As you may have read previously in this blog, I have just recently spent a few days in London meeting up with friends who all have a common passion - Photography. During the build up, I have been supporting Martin Grahame-Dunn with the organisation of a charity event in aid of Help For Heroes. This event was borne from a discussion we had several months ago over a coffee with Martin, Mark Pearson of Mark Pearson Photography and myself and it was clear we all had a common bond with the military in one way or another. Little did we know at the time about how successful it would end up, despite many stressful moments on the way, especially for Martin who really had the most difficult tasks. However, the people that benefit from this fund raising are suffering immense stress on a daily basis, so it was worth it.
The Event
So a bit about the day. The day was split into two parts. The first part was the training. We had Martin and also Kevin Wilson, who are both highly experienced in the photographic industry and have won numerous awards during their careers, they did morning and afternoon, practical training sessions. These were inside the Brook Green Hotel, which is a venue of style we are likely to encounter at a wedding or portrait shoot. They taught us how to 'find the light' which in no way is as easy as it sounds and it served as a great reminder to us all, that we must, as photographers, be prepared to continually learn and develop our skills. We were also very lucky to have a team from Hasselblad come along and bring a selection of their very expensive, but beautiful quality cameras along for us to 'play' with. The result of the training was we all came away with many things to think about which will enhance our abilities as professionals. But I really must thank Nedine O'Brien of Fera Photography for stepping in as a model for the afternoon session and finding out what it's like the other side of the lens.
From this we progressed into the evening party, a time to meet up with fellow professionals, some who we had met before, some who would normally be seen inside the monitor on Facebook. Again we had amazing support from not just the guests who paid to come along and also donated extra on the night, but also from others who gave their time to help make this event a success.
First of all, we had Photographer, Gill Shaw come along and promote and sign her book 'The Hero Inside'. This book is an inspiring and also hard hitting look into the lives of those affected by the conflicts our military servicemen are involved in. This comes from personal knowledge of how her son, who is currently Serviceman, has close friends in need of support. Profits from the book go to the charity and I highly recommend getting a copy which can be ordered here. We also had Mike Weeks bring his Event Photography Team up from Dorset and show a little insight into the world of event photography, but most gratefully all money that was spent on images on the night was put into the charity fund. A generous gesture that we all appreciate. That brings me on to our acoustic musicians/singers on the night who again donated time to support us. Three separate musicians, they each did their own style of entertainment which was followed at the end by a superb jamming session by them all. So a massive thank you to all three who were, James D. Ingram, Komla and Oliver Hipkins. Please click on their links and take a look at these performers whose passion for their work is just like us photographers. Finally a big thank you to Mark, Michelle and John for going around with the collection bucket and gaining proceeds from the wrist bands.
The final figure for fund raising has not been confirmed yet, but it has passed our initial aim of £1000 so thank you all that donated.
From Left to Right, Mark Pearson, Martin Grahame-Dunn and Myself.
Image reproduced with kind permission of Dorset Photo Event.
Finally, to finish the weekend off, the Society of Wedding of Portrait Photographers had their Annual Awards Dinner and to see how I came to finish the weekend on a high click here.
