Tonight...

[Rose]

Sigh... yet another week when I'm unable to make it to the Club due to work commitments...
But this week it's because I am the official photographer for a reception being hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister

[davidc]

Heh congrats, would you be allowed to use any images you took in club competition? Though you'd probably just get bias based on the judges political leanings admittedly, at least it means they wouldn't nit pick to find faux issues in the photo itself

[Mike Farley]

...... I am the official photographer for a reception being hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister

We all have our crosses.

Sorry that you cannot make it tonight, but I do hope that you enjoy your evening. It should be quite an experience.

[Rose]

OMG that was mad ! 180 girl apprentices and employers crammed into two rooms, exhibits "made by apprentices" (including two cars in the courtyard), the DPM and his wife, a couple of other MPs, the Scottish Minister... A film crew, two professional press photographers... And me !!

I've just left and expect to get home at 10pm, when I then have to download all the pics and process 5 or 6 key ones needed for publication online tomorrow (the DPM's official Twitter feed and Flikr page). I therefore expect to be working till midnight ! I also did another event this afternoon AND I'm covering a staff conference at The Oval all day tomorrow so will have a huge processing job to do on Friday. And it's not even my day job !!!

I've done other receptions but the lighting is always a challenge in Admiralty House - even the pros were complaining ! But they were handling it so much better than I was... I'm going to have to resort to quite a bit of processing !

All my photos are Crown Copyright and I'm not sure if I can use them in Club Comps... I can't imagine they'd meet judges' expectations anyway.

[Mike Farley]

That was not quite the experience which I had hoped you would have when I posted earlier.

I am sure that you will learn a lot about what is involved in such photography from the evening and tomorrow's event, but even with the present government cutbacks I do find it surprising that there is no budget for a professional photographer at such gatherings. Can it really be cost effective to divert someone from their normal duties and rely on their goodwill?

If you can link to anything posted on Twitter or flickr, we would be interested to see them.

[Rose]

Mike - the Cabinet Office do have an official photographer and film-maker but if he's not available he refers people to me. I do it as part of my corporate contribution to the department and with the support of my boss, so I do get credit for it. Also, I only accept what I have the capacity to do. I can go six months or more without being asked to do anything - I've never had to do 3 gigs in 2 days before !

One minute past midnight and I finally emailed an initial selection of photos for publication in the morning. Yawn...

[Mike Farley]

Mike - the Cabinet Office do have an official photographer and film-maker but if he's not available he refers people to me. I do it as part of my corporate contribution to the department and with the support of my boss, so I do get credit for it. Also, I only accept what I have the capacity to do. I can go six months or more without being asked to do anything - I've never had to do 3 gigs in 2 days before !

One minute past midnight and I finally emailed an initial selection of photos for publication in the morning. Yawn...

Rose

I made a number of assumptions in my last post. Thanks for the clarification.

Good luck with today's event.

[Rose]

If anyone fancies a sneaky look at the pics from the reception the other evening, they are here: http://flickr.com/gp/rose_atkinson/LqR397/

[davidc]

Looks like an interesting event! Photo-wise I think #3 is my favourite

[Rose]

Looks like an interesting event! Photo-wise I think #3 is my favourite

LOL As worn by the apprentice girls from Doc Martins ! They were all wearing boots they'd made / designed