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The bigger or more extravagant the Christmas event, the more chances it gets to make the news and as long a photographer is there to offer his services, then job done.
Then… a few day after everyone sober up, they show love and affection to their family and friends, specially the kids. And don’t kids just love Christmas? No idea though, that their parents got utterly plastered during the same festivity.
Nothing to do with Jesus’ birth though, don’t take my word for it, look it up!
Anyway… photographs to do with Christmas, its build-up and crescento… honestly I wouldn’t know where to start.
Here in Wales a lot of things happen that scream Christmas and make the news and at the end of the day, I am only making my living looking through a camera and pressing a silly button (called shutter release button to be utterly pedantic) at the right time, which someone called it “decisive moment“, a phrase that us press photographers love to use when we get great pictures.
Don’t get me wrong, it takes some skill to know what to look for, frame it and press the button at the right time.
I love the moment on the picture above, spoiled a bit by that other Santa runner in the background and if only the mast had a flag on it, any flag!
Did I mention that utter silliness can make the news too? What better way to show it, than have a powerful news picture with the news article?
Not a great sense of running and the gaps between runners are quite obvious in the picture above but at least you get a scale of the number of Santas running.
For more images from the above event, please click here
Now then… it all started as Black Friday, then the Yanks took over and decided that Black Friday is when people spend loads of cash before Christmas. “How dare you call Black Friday something so unholy (getting pissed yeah sic.) when it can only mean the sacred act of spending?” said Donald Trump in an angry letter to Teresa May.
It is now affectionately called Black Eye Friday, Black Friday or even Booze Friday, us photographers refer to it as booze-watch and hey, why not? Let the Yanks change it again if they don’t like it.
When I posted the picture above to my facebook page, someone commented that “their mothers’ must be so proud”. He was of course being sarcastic. Then someone else commented in response: “How can they be? Their sons nicked their tablecloths to wear on a night out!”
There was an unusually high number of arrests by South Wales Police during the night. I mean, I have photographed quite a few of those events but never experienced so many arrests.
The man above struggled to get up, only to be mocked by the girls on the left. C’mon girls, where is your Christmas spirit? Help the poor man out!
To see our full set of images from the above event, please click here
This was taken on Christmas Eve, being a Sunday, it was bound to be busy with shoppers in Oxford Street, Swansea. This just happened on my way back to my car. Two shop workers manouevre a big Sale sign to position, assisted by their colleague outside.Getting ready for Boxing Day Sales. Whoo-hoo, lets return all the expensive stuff and get it cheaper… I say!!!!
No reason not to stop and take a picture of the dramatic sky en route to photograph the annual Christmas Day Swim in Porthcawl. To be honest, I don’t quite like HDR but other people just absolutely adore it.
That’s what readers of certain tabloid newspapers like, blonde girls in angel wings. Before you start saying, yes, the lens got a bit wet hence the softness.
Back in the good old days they were using Vaseline to achieve the same soft focus effect, I used sea water, what’s the big deal?
Great expression of the man above and I love the somehow motionless pose of the woman on the left, as well as the couple hugging in the background. If only the man was wearing a Santa hat!
To access all of our pictures from the Christmas Swim in Porthcawl, click here
This was taken at the Walrus Dip, a swim taking place on Boxing Day at Cefn Sidan beach in Carmarthenshire, great laughs and movement, shame it was a bit underexposed.
Great opportunity to photograph the stars of the show, without these RNLI men, these events wouldn’t happen at all.
Before I go though, here is something that the BBC will never, ever broadcast, in case children listen… Santa is not real kids!
Our Walrus Dip collection is here
To search through our entire archive, please click here
© Athena Picture Agency Ltd, proud suppliers of news and press photography, pr public relations photography, sports photography, features photography, stock and aerial photography in Wales, UK
]]>It has been almost a year since Paul Clement took over as manager of Swansea City AFC, from his predecessor Bob Bradley.
Athena Picture Agency were there as the exclusive sports photographers working with the only Premier League Club in Wales, to offer them a great service of documenting his work, from taking charge of training sessions, speaking to the media, during match days and even when new signings would arrive at the Club.
It is always sad when a manager leaves. He loved Wales, and it’s such a shame that the line of work of a football manager can be so cruel, in less than 12 months, he effectively became from hero to zero.
We, at Athena Picture Agency, love sports photography and access in most Swansea City events was exclusive to us.
To access, more than 1000 images of Paul Clement, please click here
Swansea City AFC said in a statement about the departure of Paul Clement:
Swansea City chairman, Huw Jenkins, confirmed: “To change the manager, especially at only the halfway point of the season, is the last thing we wanted to do as a club.
“We had three different managers last season and as a result we all wanted to give Paul as much time as possible to turn things around.
“But we felt we couldn’t leave it any longer and needed to make a change to give us the best chance of an uplift and a turnaround in fortunes with the club bottom of the Premier League.
“Paul has been at the club for 12 months and what he achieved in the second half of last season to keep us in the top flight was a tremendous feat. For that, and his effort and commitment this season, it goes without saying that the club thanks him for his work, together with Nigel (Gibbs) and Karl (Halabi).
