Long Service – And a Long Day

All photography © Al Macphee/MiraclePR

Saturday 7th August 2021 – Throgmorton Champions Cup Final photography & Ilsington presentations (then home for a party)

Every job has its unique needs which you have to cater for. For the Throgmorton Champions Cup final, I needed to dig the astro turf boots out of the cupboard. The artificial pitch at Coach Road (home of the Devon FA) is new so they like to protect it: no heavy shoes or boots are allowed as they will damage the pitch. Other extra bits of photography kit this week included waterproofs, because the weather forecast was atrocious, and my little seat, because I didn’t want to be standing for two hours (although that’s just a bit of plastic and lives in the car anyway).

I covered the final (which was won by Lapford, beating The Windmill 1-0) and then I was to cover a long service award presentation for Phil Smith, Chairman of the TCS South Devon Football League. It was to be held at Ilsington, Phil’s club, but it was to be presented by the same delegates who were at the cup final so at least there was no way anyone could be late – I was following them up in my car!

I arrived at Lewthorne Cross and noticed a marquee and loads of other trophies on a table in the corner. My heart sinks because I know I have to get back for a family party and I’m now thinking, ‘When are we going to actually get this picture. Is it going to be before or after the other presentations? If it’s before, how do I disappear without seeming rude?’

While you’re here…

We’re still waiting for one delegate from the FA so while we’re sat there killing time, I get into the conversation about how I will need to set things up timewise. I suggest taking Phil out into the gardens early and mocking up the picture. I would need to do that anyway afterwards because marquees, unless they’re carefully decorated like at a wedding, don’t make good photography backdrops. You just get a plain, white, glossy wall with poles around it.

“Yes,” they all said. “Brilliant, thank you.” Then a club delegate comes around and utters the immortal words, “While you’re here…” and my heart sinks again. I asked him when they were going to start and he said about 5pm. That would work. I could still be home and out the house by 7pm for the party.

I told him that the marquee wouldn’t make the best photography backdrop. “Can you hand the awards over and send the recipient out to me?” I suggested. “I’ll stand outside and do a nice, pretty picture with the pitch and the dugout and your sponsor behind.” That worked like an absolute dream. They all did as they were told and we took some nice shots.

Did I make the party? Well, after putting myself under all that time pressure, the missus took so long to get ready that we didn’t leave the house until ten past eight. The burger and hot dogs I had looked forward to all day apparently were very tasty but by the time we arrived, there was hardly any salad, no hot dogs left and I had to make do with a luke warm burger, rescued as the chef was wrapping it up to take home!

Once I’ve eaten, I hear the inevitable question, “Are you getting your camera out then?” I allow myself another coke (I was designated driver) and then the camera comes out, the dance floor fills up, I record the shennanigans and at about one in the morning we decide to go home. I remember seeing quarter past two and the missus asking me, “Can we look at the photos?”

“No!” I say, in my grumpy old, ‘what a silly question’ fashion.

“Can we do it tomorrow?” ZZZZZZZ……..

Sunday 8th August 2021 – Wrapping up a busy weekend of photography

My normal routine on a morning is to spend a couple of hours coming round with coffee. Coffee, coffee, breakfast, cup of tea – that’s my routine. Because of the late night, my ‘morning’ routine didn’t actually start until lunch time, so around two in the afternoon, I am ready to sort out the weekend’s work.

First, a couple of shots from Phil’s presentation had to be emailed across pretty sharpish to the press officer, so he can get the best press coverage for the SDFL. Then it was on to the Carl Throgmorton cup final images. Off went a nice hand-finished selection of around 50 pictures, sent by WeTransfer to the Devon FA’s press contact.

In the middle of all that, I get an email from the winning club Lapford asking how they could see – and maybe order – some of the pictures from the day. They had been in this cup final several times and this was the first time they had won it. They obviously wanted to record it and have some pictures in the clubhouse. That meant batch processing the images at a smaller file size for website upload. That’s where my website gallery comes in handy because I can send the club secretary a link and they can then forward that link to their contacts.

Thursday 12th August 2021 – Feeding the hungry

Last year, early into COVID, a favourite charity of mine, Animals in Distress in Ipplepen put out an appeal. They were doing an online auction to sell bits and pieces to help feed the animals. They have this workflow where they rescue the animals, you pay and adopt the animals and that money goes into rescuing other animals. But they couldn’t rehome animals due to the pandemic so that adoption fee was taken out of the equation. They were suffering.

I saw the appeal for prizes, so I offered to provide doggy portraits. They sold and auctioned some, managing to raise enough money to feed about 16 animals for a month which isn’t bad going. However, COVID has meant that I haven’t really been able to get together with owners to take pictures of the cats and dogs.

I got a phone call on the Thursday from a lady with one of my vouchers, asking whether she could still use it, even though it had technically expired. Although you have to put an expiry date on vouchers so you know what you’re doing from year to year, it’s nobody’s fault that she didn’t get to use it. She had wanted to use it but COVID had got in the way. So, we’ve now set that up for the next week and she’ll finally get that portrait of her dog.

Have a burning photography question you would like Al to write about in his next blog post? Email info@miraclepr.com with your request.