On the job but not quite...

Sometimes when out on a job, something will catch my eye and Ill take it with a view to edit it at some point. Most of the time it just becomes disk space when I have forgotten them, here are some examples

I was asked to photograph the Drumbeg Branch of the WI's 50th anniversary dinner which was held at Stormont, the seat of Government in Northern Ireland.

It was to include a group shot of about 60 ladies and some generics plus some images for press publication.

Prior to the evening I visited Stormont to recce the stairwell to see what I would require.

Thankfully I had a twin set of Bowens I could make use of.

The Nikon D3 camera kit had not arrived so I had to make do with the D1's. Which are not very good in low light.

I placed the Bowens (without softboxes or equivalent as none available) at 45 degree angles to the stairs which I think did an ok job of it.

The customer was happy and it was published in the Ulster Star.

A recent job in Ballykelly took me to a previous military barracks which is now up for sale. Formerly an RAF base it also houses its own runway and other buildings and was last home to an Infantry battalion.
Now it sits empty and overgrown.

Knights of the Empire: Emerald Garrison

As a young boy growing up in the early eighties I couldn’t have escaped the all the great films from around that time. Films such as Back to the Future, The Goonies, Big, and the phenomenon that was Star Wars.

Ill always remember playground games re-enacting scenes from the film with everyone running around doing the Darth Vader breathing thing.

At one point I must have had like 40 Star Wars figures and the Chicken Walker thing (AT-AT?).

So during my well deserved time off, I managed to take the family to see the Knights of the Empire: Emerald Garrison at Belfast Odyssey Arena. These guys spend thousands on their costumes and I thought it would make for interesting

photographs plus it amused my daughter for an afternoon, as she was scared of the Stormtroopers.

Enjoy the images.

One of my images

I dont get much chance to take photographs, video work is very time consuming! However every now and then I will grab a camera from my colleague and set to work getting some images. Here is one I took of a Mortar Team firing the 81mm Mortar. I managed to capture the mortar round leaving the barrel!

Me at work: Afghanistan

This image on the right was taken on my first day on the job, OP PANCHAI PALANG (Panthers Claw). We had just started out.

The image on the left was taken around 3 weeks later whilst on another phase of OP PANCHAI PALANG this time with 2 Royal Welsh.

A Herrick Update

Wed 19 Aug 09

So I am over halfway through my tour no and it has been quite a ride. We spent a month covering OP PANCHAI PALANG (Panther’s Claw) with the Light Dragoons Battlegroup and also 2 Royal Welsh. My footage was shown everywhere and I still see some of it and Sky and the BBC now. We have covered the voting registration and a Shura to which Governer Mangal came to.

We have spent time in FOB Price and its outlying areas around Gereshk such as Spin Masjid and Babaji.

We have been to Sangin to see reconstruction and rebuilding.

We have spent time with the Medical Emergency Response Teams and saw how casulaties, both soldiers and native Afghans are dealt with by flying them by Chinook back to Camp Bastion for treatment.

I have also been in the Manchester Evening News and was interviewed by BFBS Radio yesterday.

See links below for videos I filmed and published by the MOD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Ji5q3EoMw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PSh9MklC5U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smg9KAaZ0rQ

Now we are in Lashkar Gah for the Afghan Elections. We don’t know what to expect so we are just cracking on with the Brigade films for Decompression and for the end of the tour.

My wife Joanne is going to see her Maternity consultant today so I hope that goes well for her and our little munchkin Anna doesn’t give her any trouble whilst she is on her own.

I am very much enjoying my tour but I miss my homelife badly. Anna has become a little girl who loves her dolly and is no longer a baby with little wobbly legs. My dog Alfie is pining too. Who would believe a dog can sulk. I cant wait to go home...

Start of Herrick

Wed 24 Jun 09

I arrived at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan in the early hours of Monday morning after a gruelling 18 hours travelling and waiting to transit to Camp Bastion. We were ushered to a bed and told ‘get your heads down and we will get you up for breakfast’ by a Media Operations Group (Volunteers) (MOG(V)) Major from the media team .

After breakfast we were told that a live broadcast to ITN would be happening that evening with CDS Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup. A Captain from MOG(V) woke us up flapping before midday and he wasn’t even anything to do with it, what an idiot. Sgt Jon Bevan filmed it whilst I watched and refreshed myself as to how to set it up.

My team’s first big job is with The Light Dragoons next week but I can only write about them afterwards. Clive Hasn’t arrived yet but should be with us for next week.

We managed to sort weapons out today as we thought we were signing over from the previous Combat Camera Team (CCT) but this had fell through. Thankfully, The Light Dragoons have sorted us some SA80 Carbines which are the stumpy version. The laptop I’ve been issued hasn’t had all the programs I need for the job so after setting up the satellite I have managed to get one or two of them gaining the other programs from Jon and the surge CCT who are also in theatre.

The weather isn’t as hot yet as I thought it would be, don’t get me wrong though, it’s still hot. The accommodation here is excellent for an operational tour; I am in the Tier 2 Corrimec with remote Air-con! You can’t argue with that!

Tomorrow we start RSOI which is what all soldiers have to conduct once they arrive in theatre. It helps to update everyone to the latest skills and drills, we will also need to ‘zero’ our weapons on the range.

Test

A test blog.