting evenly lit faces can be tricky if you use the ambient light to fill the background as I do.  To balance flash with ambient light, take a reading off the background, set appropriate ISO - I use 400 - 800 for indoors, then set appropriate shutter speed and aperture. Make sure you adjust the shutter if you have large windows in the background with light streaming though to stop flare. - you may have to lower the ISO to get a shutter speed low enough to sync. with the flash.

Poetry Workshop with Chrissie Gittins

Highlight: Listening to Chrissie read her poems and understanding the finer points and nuances.

Lowlight: Poems aimed at primary school level - I could just about cope...

Fill-in: Having finished with schools photography a couple of weeks ago it was a bit of a deja-vu to find myself once again in a school full of kids and it was all I could do to prevent myself setting up the white backdrop and a bench and getting out my name cards ready to do school portraits. However, this job was for the Poetry Society and true documentary photography capturing Chrissie Gittins in action as she proceeded to ram some culture into upper junior school kids. The brief was not quite as straight forward as it seemed as I had to try and avoid the kids faces and name tags so the final images could be used more widely.

Tech spec:  I used my quieter camera (D7000) and told Chrissie to brief the kids that if they looked like they were concentrating on the lesson in hand they would be more likely to get their photograph taken. This stops the monkey faces and waving hands that inevitably happen when you point a lens into a group of excited children. I used a lot of narrow depth of field.

Mughal Nites - Nutkhut

Highlight: Fantastic Indian Food stall

Lowlight: Queue  for stall impossibly long. Had to make do with a cheese sandwich backstage

Fill in: Nutkhut were doing performances at this private gig for the British Library, based on an evening out at an Indian Palace. There were dancers, musicians, stiltwalkers, and displays of fashion and art. A veritable feast for the ears and eyes and nose but unfortunately not for my mouth as the queue for the samosas, pakoras and wraps stretch round the room.

Tech spec: A must to shoot in raw, as the light was saturated colours, dim and high in contrast. Even then it was a nightmare to bring up in the processing.

For more info:

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event134624.html

http://www.nutkhut.co.uk/

Remembrance Day - 2012

 Lowlight: Losing coat


Highlight: Re-uniting with coat

Fill in: I arrived at City Hall, found my usual spot by the sound desk and hung my coat over the bannister. After a few set up shots, I returned to find my space had been invaded! Another black coat was hung, bold as brass beside mine. I was a bit indignant, but it's a free world and using the cloakroom is not obligatory. The ceremony came and went and it was time to retire upstairs for the reception. I went to get my coat and horror of horrors,  my scruffy plain coat from Debenhams had been taken and a stylish French Connection one was left behind. Well you can imagine my frustration, but was confident the owner would soon realise their mistake. however after a few minutes waiting no-one came forth and I was left with the dilemma of handing the coat into security which left me coatless, or taking the coat hostage in the hope the owner would recognise it and swap it, or if they didn't and had decided to take my scruffy coat, then at least I would have a coat to go home in - and a better one at that. However something did not feel quite right about it all. The coat was two sizes too big for me so the owner could not have taken mine intentionally and must by now have realised their mistake. I told security butn o-one had handed a coat in or reported their coat lost. All through the reception I surreptiously eyed everyone's coats, all of which seemed to be black, but my coat was nowhere to be seen. At the end of the reception, I gave up, decided to take the French Connection one all be it a bit guiltily as it was a far better coat than my own, but justifying it by convincing myslef I needed a coat to go home in, when a rather harassed man being berated by his wife caught my eye. He was holding up my moth eaten affair with bewilderment, whilst she waved her hands wildly and immediately I went to his aid, holding up the French Connection Coat with a smile. They both collapsed with relief and I have to say I was pleased to get my own coat back as I was sure it had missed me.

Tech spec: The exposures for this job were tricky as it was all back lit, so imagine my horror (the second of the day) when I saw I had inadvertently switched the quality from RAW to jpeg - and normal at that! Luckily all my exposures were spot on (for a change) so no adjustment was needed. It always pays to get it right in camera as much as you can as things can and do go wrong!

Bishopsgate Charity Presentation 2012

Highlight: Getting a new coat

Lowlight: Plates for food too small for greedy guts like me.

Fill in: Bishopsgate Arts were presenting cheques to a number of local charities and apart from some amazing artwork, one stall have some handmade textiles on display made by the Heba, a woman's project. On the table lay a beautiful tunic style coat, hand made. I made the huge mistake of trying it on, (a perfect fit - it was a sign) and then slavering after it for the next half hour.  I also stuffed my face with the fab food, admired my photos in the Spitalfields Farm cookbook which I had worked on a few years ago. Oh, and I took a few photos of the Lady Mayoress.

