2015: A Year In Review

Oh, these round-ups do get harder to compile. Reasons stretch from over-saturation as everyone puts their "best of" out at once, repetition of the same major jobs from many photographers, plus a worry about repeating too many pictures that I've already shared on social media throughout the year.

Because of this, I'm going to mix it up this year with a few personal favourites, a couple of pictures that became successful and even a few random ones that never really featured anywhere, but I feel deserve their moment in the sun. Or the Telegraph. Or the Guardian. Or Exchange and Mart, I'm not picky.

Anyway, Pictures Ho!

The image above came from the spontaneous gathering that took place in Trafalgar Square in the hours after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris. Many French tourists and ex-pats gathered with Londoners to show their solidarity with the people of France. My favourite moment came when people began to hold up their pens and pencils as a visual symbol of the old adage. Their shadows, when visible among the crowded square, made a clear enough outline in places to illustrate what was happening.

Below is a photo that I took on the Havengore, the survey vessel that carried former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to his State funeral in 1965. As the fiftieth anniversary of his death drew closer, I was sent to make a portrait of Randolph Churchill, Winston's Great-Grandson. Discovering the Churchill-themed room, I tried various ideas until I settled on shooting in totally ambient light. The final exposure was hand-held at 40th/sec at f1.8, with an ISO of 6400.

Some of these pictures will involve a little less chin-stroking and technical detail. This is simply Prince Charles and Louis Walsh gurning at each other.

On the opposite end of the beauty spectrum, while covering the Felder Felder presentation at London Fashion Week, I realised that I'd been straining forward to crop out all of the lens hoods and cameras that were messing up my shot. Flipping it on its head, I tried burying myself backwards instead, safe and warm in the damp arm-pit of some Italian fashion photographer, and found that the "clutter" drew the eye to the subject while adding a nice second layer of interest. The discussions, selfies and cameras really give you an idea of how manic fashion shows can be.

I ended my coverage of the election this year quite pleased with the range of images that I'd been able to scrape out of what was quite a heavily controlled few months. While the picture above falls very heavily into the category of "contrived nonsense", it was pleasing to have been there to record it.

During the Great British Tattoo Show at Alexandra Palace, I was still in election mode, hunting for anyone who may be getting a full Osborne back tattoo when I stumbled across this lady getting her thigh inked.

In June, I covered a very early preview for the "Night of Jumps" event at the o2 arena. The main idea of the photocall was to apparently recreate a cringe-worthy 1980s photocall, but with no sense of irony. This involved having women in skin-tight Lycra standing next to heavily-branded cars while two men jumped their bikes around. Avoiding this horrendous eyesore of an idea, I instead played with either making the bikes appear to leap the Canary Wharf financial district or just removing as much context as possible.

Photographers often have to work hard to get the shot they want, crawling, clambering and generally debasing themselves to find the right angle. Thankfully, there are always other photographers on hand to spot that it makes quite an unusual picture when they do. Hey, next time I know it'll be me looking silly so strike while the iron's hot!

From silliness to respectability and the Founders Day Parade at the home of the Chelsea Pensioners, Chelsea Barracks. It was a sweltering day with clear blue skies so the colours were already popping and throughout the parade, it all looked as I was expecting. However, when the ceremony was over, everyone disbursed in all directions, creating this chaotic spray of colour.

On a lovely day in June, I headed up to the top of The Shard in central London to have a look at what was claimed to be London's "highest garden". While this proved to be pushing the boundaries a little, being little more than a few ornate garden boxes, it did provide a chance to take an unusual angle of London's business district.

Still under clear skies, Wimbledon rolled around again and the sausage factory that is tennis coverage began. While many of the days prove to be a series of similar angles and faces, it was good to find an position that I'd never seen before. The late-afternoon light was perfect to create a striking shot of a match in progress.

On the day of the Wimbledon men's final, I was covering fan reactions on "Henman Hill/Murray Mound" when I spotted this policeman. Thoroughly lost in the game, he winced, grimaced and held his breath as the points were played. As is sadly expected these days, when it ran on a certain "newspaper" website, the comments included the all-too-predictable "Why are we paying for him to watch tennis?" and "Shouldn't he be protecting us from terrorists?". Personally, I was just really happy to see someone enjoying the moment.

On the subject of happiness, this little girl wasn't quite in the zone when she met Kate during a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the British Land Rover BAR America's cup team centre in Portsmouth.

August, you say? Then it's nearly Christmas! As it was a quiet day, I was sent along to cover a department store's grand opening of its Christmas section, four months ahead of the big day. Most of the photocall was pretty much by the numbers, but then we hatched a plan to turn the whole image of Santa around a bit. While it's cheesier than Wallace's larder, it made me chuckle.

Documenting an annual three-day event, known as the Jalsa Salana, in Hampshire, I photographed a prayer session led by the fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya faith, Mirza Masroor Ahmad. As the group dropped in perfect symmetry to the ground at certain points throughout the session, I noticed one young boy in a wheelchair among the adults. His inclusion in proceedings gave me a really good idea of how the Ahmadi see strength in community and togetherness.

The sun proved a little too much for some people in August, including this man outside the British library. As I saw him flop down with a look of someone suffering from the vapours, I spotted the artwork behind him and thanked the Gods of Serendipity.

