PENHA Fundraiser at Calumet – Exhibition of Vanessa Champion’s Photos

The exhibition sponsored by Fuji and hosted at the Calumet UK’s London Showroom in Drummond Street entitled ‘A Change in the Air’ is an exhibition of photographs from Vanessa’s trip to Uganda; it documents and celebrates the nomadic pastorialists in Africa.

I had been lucky enough to be invited to the Private Viewing, and the evening did not disappoint, I have met several of the PENHA people in the past and they are all very friendly and welcoming. The evening displayed and supplied samples of the indigenous fare of the region and the audience was even informed not only of the content but the preparation of the food provided, along with wine and juices to moisten the palate to aid mingling and conversation. I mentioned the event to two colleagues, Adam Woolfitt and Geoff Dann, who both came along, both are fellow photographers, and this event was not short on other photographers; due to Vanessa’s assiduous efforts at enticing all her photographer friends such that there is no stone left unturned in her efforts to ensure maximum publicity for her endeavours on behalf of the charity PENHA.

I hope I have given a flavour of the fun of the evening against the backdrop of Ness’ images from her trip. I certainly enjoyed meeting some from previous engagements and new ones with whom I was introduced. For the observant some may notice that the colour can sometimes vary despite my best efforts to correct the shifts in post-processing, at certain shutter speeds the fluorescent tubes sometimes displayed bands of magenta or cyan horizontally across parts of the scene, due to the interaction between the frequency of the mains and the shutter speed in use, but I have done my best to conceal this, also since in a group sometimes one person might catch the colour shift and not another or they might be presented less favourably I have taken some groups at different moments and included both, thereby minimising offence and hopefully pleasing a few more.

SWPP – Hotel Metropole – Trade Show

I arrived at Edgeware Road in plenty of time to visit the SWPP Trade Show in London on Friday morning, so I strolled in the hotel’s direction with the idea of using the time to find a Post Office to pick up the forms to renew my passport, but as I crossed the road I spied the familiar bronze statue of the window cleaner. Familiar only because back in the days of film I had caught sight of it and taken some shots of it – it’s a brilliant piece of work in my eyes; he is so obviously a window cleaner complete with ladder looking up at this towering office block, and lifting his cap in awe, and to my ears is saying: “Blimey, Guv!” When I took some shots of yore, some wag had completed the picture by placing a half-smoked fag in his mouth! Obviously in these PC times that is no longer dangling from his lips! It was as I was grabbing a few shots that a photographer stopped to watch me and we got chatting; in the course of which conversation he mentioned he had come from Tring, and it turns out we have a mutual friend in Vanessa Champion who I would later be meeting at the show.

I picked up my Passport forms and headed for the Metropole and the first familiar face that greeted me was that of Ness, who was manning (or should that be womanning?) the Creativity Backgrounds stand on the ground floor. One of the reasons for my visit to the show was to see whether any dealers were likely to offer me a deal on a brand new EOS 5D MkIII, and after a brief visit to the Canon stand learned there were two sellers present, and the timing of my arrival at the Park Cameras stand was absolutely perfect, I arrived as a Canon gentleman was finalising a further reduction with presumably the Sales Manager of Park, so I was the first purchaser to benefit from a great show deal with only five more cameras to go! My day was definitely starting on a high note!

I met up with ‘Image 2’ wife and husband team Patricia and Nick Rayner and spent some time watching a demonstration from a Past President of the AoP, Simon Leach, and much later spoke to colleagues from my earlier days of working with Adobe on their exhibition stands, Peter Lovelock, Andy Johnson, Richard West, David Odouro, Keith Hern and David Mallows. Ness also mentioned I should speak to Richard Curtis of Adobe, suggesting she was sure I would know him, but I was certain we had never met, and it turned out I was right, but I did manage to catch up with him and have a good chat, which might bear fruit, as we got on really well.

Whilst I was photographing Simon Leach and the proceedings on the Creativity Backgrounds stands, a film cameraman with whom I had enjoyed a wonderful skiing holiday in Meribel a good few years back tapped me on the shoulder and had obviously thought I’d not remember him, as he said: “You probably won’t recognise me, I am Richard…” but he was wrong – I recognised him straightway from a skiing trip in Meribel Mottaret – Richard Hill and was delighted he had come up, so he promised he would email me, so there is another pleasure to come from my visit – I look forward to catching up in the next few days.

The event was really enjoyable, enlightening and thoroughly worthwhile, and there was a very positive buzz all around, and I congratulate the SWPP; I feel certain they will be very happy with all their efforts, and I hope the next two days turn out as well the first.

PENHA Fundraising Meeting – Adulis Restaurant

For the second time this year I found myself being invited to an evening in aid of the Charity PENHA, held once again at the friendly Eritrean restaurant, the Adulis in Brixton Road, close to the Oval Tube Station. There was to be traditional music and dance from the Horn of Africa and the traditional coffee ceremony and the opportunity to watch and listen to Vanessa Champion who spent some time in Uganda to see the work being done among the pastorialists of the region.

I arrived early enough to be present as they set up for the evening, which meant I was able to watch the dancers practising and this gave me a chance to see whether I might be able to improve upon the shots I took at the first event back in June. At that time I was using the Canon EOS 5D MkII and the highest ISO I used with confidence then was 2000 ISO and I struggled very often to shoot faster than 1/30th of a second. Adam Woolfitt very generously allowed me to borrow his MkIII for the evening, which entailed a full day accustoming myself to the different way of working. I learned in that time that the differences between the two versions were substantial. My testing suggested I may well find it viable at around 6400 ISO and this was confirmed very soon. As the evening progressed I pushed things further.

One other difference on this occasion was that I set up my iPad on the bar and plugged in CamRanger, which gave me a good chance to review shots I had taken as well as provide others the opportunity to look at the shots I took within a few seconds of my taking them. Many found this intriguing and it allowed me to become involved in conversations about this 'magic'!

I felt very welcome as many of those in the restaurant knew who I was and said how much they liked the shots I had taken on my last visit, however their names escaped me, but several of the faces I did remember.

Zeremariam Fre spoke to introduce the evening to the guests and explain a bit about the work being done by PENHA and how it differed in its approach and explained that the audience would also hear from Dr.Tekeste Ghebray the former  Executive Secretary / head of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) about his involvement, and also how later Dr Vanessa Champion would relate the story of her recent visit to Uganda with some of the photos she had taken when amongst the Pastorialists and where she saw first hand what PENHA were not only advocating, but putting into practice.

Zere and his wife also spoke of what was happening during the evening, of the Dance Group, the Coffee Ceremony the food on offer and the various hand-crafted goods that were on display and for sale, all in aid of future work by PENHA. A point that was stressed was how in this group of countries were many whose differences were in conflict, yet were brought together by this organisation.

The Ethiopian Dan-Kira Dance Group were very energetic and despite the difficulties of operating at such low light levels and in a confined space, I did manage to capture some of the infectious spirit of their display. Many of the audience were tempted on the dance floor amidst great applause, and the dancers from the audience were not all in the first bloom of youth! The rhythm and volume were infectious and irresistable!

One group of girls from an NHS HR company were present because one of their number was going out with a member of the dance group, and they asked me to capture them on camera, and even insisted they take a shot of me with one of them; modesty prevents me from showing this shot and also I had 181 acceptable shots and so one had to go and that was the victim! It exists on the Cutting room floor, and anyway I was not told her name…

Vanessa introduced me to a very interesting Architect who listened carefully to my concerns related to the Chaulington project and gave me a very interesting idea to try to solve issues that surround this local plan and how I might create a competition to arrive at a solution. Anyone who is interested in what is an excellent idea for the development for Vauxhall's current Vehicle Storage Area with almost no local resistance, but needs to resolve numerous external issues first, enter "Chaulington" into a search engine. I was buoyed up by this architect's answer, so much so that I have passed his comment back to my contact at Vauxhall; I must now get his name from Vanessa!

Goodwood Revival in the Rain!

From all I can gather I believe I chose the best day to visit the Revival Meeting this year, for although we even had spells of sunshine, the rain was somewhat intermittent, and the cloud cover lifted allowing aircraft to display. The personal highlight of the flying was to see a Canberra, for this was one of the aircraft I had worked on when in the RAF, and I had always been impressed by the later versions with Triple Starters that had the most stunning rates of climb after only a very short stay on the runway.

I had hoped to be accompanied by a multi-talented all-rounder – photographer, author, blogger, whirlwind PR Lady, and talented organiser, Vanessa Champion, but work proved more powerful than play, and it had always been chancy settling on the Friday, since it is a weekday. I took along a publisher and Rugby photographer at the last moment instead.

The enclosure that provides an excellent view of the exit from the Chicane, was my first vantage point, but I also spent a short time in the grandstand within the enclosure and also on the roof of the Pits. But this was a day where the ever-present threat of rain dictated that shelter be near at hand. I met an interesting American, Harold 'Howie' D. Grant who had a car or two racing there, and he pointed out one of the cars and said he'd be happy to buy some pictures, so I duly obliged, and met up with him a few more times and he introduced me to his charismatic driver. The green car was unusual in that it had four tyres at the rear.

During one of the spells of brightness I met up with Patricia Rayner and Keith Duerden of Image 2 photography; friends of longstanding, since I had first met them when Keith headed up the Photographic Unit of Mobil in Victoria. Keith has a long history of photographing motor racing, having watched and photographed Stirling Moss racing at Goodwood when he was his own mechanic! He has a large collection of  black and white photographs from a past era of the sport, and has a website selling his work, and is currently working on the publishing of a book. We all met up at the ‘Earls Court Motor Show’ pastiche and then strolled, chatting to visit the static display of aircraft, where we came across Tracey Curtis-Taylor and Amanda Stretton and the ‘Spirit of Artemis’. Tracey is due to fly solo from Capetown to Goodwood, and a film crew were setting up as we came upon them, and so this offered me a chance to capture some of the proceedings.

On my later return to the trackside I turned round at one stage and there was a favourite TV star of mine just feet away, Honeysuckle Weeks, who has been expertly teamed with Peter Kitchen in ‘Foyle’s War’, I just had to overcome my natural temerity to ask could I take some quick photos, but I could step no further back, so I had to make do with the camera and lens I was holding, the 100-400mm, and do my best to use the wide end, but she was so relaxed and unfazed, that I did get a few shots. I learned a few things she has planned and I mentioned that she was certainly blessed with a beautiful name by her parents. By her side was Peter Sandys-Clarke who it turned out had also had a role in Foyle’s War, but I had to embarrassedly state I did not recognise him, he was very accommodating and accepted my apology with great grace, saying he fully appreciated the reasons for my failure.

I was persuaded to set off early to avoid the imminent rain, which proved to be a good decision as I gather we missed the quagmire that befell those who stayed on till later, and that the following days were severely marred by inclement British weather.

PENHA Branding & Network Event

PENHA is a pastoral and environmental organisation dedicated to improve the perceptions and hence the aid and support to countries within the Horn of Africa; they held an event at the Adulis Eritrean Restaurant in Brixton Road, London. One of the organisers of the event, Vanessa Champion of Dragonfly Communications invited me along, and as a consequence I invited a talented photographer, Karena Perronet-Miller, who has done photographic assignments in India, to come along too.

We set off from our very different points mine from outside London, Karena’s from North London, yet as I came along the Brixton Road, Karena spotted me before I sailed by unknowingly as she had stopped by one of the shops en route, so we entered together giving me the opportunity to introduce Karena to Ness downstairs, having been greeted by the owners and  Zeremariam Fre at the entrance.

Already music could be heard from below, and although we were early there were already other guests who had arrived still more promptly. Karena, despite having told me she was apprehensive about such meetings was soon very much at home, and I realised I need not have worried. The atmosphere was very welcoming all round, and having checked with Ness about photographing was assured it was just fine – it was not long before I was far from alone in taking the opportunity to capture the event for a wider audience! It proved to be difficult to avoid each of us finding other photographers featuring in our images.

It was a wonderful opportunity to listen to some lively music, some introductory speeches, explanations of some of the instruments being played and their origins. Naturally, it was also the chance to gain further experience of ‘unavailable light photography’ by having to shoot at 5000 ISO to get exposures as short as 1/15th second with some semblance of sharpness somewhere in the picture – especially challenging when trying to capture speakers whose heads seemed capable of swivelling 360 degrees and hands that moved faster than the speed of light, and musicians whose virtuosic fingers operated at similar velocity.

In some instances due to moments of humour, or subtle changes in expressions I have shown images that at first sight may seem duplicates, but often taken together provide a greater truth to what was happening. Mixed lighting sometimes enhanced the images at others proved quite challenging when I was processing them for display in the gallery, but I hope overall, I have captured the essence and ambiance of the evening which I thoroughly enjoyed as did my feet and toes as they often followed the beat with abandon.

It was a well-organised and successful event with splendid food, wonderful hospitality and incredible friendliness; I met several new people and was very grateful to be invited and I hope in this record have contributed in some small way.