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Back again. You remember me?

October 13, 2014
Military work
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I think it is almost a year since I was here. Certainly it has been a long time, too long. So I will keep this short. I have saved drafts of new posts that will be more in depth that will attempt to bridge the gap of the last 12 months or so.

You know the worst thing? As a 42 year old man, I got a telling off for not posting for so long. Dad was not amused. 😉

Let me be honest though. I have not dropped off the edge of the planet, things have still been busy. I seem to spend a lot of my time wandering across Germany from location to location, and sometimes even outside Germany too.

I won’t go on too much now.

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The job remains as active and interesting as it always has, and no matter what goes on, I still get to visit new places experience new things and get the chance to photograph them.

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On one day this week we were sent out to capture the Royal Engineer reserves training on the M3 rig (for some that will mean nothing), it is essentially a bridge that you can drive to a river or waterway, open it up and voilà, as if by magic you have a bridge.

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The reserves were being taught how to crew and pilot the huge machine.

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I promise there will be more to come soon. I have still got so much to catch up on.

Revisiting the past and the affirmation of your choices

June 13, 2013
Afghanistan, Military work, Portraits
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We make potentially life changing decisions on a regular basis, we react to our surroundings our experiences and try to make the best choices we can.

101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten

When I joined the British Army all that time ago, I joined as the Royal Military Police (there goes half my readers), I had an amazing introduction to Army life and the life has changed me so much in a positive way I no longer remember the shy timid person I was.  Anyone still with me?

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I am now a photographer with the Royal Logistic Corps (there goes the other half), and the job I do has an essential need for this confidence.  I don’t think I am an overbearing person, well not until a couple too many sociables… er hello?

101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten

I look back on my RMP days with pride, I still have many friends in their ranks, although ever being replaced with young people who are obviously too young to even be in the Army.  I have nothing but great memories even patrolling in the Arctic circle in -40.  It is fair to say I even miss it from time to time.  It’s all gone very quiet in here.

101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten 101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten 101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten

Do I have any regrets?  Well the really honest answer is no, why would I.  I can put my hand on my heart now and tell you I quite possibly have the best job in the Army, in fact if Heineken……..

As you can see from these images I covered a recent parade in Germany as part of the withdrawal from Germany.  A sad day because after such a long time, ties with the local community are inevitable and once we depart they will need to much more work to try and keep them alive.

101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten

Now I do try to keep in contact with quite a few of my old mates, so this does mean I have on occasion socialised with RMP, although I am now talking to myself now.  I accept I miss being with a bunch of guys that do a great job and yet receive little recognition (nor do they crave it).  That said, I now have new skills that enable me to show them off a little now, although not often.  I enjoy working with them and I hope I do them justice.

101 Provost Company exercise the freedom of Xanten

I guess all I am trying to say is this.  Life is too short to have regrets, look back and smile, look forward and focus on whatever you see ahead.  Oh and don’t live in fear of the unknown.

More Royalty and the Rifles march on

July 17, 2012
Military work
1 Comment

Wow, where have the last two weeks gone?  Work has been crazy, a new promotion and a busy diary have contributed to my head spinning.

Having spent a vast amount of time in Afghanistan recently, it is natural to take some time to get back into the real world.  Life in Afghanistan in many ways is simple, you get up do your job, eat and sleep, there is not too much more to do.  Life back home seems so much more complicated as a result.

Getting the kids to school, sorting out the kids passport, chasing bills and paying invoices, meeting clients, and even at times taking the odd photograph, it all seems like there is so much to do.

So the tasking came in to photograph a home coming parade for some local press journalists from the UK came up.  This is after all our job so this is not a problem and it also gets me out of the office doing what I enjoy so its a winner all round.

I have never photographed a Rifles parade before so I was there early to get a good look around and make sure everyone knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go.  In the middle of a parade it can be quite daunting to wander onto parade and shoot away.

 

It is mostly a simple case of letting certain people know what your intentions are and they will be fine.  They also know that they will be getting copies of the shots for their own use too so everyone’s  a winner.

 

The weather in Germany has been as bad as the UK recently so that will tend to be an issue but you can’t plan for every eventuality although in this case we worked out being quite lucky.

All in all it was a good day and we got some good coverage in the press back home.

Royalty everywhere.

June 18, 2012
Military work
5 Comments

As an Army photographer we get plenty of opportunities to photograph royalty, often on more than one occasion.  In my short career so far I have had the opportunity to photograph Prince Philip, Prince Charles (and Camilla), Princes William and Harry and the Duke of Kent.  I know some of my colleagues would laugh at this list but the fact of the matter is that we are spoiled a bit, these opportunities can lose their sheen a little.  The last opportunity was photographing Prince Philip as he presented medals to about a hundred soldiers from the Queens Royal Hussars in Paderborn, Germany.  For a man who at the time was just getting to his 91st birthday he was inspirational.  I hope you like the images.