‘Image Of The Week #17’

This week’s fave frame is from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Windsor Castle.

This weeks’ highlight is from a visit into the Berkshire loveliness of Windsor. With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee approaching, the team at the castle are planning a huge horse pageant on the grounds in celebration of such a momentus landmark.

There will be over 500 horses in the display flown in from the four corners of the world including rare pure Arabian & Indian varieties.

This job was pitched to me as an exclusive sneak-peek around the grounds for my journalist & I, to which we were both very much looking forward to. We were told in the brief that this was to be the first time ever that any members of the press would have such access.

We’d hoped for a nice double-page-spread a week or so down the line, but as these things often go, that went out the window once we’d arrived. We were expected at 10am, so I rocked up nice & punctual at 9:30am.

To my surprise, there were several other members of my esteemed colleagues waiting including the Press Association & pals from the Sunday Telegraph (Whom were also expecting an exclusive & planned a weekend spread). So much for exclusive!

After a bit of messing around at the security gates, we headed into the grounds & it was clearly apparent they were not ready for a press tour, exclusive or not. We’d just had the heaviest rainfall in April since records began & the ground was sopping wet. Most of the stages & sets were still under construction & on top of that, the stars of the show; the Omani Cavalry & those beautiful pure Arabian horses above had been held up in a sandstorm & had only arrived the previous evening, three days late.

A half-dozen of the 100+ riders were wheeled out onto a practice ground for us to shoot & to be fair, they were in fairly good spirits, all things considered.

They cantered around the arena & showed us a few tricks before heading back into the makeshift stables. We quickly followed, but were stopped in our tracks. The organisers were aprehensive to let our gaggle march around the stables so soon after they’d arrived as they were trying to get the animals back into their routines & acclimatised to the UK.

That was fair enough, but at this point I was desperate fora bit more substance from this disappointing assignment. So far, i’d shot an unfinished piece of stadia & a mere half-dozen riders. I quickly spotted the lead rider we’d been shooting on the practice grounds & made eye contact. He approached & I began shooting him anyway. We explained that he was a pivotal element to our story (not really). The organisers reluctantly agreed & we got a bit more colour for our slim feature piece.

Much thanks must go to our subject for his co-operation; Staff Sargeant Yaqoob Al-Musalami & his beautiful animal Al-Muksad. He got me that much needed story arc to tie in my images, which all things considered, I was pleased with.

And you’ll have to forgive me for this rather indulgent selection here, but as was to be expected, our piece was cut to ribbons getting only a half-page with a single image used. Nevermind- there are lots more interesting assignments in the pipeline, so let’s hope next week’s assignments are a little smoother sailing than this one…

ENJOY!

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