Tech spec: VIPS are a law unto themselves. There was my contact, all ready and waiting for the Lady Mayoress to arrive by cab, where a party of Trustees were ready to greet her and escort her tot he Grand Hall, whilst I took photos of the occasion. However the little minx had other ideas and slipped unobtrusively in the back door and was happily to be found meandering round by herself enjoying the exhibits. When working with VIPS never rely on the schedule.

P.S. You'll be glad to know I got the coat eventually, but can't tell you how or I'd have to kill you.

There were some amazing charities at the evening so please check them out:

Heba Women's Project

I want the clothes!
http://ssba.info/heba.html 

Poetry in Wood

I want the artwork
http://www.ssba.info/piw.html


Spitalfields City Farm

I want the Animals/Vegetables/Minerals...
http://www.spitalfieldscityfarm.org/


Tower Hamlets Friends and Neighbours

I want a friend..
http://www.thfn.org.uk/


Daneford Trust

I want to be a youth and go abroad
http://www.danefordtrust.org/


St Joseph's Hospice

I want to light up a life
http://www.stjh.org.uk/

The Independent Post Company

Highlight: Seeing Simon Frodsham again- he's always smiling.

Lowlight: Meeting his business Partner Mykola - equally smiley - how can these people be so cheerful!



Fill in: Simon is an old contact from Sony, and is one of the most dynamic people I've met, so it was great to receive his call to do his corporate portraits. I was running late, but Simon greeted me with his usual cheerful demeanor. All his staff were equally amenable and the job was done very quickly.


Tech spec: I like to use the location as a background if possible, but I always take a plain background just in case. The office had great light and I just had to use fill in off camera flash to balance the light.



For more info:

http://www.indepost.co.uk/

Simon wrote me a great review:

I've been commissioning portrait photographers for over thirty years and I have to say Hayley is one of the best I've worked with.  She works calmly, efficiently and with great style.  She has the enviable gift of helping even the most unwilling subject to relax.  And, most importantly, the results are never less than truly excellent.   I can't recommend her enough.

Diwali in the Square 2012

Highlight: Seeing fellow photographer in full Diwali get- up playing the Dohl Drums

Lowlight: Thinking that wearing a sari would be a good idea.

Fill in: It was a cold weekend, but I thought I looked pretty cool in my hiking boots, leggings, Superdry coat and woolly Airwalk hat in a sort of Benetton colours of the World sort of way. Apart from the dancing and singing on stage, I also had to photograph the sponsors stalls and the crowds, and I duly went off into the heaving throng. One of the stalls was a community affair where seasoned indian sari wearers offered their saris and dressing services to the general public. I jumped the huge queue to photograph the dressing up area and found myself being cajoled into wearing a sari myself. Despite my protests that I need to walk, kneel, squat and move freely to take photos in less than five minutes I was trussed up in a bright orange and gold affair, and together with my hiking boots, woolly tasselled hat and my camera bag on wheels I looked more like a mad bag lady than the super cool photographer that I am.

Still I didn't take it off and spent the rest of the day looking like I'd been Tangoed. It was a long, cold day and my spirits were wearing, but perked up considerably at the sight of a fellow Gillmans and Soame photographer in full Diwali dress, complete with Dohl Drum. She looked a lot cooler than me, but I was behind the lens and she was in front of it so it all worked out.

Tech spec: On a dull day on camera flash a must to perk up the colours and light. I used TTL fill in and aperture priority for the crowds and stalls and manual, no flash for the stage shots. Spot metering also necessary on stage as the lights were shining right into the camera. I tried to make sure I got a head in front of the lights if possible to give a great halo effect.


For more info:

The Musicians Union March 2012

Highlight: Excellent Jazz music all the way from Embankment to Whitehall.

Lowlight: Not making it all the way to Hyde Park

Fill in: This was the first time I'd ever been on a big protest march and had no idea the atmosphere would be so festival like. People dressed up, singing songs, dancing and best of all, being with the Musicians Union part of the march we had our own Jazz band to accompany us all the way.


Tech spec: Wear a rucksack. When you are walking backwards (as I was most of the way) it provides a cushion when you walk into anything and people tend to sense you coming when you have a bag on your back. My rucksack is a roller bag as well and great for when your back gets tired.


For more info:

http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk