Jonah Jones – Bond at Sixty!

Jonah Jones invited me to Babraham to join in celebrations for his sixtieth birthday; the theme being James Bond, and the plan was that I would help Catherine (Katy) to create a montage of himself sporting the body of one of his heroes, Daniel Craig as he steps from the water. This request came on the night before, so any plans I might have of sensibly having an early night went out the window! Catherine emailed me both a picture of her hero, Jonah, and Daniel taken on her phone, and neither stood a chance, so I sourced the picture from something at least a generation or two earlier and screenshotted a picture of my own to match the similar low quality of the Internet image. I also interpolated the image to nearer the size she had in mind, and sent that by email.

I arrived at Jonah's in time to take some shots of the girls getting their nails ready, and later we all headed for the Institute to prepare Catherine's other idea  which was to set up a scene such that I took shots at the venue through the rifled barrel of the guests, and had duly brought portable flash gear, but as with many last minute ideas, this failed because I was unable to sync both of my lights, so only had the single light, which was my fault and meant that despite all the setting up was never used!

For the rest of the event I planned to take handheld shots without flash at the impressive 128,000 ISO, and except for when the light was totally unavailable or the subjects moved too fast, this proved to be successful, towards the end of the evening the theatre area was used but in the opposite direction and sadly I had not been able to move all that stuff sufficiently out of view, so can be seen in the background of some of the impromptu group shots I took later from the elevation of a chair on the stage.

The whole place was brilliantly decorated for the theme; the costumes were excellent and the atmosphere of the event was fantastic with its Casino tables for both card games and Roulette wheel, and extra chips were able to be purchased and the money taken over the evening went to the NSPCC, the amount of money collected was £300 as can be seen by Liz Heard holding the jug aloft!

The whole evening was very much an extended family affair, bringing together several different strands from Jonah's six decades with everyone really enjoying themselves. Jonah himself was pleased to learn that his present had nothing to do with the Circus, unless of course one thinks of Silverstone as one!

I am splitting the shots into separate galleries: the Lodge, the main party, and the groups I photographed in the theatre.
Girls Prepare
My Setup Models
Theatre Groups
The Party Shots

Christmas Family Dinner

This year has seen a new man in Catherine’s life – Jonah; and he generously invited me to join Catherine and the family to join him for Christmas Day. I was made to feel very much at home and it was far from a last minute thought, as his daughter Carly and husband Paul, and her mother and her husband must have known I was joining them as they both gave me presents when greeting me with Christmas wishes, making me feel extremely humble, as I had been aware that Carly and Paul would be there, and guilty that I had not thought to bring them anything.

We were all in the lounge barring Jonah who had his red Santa pinny on and was busy putting the finishing touches to the banquet that was to follow, away in the kitchen, but he did break off to welcome me. My entrance seemed to be the catalyst that started much activity on the present distribution and unwrapping front, followed by much oohing and ahing, and wows from twin grandchildren Holly and Poppy, followed by hugs and kisses.

The lighting was as warm as the atmosphere, as we all began chatting, and I learned Barry was guitar-playing Folk Singer, and Carol was a teacher, Paul was in Banking and Carly helped disadvantaged families within a London Borough. Much of the conversation revolved around memories of travel across Africa and the Far East, and this continued when we all were summoned to the Dining room and the sumptuous meal of beef, turkey, pigs in blankets and all the trimmings.

Two sets of crackers were pulled, one hand-crafted and one bought, the latter with the obligatory riddles, accompanied by the customary groans, Jonah was the last to join the table and was praised and thanked for the delicious spread before us. Whilst still in the Dining Room after eating our fill, we did attempt a new Trivia Game, but soon decided it was better played in the lounge, but to begin with, our ability to fathom the rules was no better in the new venue! There was much hilarity and good-humoured frustration, but we then decided on a change, and it seemed as if more time was spent trying to understand the rules than was actually involved in playing the game. Setting time limits was not universally accepted as being fair, and was a source of much banter and recrimination, and after both games, I think I was on the losing side, but it was marginally less hostile than playing  Monopoly!

Teas and coffee followed on and peace and relaxation took over; all too soon Carol and Barry were saying their goodbyes, and later I made the opening gambits towards leaving, and after more hugs and kisses, I thanked everyone and with Catherine acting as lookout I drove out of the gate, taking her directions to reach the A505 and set off for home. Most shots in the gallery were taken at 5000 ISO with very slow shutter speeds at almost full aperture; often at no more than 1/15th of a second!