Some shots from the annual Remembrance Day Parade in Letchworth. I try to go when I am not working to pay my respects & record the event. This event took place on Sunday 14th November 2010.

It’s always a shame to see less of the regular ex-servicemen and women as each year passes.

But it’s always encouraging to see the younger generation still taking part.

At the going down of the sun we will remember them.

Rest in Peace

You can see the 2008 service here.

The week before Christmas we had lots of snow. It stayed for quite a while and brought the usual problems that this country has every time there is a bit of the white stuff.

Not put off by it, we decided to take the sledge up to an old family haunt of ours, Therfield Heath up at Royston. We used to go far more regularly than we do now, walks through the woods, kite festivals and of course sledging down the golf course hills. Only this time we had a dog. (she wasn’t very keen on coming down the hill on a sledge).

Posted under Photo Projects

At the beginning of December we had a really big frost. When I got up at 11am it was still in evidence, so I went out into the garden to do some frost shots.

Then I went down to Norton Common where, even at 2 in the afternoon, the frost was still well established.

Hertfordshire’s fourth game of the season was their first game at their home ground at Hatfield University. They played on Sunday the 5th December 2010.

The game started in the cold sun & ended in the freezing dark. Going into the game both sides were undefeated out of 3 games each, so someone was heading for their first defeat of the season.

On paper, it should have been the Falcons, having lost to the Hurricanes 47 – 9. As it turned out, Hertfordshire were the winners, but by a reduced total of 30 – 0, making the Hurricanes 4 & 0 leaders of their division going into the Christmas break.

My second professional football match was Stevenage Borough -v- Shrewsbury Town.

Hertfordshire’s second match this season was down in Greenwich.

Hertfordshire lost to two teams last year, the Birmingham Lions – who went on to be National Champions – and the Greenwich Mariners – who went on to be national Trophy winners. So Hertfordshire had a point to prove.

The game was played on a 3G all weather pitch at a rugby club near Greenwich. It was possibly the worst conditions I’ve ever photographed in; very cold, wet & very dark. I had to ramp the ISO up to 8000 to 12000 towards the end of the match.

The Hurricanes managed to seek revenge as they shut out the Mariners with a 41 – 0 victory.

The 7th November saw the Hertfordshire Hurricanes start their 2010/11 campaign on the National University American Football championships with an away game to the UEA Pirates.

The Hurricanes soon got into their stride & ran away with a 47 – 12 victory

The Hurricanes always have the support of their own Cheerleading Squad, the Sirens, who attend both home and away games.

I had my first ever professional football match in November when I got to shoot Stevenage Borough in their cup match against Milton Keynes Dons.

I was told by my agency that they’d booked me in with the club so I just needed to turn up, shoot the game and upload my shots to the agency’s server. All well & good when you haven’t got a clue about shooting football or how the system works.

I rang the club & found out where to park & where to go when I got there. On arrival I was handed an information pack & an orange vest. The information pack included a ticket (still not sure why you have a ticket when you spend the match sitting on the pitch), a match programme and  details of the wifi so you can log on and upload your shots from the game. A team sheet came around 20 minutes before kick-off.

I hung around a few of the other photographers to see if I could overhear any tips, like where you were and weren’t allowed, but didn’t glean any info.

I picked my spot twenty yards up from the goal line & got all the kit together. I used the 600mm & the 70-200 but, to be honest, the 600 is a little large for soccer; it’s quite difficult following the ball when you have such a narrow field of view. I think though that a 300 f2.8 will have to wait.

I hadn’t brought a laptop though other photographers were uploading their shots at half time. As I live close to Stevenage I had planned on sorting out my shots when I got home. I was later told that about 14 of my shots had been submitted to the national papers & several more could have been if I had cropped them tighter.

Two days later I was on a night shift & flicking through the Daily Mirror. I don’t normally read the football section but I thought I’d have a look to see if any Stevenage photos made it. Imagine my surprise when I found the following shot inside the football supplement. It shows the MK Dons manager having a go at an official. Though it was heavily cropped, there it was, my photo, in a national newspaper, my first one.

At the end of October I was walking past the back door when I saw some goldfinches on the bird feeders. I’ve been wanting to photograph the goldfinches for a while, so I thought I;d take the opportunity to have a go.

I dug out the portable hide & set it up in the garden.

I then spent about 90 minutes waiting for the goldfinches to return. They never did.

You can’t spend long in my garden without seeing squirrels. We are fortunate to get black squirrels most days, so I grabbed a few shots of those too. All shots were taken on the 5D MkII & the 600mm F4.

Prior to the new BUAFL matches starting, the Hertfordshire Hurricanes had the opportunity to practice against live opponents in the form of the only other Hertfordshire kitted team, the Watford Cheetahs.

Watford normally play their ball in the summer, so it was a chance to blow away the cobwebs for the older players & opportunity for newer players to try out.

This was not a live game as such. The teams took turns to try out plays against each other. After 20 plays the ball was handed to the other team for them to try out their game. As such there was no scoring kept.