After last year's Wills and Kate wedding, this year it was the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II which tested the nation's media cliches to breaking point... :)
Once again, it looked like street parties all around if you weren't fortunate (unlucky?) enough to be working for a national or an agency, like
Tabascokid. With four days of festivities over the weekend, plus a week-long build-up in schools and clubs, it also looked like a slog. I was allowed the Sunday off, but this was a week of long days and a loooong weekend otherwise. A lot of extra work was done - I personally filed 25% more images per day over the 7 "Jubilee" days.
The problem with street parties, nowadays, is that people don't associate with their neighbours so much (this is a polite way of putting it!). The gut feeling amongst my colleagues after last year's royal wedding knees-up was that it was like turning up to a succession of family barbecues to get pictures... Even with the roads closed, families were just sitting in little groups or in their front gardens.
However, perhaps it's the practice we've all had now but this year didn't seem quite so bad. There was, I think, a missed opportunity for me locally, with an excellent "500 Years of History" parade (yay, not a street party!) from local groups on the Saturday that I should have been able to spend longer at, and get there earlier, but with the piclist I had it wasn't to be. Once again, after the jubilee was all done I wasn't really happy with what I had shot and filed, either.
But, with a week's distance from the actual moment of pressing the shutter release, there's a few images that I'm now warming to, and hopefully you'll like too...
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Kids in Schools... With the jubilee a part of the National Curriculum, the primary schools
were all holding events of one sort or another. I'll not put names here, or locations, just in
case. We have to have permissions for photography in schools, and it's a nightmare elsewhere.
I still believe the obsession with kiddy-pix vs paranoid child-protection concerns is a minefield
newspapers (local ones particularly) have not yet properly addressed - not the least because editors
are expecting (demanding) to have them, but you try finding somebody to give
parental permission at a street party... |
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Face-painted. This school had been making crowns as part of their take on the monarchy
and its history. |
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Behind a cake at a street party. I had to get her to hold still to line it up, as the wind, light and point of view
weren't co-operating. Luckily, she understood from a distance and held her pose... |
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| At the 500 Years of History parade, a bystander becomes a subject himself. Warwick Neech captures memories in Tunstall Road as the groups go past. I could (should) have spent longer here, and arrived earlier - I got there just as the parade was moving off, but had to leave before it reached it's destination. Note to stewards: a somewhat offhand "Better late than never", when I rush up and ask what the route will be, is not a good phrase to use when my picture list is as busy as it was... |
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| Part of the build-up in the week before; a 40's and 50's - themed jubilee tea party with a singer, Annie Love, at the Leysdown Over 60's club. Rose Overland as a Pearly Queen sings a duet. Shot at a slow shutter speed with them walking and me moving to keep up; as is the random nature of such things, the singer is sharp but the Pearly Queen has some movement. She's sharp enough, thanks to the flash, for me to like it. |
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| A Jubilee Fish and Chip supper at The Freedom Centre, Sheerness; a meeting place for those with disabilities to socialise and get creative with art and games. Claire Barnes in patriotic garb and gear. |
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| Young DJ at a Street Party on the Saturday, under a Union flag gazebo. This was the best picture from this job, and pretty much the only one that I took a liking to on the day itself... |
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| A young man makes a draw at a game at another street party on the Monday. |
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| And finally, the traditional street party table. Not a great pic, but one I was pleased to get, as I wasn't seeing this anywhere else... Whilst it might jam the kids and food closer together, I think the pics from the 50's coronation celebrations work better as their parties were mostly only one table wide... |
