Curtis and Hayley

Highlight: Having a free piano lesson

Lowlight: ..in Gap and not having chance to buy anything

Fill in: This job for Yamaha was to photograph child prodigy Curtis Elton - the youngest person in Britain currently to achieve Grade 8 piano. Gap had got together with him to give a short show in the Children's section of their Oxford Street store and to teach kids how to play the Muppet Theme tune for the day. I was there to get portraits and record the workshops. It is quite something to see a little person whose feet don't even touch the ground when they sit on the piano stool reeling off solo performances that would be quite at home in the Royal Festival Hall.

Tech Spec: Even a child prodigy is still a child when it comes to photos and Curtis was your typical 8 year old grinning cheesily for the camera, so it took his dad and sister to stand behind me and pull faces whilst I shot to get a natural smile. The background was lit brighter than the foreground so fill in flash was a must to balance the two.

Equality Frame Network Launch

Highlight: Richard Barnes to host - he's always smiling and does what he's told when it comes to photos

Lowlight: ..lots of speeches....

Fill in: Launches and presentations naturally mean a few speeches. Tonight's seemed particularly extensive. Working for the GLA, I was to get all the speakers, the presentation of certificates and group shots.  

Tech Spec: The London Living Room where the launch was held is surrounded by curved floor to ceiling glass, or reflective metal. This means when using the flash, I had to ensure that something was always directly between the flash and the background, usually someone's head, to avoid hotspot reflections.

Niki and the Dove

Highlight: Glitter everywhere...



Lowlight: ...including over my whole camera kit.

Fill in: I was right at the front in a great position for this flamboyant band whose repertoire included dressing up everyone in neon jewellery and showering them in glitter dispensed from coke cans. I happened to be right in the firing line when the lead singer decided to shower a huge bagfull of glitter over the crowd and am still trying to remove it from my hair, face, clothes, camera bag, lenses, flash guns and cameras.

Tech Spec: Glitter is very pretty but lethal to cameras. This was cosmetic grade glitter so not stratchy, but could cause havoc if it gets into the finer crevices of the DSLR or motorised lenses. I am using vast amounts of canned air to decontaminate everything but am still nervous.

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HMV - The Next Big Thing - Jake Morley

Highlight: No fighting to get to the front.



Lowlight: Trying to get variation on bloke with guitar pic.

Fill in: Beautiful music, but blokes with acoustic guitars can be a bit dry to photograph and I had three in a row. Luckily they all looked great, actually looked up at the audience quite a lot and even smiled.

Tech Spec: The light was standard so I was glad not ot have to use flash in this laid back atmosphere. It was just a case of waiting for the singers to look up and out which they obligingly did quite a lot.

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HMV - The Next Big Thing - Conor Maynard

Highlight: A daytime gig! Get a Saturday night off.



Lowlight: Standing between Conor Maynard and over 200 hormonal teenage girls...

Fill in: Touted as the next Justin Beiber, this guy is more like the bad girl's Justin Beiber. I was extremely brave and queue jumped over 200 young, fit, obsessed hormonal girls to ensure a front position by the stage as there was no pit. Once entrenched in position with a fellow photographer I immediately regretted this move as the girls all came flooding in after and crushed us both against the stage. We had to endure this position for two hours.

Tech Spec: Earplugs! Being next to a monitor turned up to 11 is nothing compared to a room full of screaming, teenage girls.

For editorial: www.redferns.com