Jazz Awards at House of Commons 2013

Highlight: Stan Tracey's Speech - what a legend!

Lowlight: Moira Stewart being particularly shy about having her photo taken - and she was the main presenter!

Fill-in: This annual event is THE Jazz award event of the year, held on the Terrace at the Houses of Parliament. It is always a great schmooze for the Jazz world.

Tech spec: If you have a shy one like Moira, ensure you get at least one in the bag early before anyone else, telling them that if they do this one they won't have to pose for any more.

Vaisakhi 2013 - Trafalgar Square

Highlight: Free Mango Smoothie Stall

Lowlight: Everyone getting free mangos on the VIP tour of the stalls apart from me...

Fill-in: A whole day documenting on the most colourful spectacles in Trafalgar Square of the year.

Tech spec: Whatever the weather I always carry my storm jackets and raincoat for my camera bags - been caught out too many times.

http://www.london.gov.uk/get-involved/events/vaisakhi-2013

Sony Showcase

Highlight: The rooftop gardens on a sunny spring day. Seeing Everything Everything.

Lowlight: Last minute job so forgot to have lunch and had to make do with sneaking as many olives and peanuts from the bar as possible.

Fill-in: 6 acts, scattered round the venue. I made sure I knew the timetable beforehand (of which there were two variations in case of inclement weather) and checked out the lights. The acts were all fairly new (one had been signed that very morning) so restrictions were fairly loose. They were all very different and only did two or three songs so I had to get into their vibe very quickly.

Tech spec: LED blue backlights! The worst. Aperture processes these lights really badly so I have to process in Lightroom which I am not so keen on. Low ceiling also meant backlights shining straight into camera so lots of flare. I tried to shoot when the artist was covering the lights with their head or body.

Bishopsgate Walk

Highlight: Going for a free two hour walk of Underground London

Lowlight: Having to to it backwards and without the recorded guided tour.

Fill-in: Bishopsgate were running a walk (?) of London which consisted of a poet guiding a group of walkers via a recorded piece of poetry on an MP3 player. I did ot get an MP3 player as I was taking photos, so I had the bizarre task of trying to guess where the walkers were going to go, walking backwards in front of them to get the shots and not being able to talk to any of them. Even though I didn't have the headphones on I felt like I had gone deaf.

Tech spec: It was quite liberating to be able to shoot so spontaneously so I took the camera off manual and shot aperture priority. I ran ahead as far as I dared and tried to anticipate backgrounds that would look good for the walkers.

Atlanta Bluff Head Dresses for FAE

Highlight: Working with Atty - an absolute star

Lowlight: Not enough time to plan shoot.

Fill-in: Karen Kay of Fae magazine contacted me needing a cover photo, needing Photoshop and needing it now! In her usual efficient way she duly sent me a beautiful model complete with make up and head-dresses before I'd even had chance to think about what I was going to do with her.

Tech spec: I went for a simple head shot as Atty is a model and actress and perfectly at ease in front of the camera. I used brolly 45 degrees on left side, light diffused with silk 90 degrees right side which spilled out onto the blue background and two led ring lights to light Atty's gorgeous red hair. I then photoshopped layering textures of spiders webs, marble, stars and flies wings and turning the lot green to get  a Summery feel for the Fae Summer Issue. No Photoshop was done to Atty apart from turning her eyes green.

Gareth Pugh

Highlight: Stroking hundreds of pins stuck in a piece of leather

Lowlight: Not being able to try on any of the clothes.

Fill-in: The brief was to capture Gareth talking about his work whilst he was being filmed for the Tudor Exhibition to be held at The Queen's Gallery in the Summer. It was amazing in his workshop which was almost entirely monochrome apart from the brown paper patterns at the end of the room. His collection was beautiful to photograph as it was so sculptural. Even Gareth himself was monochrome and sculptural! One piece he was making consisted of hundreds of pins carefully arranged and fixed to leather. The effect was like seeing velvet under a magnifying glass and it felt like stroking a baby hedgehog.

Tech spec: The white room was lit mainly by daylight, so it was fairly evenly lit which was a good job given the whole black and white thing going on. Even then it was contrasty when shooting from the side which I ended up doing quite a lot of to avoid getting in the way of the filming. Luckily my D7000 was quiet enough to shoot whilst the videographers were rolling.

IRN Awards 2013

Highlight: Listening to some of the best news stories of the year.

Lowlight: Not hearing the whole stories...the snippets were cut off just as we were getting to the interesting bits.

Fill-in: This is the third year I have covered these awards, held at the 20th Century Club, London. They always have a slick presenter and as its Radio the atmosphere is laid back and intimate. With Simon Cryer of Crying Out Loud at the helm there is rarely a hitch so all goes smoothly and for an award ceremony, which are usually stressful and frantic to cover, this is more like a chill out session.
Best Story: The fact that if Yorkshire were a country it would be above Japan and Australia in the Olympic 2012 medals table.

Tech spec: Getting the award presentation on stage was the worst problem. I wanted the lovely red and blue lights in the background but also get good skin tones on the people in the front. I set the ISO to 1250 and used the flash in fill-in mode, taken down a stop so it just punched in a nice bit of light on the faces without flashing off the glass award, casting a shadow on the curtains and knocking out the saturated colours. It was a small awards ceremony, so I shot lots from the back of the room for more flattering images.

http://www.irnawards.co.uk/IRNAwards2013/Home.html