An owd 'togs blog

Booking Two Jobs A Day, A Public Relations Rarity

May 092011

Something that seems to have become an endangered species in Public Relations photography is booking two jobs in a day. According to the diary it looked like being fairly straightforward with one booking to shoot “behind the scenes” images of the 888.com sponsored Premier League Darts at Sheffield Motorpoint Arena for Sky Preview Magazine, a publication aimed at licensees who use Sky sporting broadcasts to help bring in customers. Suddenly the day before the Darts my phone rings and a second clients needs a job shooting the same day as Skys at this point Murphy’s law will generally kick in dictating that either

The two jobs are at the same time and on the same day.
The two jobs are the same day, aren’t at the same time but they do overlap
The two jobs are the same day, don’t overlap but the distance between locations makes photographing them both impossible.

It looked like number three would kick in. The second job was in Cleethorpes on the east coast, photographing the interior layout of Halletts Lifestyle convenience store and some of their staff who had just won a national award as Blakemore Wholesale/ Lifestyle Retailer of the Year 2010/11. The job was urgent, a plus for me as it meant the client was happy with a morning shoot and booking number two had just become booking number one. I had, for once, given Murphy the slip and had two jobs on the diary.

By 09:45 I had driven the 75 miles to Cleethorpes and was already shooting. By 15:05 I had made it back to the office edited, processed, captioned and distributed the digital files to the client. With just enough time to produce an invoice and grab something to eat it was then off to the Premier League Darts.

One of the countless things I love about being a full time professional News & PR photographer is the variety. Going from shooting the aisles of traditional a seaside corner shop, even if it is the best in the country, to the showmanship and razzmatazz of televised Premier League Darts is nothing if not varied.

The Double Page Spread in the Sky Preview Magazine

Lincolnshire Lottery Syndicate Scoop £4.1 Million Jackpot

Mar 072011

Share|

A Lincolnshire based Lottery Syndicate has won a whopping £4.1 Million Jackpot from the February 5th 2011 Lottery draw. Syndicate member Andrew Mowat with his wife Christine and syndicate members John & Chris Bell and Joe Burton went public at a press conference in Sleaford on Monday (7th March).
John and Chris play seven of the syndicates ten lines giving them a massive £2.9 Million pound Share while Andrew and Joe collected £419,776 each. A fifth Syndicate member chose to stay anonymous.

The ticket with the Jackpot winning Lottery numbers 33 34 37 40 41 47 was bought at Browns Newsagents in Coningsby and was one of two winning tickets from the Saturday draw that shared a roll-over Lotto Jackpot of £8,395,528

Grimsby EuroMillions Jackpot Winners

Feb 082011

Share|

Grimsby Couple Sue and Lee Mullen are celebrating a life changing £4.8 Million win on last weeks EuroMillions (4th February 2011). The couple only started playing the national lottery Six weeks ago after Sue had a dream they were going to win. At the press conference Lee explained how they used to play the national lottery but gave up some years ago when they missed out winning the jackpot because they couldn’t afford a ticket to play their usual line of numbers. Disillusioned by seeing their six numbers drawn but not having bought the ticket they said they would never play again, that is until Sues dream. The couple began to play the Monday and Wednesday National Lottery draws and the Friday EuroMillions Draw it was Saturday morning when Sue checked the laptop to see if they had won.

“I thought hang on a minute, my ticket looks exactly the same as that! I dragged my husband out of the bathroom to take a look and then dragged my eldest son out of bed too! We just couldn’t believe it! we jigged around the living-room together for about an hour before I could call Camelot. we have been on cloud nine ever since!” said Sue.

Sue who is registered disabled and Lee who was medically discharged from the Royal Navy and are both unable to work told how “money has always been tight” but Lee said they will not be cavalier with their win. He said of his old 1999 T registered Mondeo

“I will keep the car and when I feel I need to I will go and take a look it, It will remind me of how things used to be and keep my feet on the ground”

Sue and Lee Mullen from Grimsby are just one of three UK Winners celebrating a £4.8 Million EuroMillions win, their share of the £24.3 Million pound Jackpot, which was split between a total of 5 winners.

Doncaster Lottery Winners (II)

Oct 272010

Share|

I don’t know what it is about Doncaster people but they do seem to have more than their fair share of luck when it comes to lottery jackpot winners. My very first blog post on the 6th of July this year was about Donny pals Wally and Allan who scooped up a cheque for £2 million pounds. Less than four months later I have a strange feeling of Déjà vu as a second Doncaster syndicate, consisting of Dad Les Holmes (58) and his sons Mark (28) and Ian (32), collect a cheque from Camelot, this time for £6.7 million pounds, their share of Saturdays (23rd Oct) double roll over jackpot.

The three have played the same line and number combinations for the past 12 years “We Religiously play the same numbers which we chose at the start, but we never thought we would land the jackpot” said Mark. Oddly his girlfriend Holly saw a fortune teller back in June who told her she would have some luck and the number 7 would be important. The winning numbers were 2, 3, 14, 29, 35 and the bonus ball was 12 before you all break out the calculators to work out the significance of the number 7, it was set of balls 7 that produced the winning combination of numbers.

So what exactly do you do with a winning lottery ticket after checking the numbers, calling the other syndicate members and calling the winners hot line to confirm it? Apparently you keep it in an old biscuit tin just in case there is a fire, Although I have heard that a winner from Glasgow took their ticket to the local police station and had it locked up because of their fear of being burgled…..

Doncaster Lottery Winners

Jul 062010

Share|

I met two very nice guys yesterday Alan Stringer and Wally Jinks, Doncasters newest Millionaires they scooped a cheque for £2 Million pounds from the National lottery Jackpot for June 19th 2010. The pair didn’t discover they had won until six days after Wally and his wife Dawn returned from a five day Holiday on Jersey.

Click The image to view the Gallery or Read the full story