My other main passion in life, other than photography, is singing. I belong to two choirs.

In September 2010 I was asked to take my camera along to a ‘Vivace’ rehearsal as we practised for our winter concert. The idea was to come up with a couple of shots for the website.

I was quite pleased with the results, especially as these were literally ’grab’ shots; I had no time to set anything up, except for the posed group shot for which I had about 2 minutes. All shots are taken with ambient light (no flash) at high ISOs and have been run through noise removal software.

The next shots show our Musical Director, John Andrews and Accompanist & Founder, Kate Elmitt.

The choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings during term-time and performs three concerts a year. We are always on the lookout for new members, especially men and especially tenors. You can find out more about the choir website.

At the beginning of August Laura celebrated her 12th birthday. Her treat was a visit to Thorpe Park. Of course, I took the camera along.

The first shot in the nest series shows my 3 daughters & a friend in the front row of the car.

Dad only managed a ride on three things but was quite happy to stand on the sidelines.

On the 1st August I went back to Watford to shoot them taking on the Hampshire Thrashers.

Watford has a score to settle having lost to the Thrashers ion the previous away game.

Watford managed to pull a victory out of the bag with a 21 – 17 win.

You can see the rest of the shots from this game on my old website.

At the end of July the Watford Cheetahs welcomed the Gloucester Banshees.

The weather was quite overcast as you can see from the last shot in the series.

Watford won the game taking their season record to seven wins & four losses with three still to go.

You can see more shots from the game on my old website.

The weekend of the 24th of July saw the annual Rhythms of the World Festival in Hitchin.

I usually try to get there to do a bit of gig-photography from the audience. However, I didn’t really enjoy it this year; the event has become so popular that it is now completely swamped with people, half of whom are drunk, you can hardly move & getting in a position to shoot the bands is a nightmare.

I only really took shots of two or three acts & was so disappointed that I left well before the end of the evening.

The first shot below has since done very well in camera club competitions.

The end of July saw me shooting my second wedding of the summer. Joy & Rob had asked me to shoot their wedding the previous year so I had lots of time to  worry about it.

We had already done a pre-wedding shoot three weeks earlier, so hopefully the happy couple were not quite so afraid of the camera as they thought they might be.

I arrived at the lovely Hanbury Manor venue (having already met Joy & Rob at the venue where we did a recce some weeks earlier), and set about the business. I started with some shots of the room where the ceremony was due to take place, then moved on to the girls’ preparation.

Then it was over to the other side of the grounds to meet up with the lads as they got ready & had a pre-match beer.

Then back to the girls’ room for some wedding dress shots before making my way down to the venue where the bridegroom was waiting & guests were gathering.

I then shot the ceremony.

Then it was off out into the grounds to shoot the newly-weds & their friends & family.

For the rest of the evening I snapped away taking candids of everyone & then shot the wedding meal & the evening’s entertainment. I finally put the camera down around 10.30pm & chilled with a couple of soft drinks.

It was, without doubt, the hardest assignment I’d had in terms of workload, but one of the most enjoyable. I spent several days processing the shots & was able to give Joy & Rob a DVD with around 1200 shots of their happy day.

The Royal International Air Tattoo is held at RAF Fairford every year & is the biggest airshow in the world.

I’ve been going for the last few years & usually try to make it for both Saturday & Sunday. This year, however, due to the Festival of History being on at the same weekend, I only managed the Sunday at RIAT, though I stayed for the Monday as well, which is when you can see many of the aircraft leave for their home countries & bases.

Unfortunately, the weather was rubbish. There was hardly a touch of blue sky throughout all the flying display.

One of the highlights was getting to see the FR-22 Raptor flying. Described as the world’s most advanced fighter, it was an awesome sight.

The next shot is an RAF Tornado simulating a bombing run on the runway at RAF Fairford & the Vulcan shot was taken on Monday as it left the base shortly behind the Red Arrows, one of which you can see in the distance.

And my favourite era from the Festival of History (and probably the biggest section), World War Two.

The Germans here are from the Panzer-Grenadier Regiment “Grossdeutchland” and were very friendly. I was taking photos of them when the heavens opened (it was quite wet in parts on the Saturday). These fellars let me shelter my camera gear & me under one of their authentic kitchen tents.

There were plenty of re-enactors from the early periods of history.

Here are a few from medieval times.

July sees the annual English Heritage Festival of History which has been held at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire for the last few years.

This is a two-day event packed absolutely jam full of history re-enactors from all periods of history. It’s a photographer’s dream with opportunities for all kinds of photography, from individual portraits through living history encampments, vehicle & animals, a bit of airshow photography & massed battles.

This year it coincided with the Royal International Air Tattoo down in Gloucestershire, but is so good that this year I gave up my normal two or three-day trip to RIAT just so I could do Kelmarsh on the Saturday.

I took so many photos that I’ve split this one into several parts, first off, the Napoleonic era.