I often have times when I say to myself, “all you have to do is get to the end of this week and everything will be okay… ”. By 7.30am I’m back in the now familiar surroundings of the media centre. Once again I’m the first member of the press through the door. It’s starting to feel like home… Volvo need an empty stand shot and this looks like the only time I’m going to get it.
I bump into Andrew Dunsmore, fellow snapper, all round nice bloke and owner of The Picture Partnership. Andrew seems to be suitably enthralled by the pair of EOS 1D MKIIIs sat beside my MacBook Pro. “They’re a lot lighter than the MKIIs,” he confesses. It’s now day four and neither of them have been anywhere near a battery charger. One shows a shot count of 721 with a remaining 76 percent of battery life, whilst the other shows a shot count of 1023 with a remainder of 52 percent. I’ve been previewing everything too. Come to think of it, I haven’t touched the flashguns either. They’re driven by AA rechargeable batteries, boosted by a pair of Canon power packs. At this rate, you could go a whole week on one charge.
I bump into Andrew Dunsmore, fellow snapper, all round nice bloke and owner of The Picture Partnership. Andrew seems to be suitably enthralled by the pair of EOS 1D MKIIIs sat beside my MacBook Pro. “They’re a lot lighter than the MKIIs,” he confesses. It’s now day four and neither of them have been anywhere near a battery charger. One shows a shot count of 721 with a remaining 76 percent of battery life, whilst the other shows a shot count of 1023 with a remainder of 52 percent. I’ve been previewing everything too. Come to think of it, I haven’t touched the flashguns either. They’re driven by AA rechargeable batteries, boosted by a pair of Canon power packs. At this rate, you could go a whole week on one charge.
If I had to pick a favourite bit, it’s got to be the two designers on the Volvo stand. In previous years we had a gymnast-type woman (who when she wasn’t outside having a fag), dropped down from the ceiling on what looked like a flimsy piece of net curtain. The year before we had a bunch of guys beating the hell out of old oil drums. It’s only a matter of time before the turn is something a great deal more sinister. Anyway, I digress. This year's act was an altogether more sensible choice. Designers Miles Waterhouse and James Dex normally pound the graphics tablet at the firm’s Gothenburg HQ, but for one week only they were the star attraction at the NEC. Most entertaining it was too. You gave them an idea for a futuristic truck design, they drew it.
It’s been great to catch up with a load of the other journalists and photographers I hardly see from year to year. It’s funny old world, the media. We’ll quite happily poke fun at each other’s egotistical verbal broadcasts, often to the point of ridicule. But we’re all guilty of the same crime - each and every last one of us. I’ve always thought it comes with the job. It does with me anyway!
Talking of broadcasts, don’t forget to catch Road Transport TV at www.roadtransport.com/rttv. Both Brian and Andy did a fantastic job putting the whole lot together.
http://www.tomcunningham.co.uk/
2 comments:
Yeah, well when I were a lad it was all “stand still, look at the birdie” while I hide under this black sheet and look for the lens finder-thingy. These days snappers have got it easy…too easy. I remember sitting on the old A6, top of Shap, waiting for a truck to fall off the side.
Days, weeks, months, years I waited. Went through a painful divorce in my absence, and missed out on me kids growing up and being adults. But I were dedicated to me art, people never understood. It wasn’t about opportunity, it was about making opportunity. I went to Shap a young man and returned a veteran.
Did a truck fall off the side, you ask? Yes, it did, but I were asleep at a Travelodge near the M55 when it happened. It were the cheapest and nearest in them days. Although I missed it I vowed never to move from me spot until it happened again. I used to get food packages from passing motorists. Mostly empty wrappers and a yellowy liquid in different sized bottles, but it were enough to survive I can tell you.
When I turned 65 I got a phone call from the magazine relieving me of me duties. I was replaced by a sensor-operated camera that remains switched off until something hits the barrier. It gets checked twice a year.
In the best part of 50 years I never took one picture. Bloody drivers and their steering wheels, driving on the road and not going over the side of Shap to an instant death, making me a classic “moment frozen in time” picture I could sell as a postcard… Could have retired on that, a millionaire.
Still shouldn’t complain…
No Lens you really should get out more. I dunno, try mountain biking or something.
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