Holi One London

When I photographed the Holi One event in Southampton a little while ago, I did it just for fun after managing to get my hands on a media pass.  I blogged about it, just as I'm doing here, and on the back of someone seeing it and showing my work to my new client, I got myself a very last minute gig to shoot the London event.

The confirmation phone call came less than 24 hours before they wanted me on site.  The gig was shooting promotional photos for the marketing consultancy who look after one of the main drinks brands on sale there.

The day of the job was a tad tricky logistically, with both a slightly poorly vehicle and a Photo Experience Day with 17 people in the New Forest.   I was at Enterprise picking up a rental car at 8am that morning, then to Lyndhurst until 3pm, and from there I had to fight my way through the broken motorways (A34 and M4) all the way to Wembley.  I knew as long as I arrived by around 5pm I'd have plenty of time / daylight to get the shots for the clients.

The event was much busier than Southampton, with twenty-thousand people in a car park just a stones throw from Wembley Stadium.  Being able to get backstage and also on stage made such a difference to the audience photos.  Sometimes you really do just need proper access to be able to do justice to the event.

Much fun and a couple of free beers later, and the job was done.  As before I think my favourite shots are the portraits of punters covered in colour and obviously having a great day.  I do really enjoy shooting this event, perhaps I need to pitch myself to the organisers as their official photographer next year?

PS.  Both of my Olympus cameras, E-M5 and E-M1 performed flawlessly again.  I had to dust them off the following day, but all working fine still!