October saw the start of the 2010/11 British Universities American Football League competition.

I popped down to Hatfield to shoot one of their first training sessions. The weather was pretty good & there was a good turn out, most of whom appeared to be rookies. Many of those were trying out the game for the first time.

I had occasion to pop down to Brighton in October; I was collecting my mother who had been staying with my brother down there.

Needless to say I took the camera with me. I went for a walk down the pier with Laura & my brother, the weather was atrocious, pouring rain, but it didn’t stop us having an ice cream and a walk round the pier.

The middle shot is Laura walking down the pier

Some excellent news. I’ve been taken on by a sports media company to shoot professional football & rugby. I’ve been given a media licence to shoot league football & rugby.

I had my first game on the 2nd October when I went up Coventry way to shoot the Nuneaton Rugby Club in a second division game against Caldy Rugby Club.

It had been arranged that I would meet one of the regular photographers for the media company at the game, he’d give me a run-down on the way things work, what to do and what not to do and I’d see if I could produce some images which were of a suitable quality for the agency to submit for publication.

I turned up nice and early. The other guy arrived and gave me a brief on how the industry worked & a few guidelines on what to shoot. He then disappeared up one end of the pitch & I made my way to the other. It was the first game of professional rugby, come to that non-professional too, that I had shot so I was more than a little apprehensive.

I was amazed how quick it went – this from someone who shoots American football which lasts two-and-a-half to three hours, but I think I managed to bag a few shots I was pleased with, including a few tries. Nuneaton lost 16 – 25.

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.

In the last regular season game the Watford Cheetahs welcomed the Milton Keynes Pathfinders to their home ground.

The Pathfinders were rumoured to have made some significant improvements over the season & were looking for revenge for the earlier season defeat by the Cheetahs.

The rumours were found to be true & the Pathfinders had indeed upped their game. They managed to beat the Cheetahs for the first time in their history with a score of 35 – 13, no mean feat considering their earlier 28 – 8 loss.

You can see the rest of the games from this match on my old 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.