A Day In The Life…

LYNCHPIX

I absolutely LOVE what I do. As far as i’m concerned, I have the best job in the world, but as with all jobs, there’s a lot of hard graft that goes with it. As my old man used to often tell me “you have to take the rough with the smooth”.

A couple of months back I undertook an assignment for FourFourTwo Magazine – a publication i’ve been working with for several years. The assignment was a fairly straightforward one; to photograph Albert Jorges of the Barcelona Toffees; an Everton fan club in Barcelona, Spain.

The plan was to fly in on the day of the shoot, photograph our man in front of a suitably Spanish/Barca backdrop & fly back that evening.

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Because of the usual budgetary constraints that come with editorial photography, I had to book my flight with the dreaded Ryanair. There were two caveats with this plan; the first is that Ryanair are extremely particular about their cabin baggage allowances, which meant I had to pare my kit down to bare minimum.

The second problem with that plan was their cheapest possible flights were departing at 7:30am & returning back into London at 11pm.

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I was up at the ridiculous time of 4am the morning of the shoot heading straight to London’s Liverpool Street then onto Stansted Airport to catch my flight.

It was so early that the DLR wasn’t even operating fully yet! My train simply displayed “Special” on the front.

Once at Liverpool Street, I grabbed a bite to eat & boarded my train.

Everything flowed & I arrived at the airport pretty quickly. Even the security checkpoint was surprisingly swift without the usual twenty minute wait. I wasn’t even asked to take my boots off!

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Next was the hike through to my gate, which of course was at the furthest annex of the airport…

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I boarded my ‘bird’ and we took off on-time.

We actually arrived in Barcelona ahead of schedule, which was for the best as security was a mess. A handful of flights had arrived at once & they hadn’t put on enough staff to cover the numbers.

By the time I got through passport control, that early landing time had evaporated.

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Once through I headed for the exit & the very reliable Aerobus which drops you right into the heart of the city.

It was a very pleasant journey into town with lots for me to shoot on the way.

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I’d brought along one of my favourite toys; the Fuji X10. A beautifully retro designed point-and-shoot camera that allows me to take pictures relatively discreetly, whilst still retaining a high quality image.

I had a couple of hours before my subject arrived, so had a recce for locations.

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It’s a city i’ve visited many times before, so I had a good idea where I wanted to shoot.

Before I departed, i’d had a conversation with my Picture Editor & he’d mentioned the Gaudi Cathederal so I had a ramble over there to check it out. Strangely of all the previous times i’d been to Barcelona, i’d never visited the landmark.

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It’s an absolutely stunning cathederal- a UNESCO World Heritage site, but I felt it was a little too grandiose & messy a backdrop to use for this shoot. And it’s still unfinished!

So it was back to the more familiar surroundings of La Rambla, the pedestrianised main drag.

At the bottom of La Rambla is the harbour where I found a rich vein of backdrops to shoot our man in front of, as well as grabbing some great stock shots for my syndicators back home.

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I gave my subject a call & told him the plan before taking a walk to the water’s edge & shooting the famous cable car. It was an absolutely glorious day- perfect shooting conditions.

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Albert arrived and we kicked off at the Columbus statue.

Before crossing the street & shooting in front of the stunning Port of Barcelona building.

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We finished up at the water’s edge & that was a wrap!

Once i’d packed up my kit, I stopped for a bit of supper at a nearby restaurant.

I’d thoroughly enjoyed my trip and was very pleased with the shots i’d got, but as I sat there eating my tapas, I stared down at my boarding pass- I had another five hours to kill…

I can genuinely say i’ve never eaten a meal or drunk a beer so slowly in my entire life!

I had another ramble around the harbour as the sun was setting.

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And it garnered some great results. The above frame is one of my favourite images shot this year so far.

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Before heading back up to La Rambla. By this point in the evening, the harbour was completely deserted- almost eerily quiet.

I waved Adiós to Columbus & headed north to catch my bus.

The airport, like the harbour was almost completely deserted.

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All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed, but predictably we had a delay. I’ve passed through many, many airports & have often seen people folded up in crumpled heaps across those horrible metal benches in airports. I’ve often wondered what would drive someone to find comfort there- the simple answer to that is complete exhaustion.

It didn’t take long before I found myself horizonal…

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We finally boarded after what seemed like hours & I was heading home. I convinced myself i’d have to cough up some extortionate sum for a taxi, but managed to hop on the last Stansted Express train into London. As we were pulling into Liverpool Street, I once again resigned myself to the fact that i’d be cabbing it from this point, but again my luck was in & I managed to catch the very last Hammersmith & City Line train eastbound.

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The entire train was completely empty- just the driver & I onboard. I was really struggling to keep my eyes open & was convinced i’d doze off & awake in Barking- the last stop on the line & miles from home.

Luckily I held it together long enough to make my connection and once again I managed to catch the very last eastbound train of the night.

The train wasn’t going to the end of the line though as it was pulling into the depot, so I had a twenty minute walk across my local park before the ordeal was over.

After such a busy day & with the draining weight of the cameras on my back, twenty minutes turned into forty. I finally fell in the door at 2:30am; twenty-two-and-a-half hours after i’d left…

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It was a very long, very productive, very stressful & very enjoyable day. One of many for me. A schedule like this is not an uncommon thing, neither is working on foreign soil. I do sometimes wonder why I push myself so, but the hunger still remains. I truly do love taking pictures & don’t think I could ever get bored of seeing my name under a photograph in a publication. That buzz- the feeling of butterflies as you leaf through the pages, even though you know your shot is in there already.

It’s been great for me to look back on this particular project & remember how tough a day it was, because once it’s over & you recover, you only ever remember the good moments & not the bad- like that old saying about seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses…

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Although it’s understandable why the bad moments are so easily forgotten when you see the finished article…

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ENJOY!