With all that horrible nasty summer heat out of the way, the Notting Hill carnival was an absolute washout. The traditional morning and lunchtime parades were sparsely attended as people sheltered from the downpours. Those that did make the effort were greatly appreciated though.

War was breaking out all over the place in September. Potential leaders of the Labour Party fought an exhausting campaign to win the top job. Weeks of campaigning and debating exposed rifts within the party that they're still trying to mend. During the fight, I was sent to get some stock of Liz Kendall doing the rounds in north London. As I've previously witnessed, door-to-door canvassing must surely be one of the most soul-destroying things for a politician. Climbing over rotting mattresses and around over-flowing bins to knock on the door of another empty home is no fun. Mind you, being on camera, Liz kept that smile going.

Taking the battle to a different part of the country, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood drove a "tank" to the doorstep of the Cameron family home in an attempt to raise awareness of the Government's plans to frack the north of England. The day had a number of bizarre moments, but one of the strangest by far was that the police had absolutely no idea it was happening until the armoured vehicle arrived on the country lane, metres from his door. When you consider that members of the media had gathered outside his door fifteen minutes before it arrived, and you could hear it coming from miles away, when it finally rounded the last corner, the police officer on duty looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

A Rugby World Cup preview photo-call that I covered in September went on to become a lot more significant in November when the death of New Zealand Rugby legend Jonah Lomu was announced. I'm no rugby fan but it was quite a thing to witness a traditional Maori haka, particularly featuring Lomu.

Back in the world of fashion, a presentation by Sophia Webster featured an aquatic mermaid theme. Unlike a traditional catwalk show, this was styled like a living exhibition with models poking limbs out of various domestic utensils and reclining in giant clams. A brief moment during the set-up caught the buzz of the event for me.

Next, a moment that could not be further from what would be allowed to happen at the Tory conference as is humanly possible. Newly elected Leader of the opposition Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, came to the aid of Labour councillor Candy Atherton who became stuck when her wheelchair became jammed under the adjustable lectern. Highlighting his technique of just getting on with things, no matter how it looks, he got right in there to look at the problem, much to Ms Atherton's amusement.

Staying at the Labour conference, shadow chancellor John McDonnell pulled this rather odd face as he accepted applause following his address to delegates. There are times when I wished I ran a caption competition on this site.

Moving up north to Manchester for the Conservative conference, the locals made delegates feel welcome with a traditional Mancunian volley of shelled farm produce. After seeing a strong series of pictures from the previous day where what can only be described as a BBC central casting "Toff" got a face full of yolk, I assumed that my chances of catching anything similar were pretty low. However, while covering comings and goings, I heard shouting and found a female hotel worker helping to remove the remains of an albumenic attack from the head of a delegate. As happened with the image above of the police officer at Wimbledon, some online commentators, including a well-known "columnist" *cough* chose to attack the police for standing by while an evil woman broke an egg over the head of a delegate. Ah, why bother to read a caption, eh?

In October, China's President Xi Jinping began a four-day official State visit to Britain and I was given a pool position for the arrival of the President and our Brenda. After securing a good position with plenty of options and view, the moment arrived and a ceremonial guard came and stood right in front of me. Sadly, these guys aren't hired for their waif-like stature, so I was pretty much screwed. Leaning around as best I could, I tried to cut him out of my shot but then, like the fashion photo above, I decided to try leaving him in, giving something a bit different to the normal arrival picture. Happy accidents rule!

Here's a simple one; the bright pink "Party Machine" should be used at all angry protests.

Returning to the O2 for the ATP World Tour finals, I found an angle that I liked as the players arrived on court. Using the lights of the mobile phones in the crowd, it created a spotlight effect which framed Rafael Nadal as he glanced over towards the fans.

I don't know very much about boxing but I know who Chris Eubank is. That made it all the more confusing when he decided to only answer to the name "English" from now on. Anyway, "English" and his son Chris Eubank Jr were attending a press conference to promote Junior's upcoming fight. After the official Q&A was over, I stuck with him and found an angle that showed English's (Do I really have to keep saying that?) attentive looks as his son was interviewed.

Speaking of brutal fighters, the possessions of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went under the hammer in December. The star lot of the night proved to be her despatch box, selling for £242,500, despite its estimate of £3,000-5000. The lighting was strong and I managed to get a position that allowed a true "blackground". The pop of red, company logo and interest from the auctioneer tells the whole story in one frame.

Finally, the year came to an end with the European premiere of the latest in the Star Wars series; "The Force Awakens". Carrie Fisher is marvellous, breaking up what was actually quite a repetitive event. With a huge guest list, the stars were shoved through pretty rapidly and soon I wasn't even noticing who I was shooting. Thankfully, when Princess Leia turned up, she brought her dog with her and after crawling around on the red carpet with it, she went on to attempt to seduce a storm trooper. Top notch.

With that, my year of oddities and favourites is complete. Thanks to you for continuing to follow the blog, thanks to Agence France-Presse for giving me the chance to cover another year of experiences and thanks to Nikon UK for letting me play with all sorts of exciting toys. Here's to a successful 2016 for us all!