Paparazzi

What: Launch of Labour Movement for Europe's Scottish EU campaign

Where: Royal Overseas League, Princes Street, Edinburgh

When: 6th January 2016

With: Nikon D3300

I have never been able to describe my job as dull. In the past two years I have been at the heart of a referendum, its fallout and an historic General Election. This week it took me to the Royal Overseas League in Edinburgh for the Labour Movement for Europe’s Scottish EU campaign launch.

If I am honest when I got my camera this wasn't exactly the type of location I was expecting to be taking pictures. Instead I had visions of stocking up my car and travelling the length and breadth of Scotland to shoot beautiful landscapes and wildlife scenes. (Maybe one day — recommendations welcome!)However it is not everyday you find yourself with the opportunity to take photos at an event with a former Prime Minister.

I have been fortunate to see Gordon Brown at many events and listen to some great ‘barnstorming’ speeches, delivered from memory, whilst pacing the stage, always with an anecdote up his sleeve and the audience in the palm of his hands.

It is a skill very few have, even in Politics today as the sound-bite increasingly replaces substance — a consequence of politics in a social media age? I also thought it would be a tricky skill to capture in a photograph as he is always on the move and speaks with his hands.

In my job I have seen press photographers in action. I ran media relations at one of the final referendum events that Gordon was speaking at and the media attention was global.

A good skill I noticed is nothing to do with the camera itself, it is the ability to get close and personal without a) disrupting the speaker, b) disrupting the audience and c) disrupting the TV cameras set up to film the event/speech etc. I think (and hope) I managed all three, hiding in the shadows.

I was helped by lightening for the TV cameras but I did struggle from read eye, though a quick bit of editing does the trick.

Shooting for only the second time, I’m still using auto mode. Focusing was a challenge at times but I noticed that by focusing above the audience at the back wall and then dropping into the panel I could get them in focus. I’m sure that is known to all photographers but that was a neat trick to work out.

Overall I’m happy with my first go with a DSLR camera at an event, plus I learned a new trick, not bad for a Thursday afternoon.