P&O Ship Launch
Anytime my alarm goes off pre 6am can only mean one of two things, I’m either jetting off on holiday or I’ve got a big photoshoot on that day… This was the latter and my first big “event” of 2021 (covid!).
This job came through my good friend and snapper Chris Ison who needed a second editorial photographer for the launch of P&O Cruise’s new ship, Iona. Our brief started when Iona reached the Solent, with Chris shooting from a helicopter it was up to me to shoot from a RIB. Photographing Iona coming into port proved trickier than normal on this occasion, mainly because it was absolutely hammering it down with rain. We did however have a fantastic RIB driver who put us in the exact spots needed and we walked away with some brilliant, albeit grey, footage.
This job was very much news photography focused so once I’d photographed the ship coming in the next major priority was wiring images out to press. We both met back at the media centre, did a quick edit of our best images and wired the photographs out to every national news publication in the UK.
Our afternoon involved photographing PR images for the client and planning how we’d shoot the main launch event that evening. After observing the run-through myself and Chris decided to split shooting into one static photographer centre (Chris) and one roving photographer moving around as the action unfolded (Me).
With a great performance from Gary Barlow the evening’s launch went without a hitch and we got some brilliant photographs, both news focussed and more PR based for the client. A second wire out to press and an edit of the remaining photographs saw the end of my day – 18hrs after it started – All in a days work when photographing an event like this and it’s made totally worthwhile when you wake up the next morning to see your photographs all over national press!
Chris Ison: https://www.christopherison.com/
RIB: https://bluetoothribcharter.co.uk/