“I have had an excellent working relationship with Paul and we are all, including the owners, surprised and disappointed it hasn’t worked out this season.
“We wish Paul every success in his career going forward.’’
ON THE TRAINING PITCH
DURING MARCH DAYS
Paul Clement walks on the pitch of the Liberty Stadium, Wales, UK
DURING PRESS DAYS
To see more of our Swansea City AFC material, please click here
© Athena Picture Agency Ltd, proud suppliers of news and press photography, pr public relations photography, sports photography, features photography, stock and aerial photography in Wales, UK
]]>More often than not, weather phenomena tend to be on the top of the list of picture editors and news-gatherers alike, but it is rarely an easy task.
Whether a photograph can be taken or not, relies heavily on the photographer having the right gear with him, and I am not referring to cameras and lenses! Right gear might be a pair of Wellington boots, or even a spare pair of dry socks.
What might be involved is climbing a mountain, or walking through snow, ice, even cow manure. Gloves are essential and appropriate clothing a must.
On the other hand, a press photographer might be prepared, but very rarely does a photographer have the luxury of a pre-arranged photo-shoot to depict the weather. This would be more of a “photo-call” rather than a news picture.
When the weather turns cold and snowy, my first port of call is the stunning Brecon Beacons in mid Wales, a trully stunning location to photograph, irrespective of the weather. It has a few different things in terms of terrain and a variety of photography can be achieved including news and landscape.
I found myself going to the Brecon Beacons twice recently. The A4059, between Penderyn and the A470 can be quite a difficult road to drive on when it has snowed, as it’s more likely iced over.
Nevertheless, knowing when and where to stop and obviously what to look out for, is what drives a competent press photographer.
Safety is of paramount importance and you can’t just stop your car, switch your hazard lights on and wait for a picture to miraculously happen right in front of your very eyes.
During my first trip, it was really early in the morning and everything still had a light blue hue.
The picture above shows the stretch of road which is pretty much right bretween Penderyn and the A470 junction, and works well with a long tele-photo lens. In this instance I used my Canon 400mm f4.0 DO.
I only wish there was more snow either side, or even a layer of snow on top of the car, but hey, you can’t have it all.
On the same road, just a few miles closer to the A470 I safely stopped in a layby, and for this shot I used my Canon 24-105 on its wide end.
Not a particularly fruitful day in terms of stunning news-worthy pictures, enough though to get me a couple of online hits.
For our whole set of pictures from the day, click here.
My second trip was somewhat more rewarding. It was again a weekday, schools were closed in the area, the sun was shining with nice blue skies everywhere, which not only makes for a better photograph, it helps with people’s mood too, they tend to smile more which is usually what picture editors go for.
The couple above seemed to have had more fun than their two young children, who gave up after only a couple of attempts, as they tended to pirouette more on their sledge than go straight down the slope.
The parents had a big sledge, not sure though it was enough for two adults, nevertheless they couldn’t stop laughing. Not only did they sleigh down the slope, but they seem to slide forward, off their sledge too.
This works best as a triptych. I felt sorry for the poor man, he later confided in me that he his pair of skis was not very good with soft snow and they kept digging in.
My second day in the Beacons got me a hit in The Times, as well as a good few online hits.
For more pictures, see here.
Third day didn’t involve much travelling. To start off, I only had to open my Velux window in my attic. and this was the result.
If only the moon was nearer the horizon so I could have included more of the rooftops.
Moments later, I was walking on the road outside my house. The iced over road surface was not as visible but still worked, well… just about.
Having just a few minutes to photograph before I moved on to the seafront, it was impossible to get someone walking on the pavement or even crossing the road, which would have been great. Instead, I was happy to get a picture of a travelling car.
My walk by the beach was more rewarding. Very quiet with the odd office worker pausing to take selfies with the sunrise in the background, or even with a couple of dog walkers on the beach.
What was strange, was a low flying cloud funneling through the entrance to Swansea Port which had to be part of my frame. From where I was standing, I could also see the sun rising. To get the shot below, I had to keep moving as did the walker and his dog.
My Canon 70-200mm f2.8 was just stunning and focusing either on the man’s silhouette or on the horizon beneath the sun was done effortlessly.
I even managed to squeeze a few frames from the promenade, a good few metres from the beach.
Thank you Mr Dog Walker, who ever you are!
JPEG compression however came to spoil the end result a bit as the file needs to be compressed so that it transfers quicker. That’s the reason it is so essential to always keep the original JPEG or even better, the RAW version of the file.
To look through our entire set of images, click here.
Upon my return to the Council car park, I discovered that a token was needed to exit and had to wait for 10 minutes until the Library would open.
I was prepared for weather phenomena in terms of cemeras, lenses and clothes, but that I wasn’t prepared for.
© Athena Picture Agency Ltd, proud suppliers of news and press photography, pr public relations photography, sports photography, features photography, stock and aerial photography in Wales, UK
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