All Change… At The Top

The night of Tuesday the 11th May 2010 was excellent for me, I had decided at the last minute to see what was happening in Downing Street. The hustle and bustle of the previous few days after the general election had been manic with a hundred Chinese whispers circulating around the Westminster Press pack as to what was going on at any particular moment in the negotiations between the tree main political parties. Nick clegg was here then he was there… Gordon brown was resigning, then he wansn’t… Clegg and Cameron had made a deal then they hadn’t!

As I entered downing street I had peter Mac from Getty Images behind me weilding a monster lens and the coppers on the gate telling me that I was very lucky to get in as the street was going into lock down very shortly indeed. The area of the street that had been set aside with platforms and barriers for the press, directly opposite the door of number 10, was absolutely jam packed with bodies and lenses. The place was buzzing busily and Thanks to Steveie at Reuters I had nabbed his ladder earlier in the afternoon and luckily I was stuck with it. Perched up precariously as high as I could get. A few minutes went by and out came the lecturn. For the first time ever I was at an event where history was literally in the making.

Number 10 staff look on as Prime Minister Gordon Brown stands along side his wife Sarah and resigns.

Final wave goodbye to the onlooking press and British Public.

The night didn’t finish there, we had a short break while the two main men of the moment went to a very low key meeting with the Queen and then suddenly we were back for Act Two.

David came into Downing Street by car and it stopped short of the line of press for him to walk the last few paces to the microphone. His wife Sam stood back a few steps from her husband, in contrast to Sarah Brown who stood beside her man, but I suppose this was Davids moment. I must admit I didn’t hear any of what he had to say, I was too busy concentrating on his expressions and the Buffer on my D3 reaching its maximum, coping with the uber ammount of RAW Files I was taking.

I have to say as a press photographer you long for days like this and it makes all of those endless doorsteps seem somehow worthwhile. I had a brilliant night and if not the best shots out of all the ones taken or published that night, it was an experience and a half and I have some shots to learn from and try and do it better in 5 years time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Editorial Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, and you can leave a response here.