Guardian of Grim
November 11, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt1 Premiere.
Another cold, wet November day,
Another Premiere gets under way.
Surviving wind, rain & Harry Potter fans - Me & the laptop brave the elements.
A behind the scenes view of the biggest premiere I have covered so far….or a scene of the biggest behinds I have seen at the premiere so far…either way, this was my view of the Harry Potter premiere in Leicester Square tonight. Lots of cold, wet photographers waiting for the action.
Stood up to try and catch a glimpse, a piece of the action, but I am still dwarfed behind the row of photographers…
The noise is phenomenal. I had an idea of the size of the crowd around the Odeon and Empire Leicester Square as I had elbowed my way through the masses earlier in the afternoon to reach my sought after spot behind the red carpet.
I am cold and getting cramp, I stood on some steps to see what is going …
…Wow, what a lot of people! No wonder it’s so noisy here!!! You can feel the tension building, you can also feel a sense of ‘oh, come on’ as we photographers and editors in the pen are cold, wet and tired of waiting. Then the crowd starts to whoop and scream and the guests finally start to arrive.
The next hour was quite manic, a constant stream of celebrities pout and pose for the cameras, the shouts and yells of ‘over here’, ‘to the left’, ‘look up’, etc as each photographer tries to grab the attention of whoever struts past to get that all important Eyes to Camera shot.
Red Rain
October 19, 2010 § Leave a Comment
♪♫ Why Does it Always Rain on Me ♪♫
Another Premiere.
Another downpour.
Cold. Wet. Waiting.
BFI London Film Festival Red Premiere tonight at The Royal Festival Hall with Bruce Willis and Dame Helen Mirren expected amongst the guests expected.
Photographers and editors have kindly been offered tea and coffee. mmmmm, heat….
Hard at work sweeping the rain off the sodden red carpet as it is unlikely the celebs will swap their Jimmy Choo’s for wellies, despite the weather…
all photos taken with frozen little fingers on an iPhone4…
First Red Carpet
September 7, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Today is my first day ‘out in the field’
My first Red Carpet event.
And the carpet is Blue.
My first Red Carpet event and the carpet's BLUE!!
It is also pouring with rain. Seriously chucking it down.
I am perched on a small step, laptop on lap, giant golfing umbrella balanced on Rich’s camera case beside me to protect me and the laptop from the downpour whilst keeping my frozen little fingers free to edit and caption the photo’s as Rich shoots them.
Hard at work despite it chucking it down in Leicester Square tonight...
Part of me feels this is an upgrade, a gig photographer is cocooned in a ‘pit’ an events photographer in a ‘pen’ – sounds more civilised don’t you think?
Still lots of waiting around, but even in the upgraded ‘pen’ I cannot escape the fact that it is cold and wet and, well, lonely – the photographers are all lined up on step ladders in front of me, I cannot see anything but the inside of the giant golfing umbrella
The patter of raindrops (ha!) above is drowning out most other sounds and I suddenly miss the banter of fellow photographers and warmth of the music venues I am usually waiting in.
Every so often the sound of the crowd eclipses that of the pelting rain and I wonder what I am missing.
If you thought being an events photographer was a glamourous life – this is the reality.
In the beginning…
September 7, 2010 § Leave a Comment
In the first few days in my new job as Production Manager for Richfoto, I was poked and I was followed. I wrote on walls and discovered I could be Mayor.
I should explain.
I’ve had to join and embrace social networking. From Facebook to FourSquare, you’ll find me there.
I doubt there are many people who can say they spent their first week at work joining the social network sites, or at least not at the bosses request.
Things have changed a little since I started working in the photography/entertainment industry. Networking then was ligging. Going to aftershows, talking to and being talked to by potential clients, JD in hand.
Now we network online, stalking and being stalked by potential clients, iPhone in hand.
I am writing a blog now. I am a blogger. I blog. This too is part of the job, along with the social network sites I broadcast on. Daily.
This is work. I am working. Networking.
So find me, follow me, tweet me or poke me, laugh with me or at me and who knows, maybe one day you’ll meet me, I’ll photograph you or your event and we’ll talk, JD in hand, just like in the good old days . . . until then, I shall keep you updated with the highs and lows of event photography.
