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.

Early July saw me up at the Bedfordshire International Athletics Stadium where I shot the Bedfordshire Blue Raiders take on the London Olympians.

A beautifully sunny day saw an evenly matched start until the Olympians started to pull ahead.

The Olympians won the game 34 – 13 & were to progress to the finals.

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

With the approach of Joy & Rob’s wedding, I got them over to my place three weeks before the big day for a pre-wedding shoot.

The idea was so that Joy & Rob could get used to posing for some photos & we could get used to each other so we could spend time on the big day getting some nice shots rather than them worrying about what to do and how to do it.

We started off in the home studio (converted living room) and I just got them sued to standing there while I rattled off some shots. We talked about posing & how to feel more comfortable in front of the camera.

Then we headed off to the local common for some outdoor shots. (The third shot below shows Joy pretending that a local weed is in fact her bouquet)

I guess the shoot worked as both Joy & Rob said they felt much more confident about their photos after the shoot  than they had when they arrived. This was reinforced when they saw the photos later.

At the end of June I went down to Finsbury Park, the home ground of the BAFA Premier leaders London Blitz to shoot them taking on the Sussex Thunder.

The Blitz have been national champions several times & were unbeaten this season. Sussex were totally outclassed & the Blitz ran out easy victors with a score of 76 – 0.

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

Back in June the Watford Cheetahs took on the Reading Renegades at their home ground in Watford.

Watford had already been beaten by the Renegades when they played them earlier in the season in Reading and so they were looking for revenge.

In the end, Watford did lose but they improves on their previous score. They went down 21 – 6 reducing the Renegades’ previous score by half.

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

July 2010 saw me take on my first wedding.

There were only a few weeks between being asked to do the shoot & the actual wedding but still enough time to fret. The wedding was to be at a local hotel venue & I managed to have a meeting with the happy couple, Louise & Neil, at the venue and we had a mini pre-wedding shoot in the grounds before I left.

It was a great opportunity for me & wasn’t too daunting as the guest list was very short; a small group of friends & family. It was made easier by discovering that the registrar was an ex-colleague of mine with whom I had worked closely both at the start & end of my previous career. His easy-going and friendly nature made the whole event quite special.

The weather was overcast so no problems with strong shadows & I mixed natural light with flash shots. It was, however, hard work. I took along my middle daughter to assist me & she commented that she had never seen me sweat so much.

Overall, it was a great experience & I managed to provide some photographs which really pleased the happy couple.

Sunday 9th May saw the finals of the British Universities American Football League Championship.

There were two games; the Challenge Trophy competed by university teams whose players come from more than one establishment & the National Championship for thoroughbread university teams. The matches were held at Northampton Town Football Club’s Sixways Stadium on sunny & dry conditions.

The first match was between the Greenwich Mariners from London  and Stirling Clansmen from Scotland.

The Mariners won the game.

The national Championship game was contested between the undefeated Birmingham Lions & the Loughborough Aces. The Lions were the previous year’s winners & were aiming to make it two-in-a-row. The Aces were looking for their fourth national championship.

The Lions proved too much for the Clansmen who lost 27 – 16.

You can see the rest of the shots from the Mariners/Clansmen game here and the Lions/Aces game here.