Worthing Birdman 2011

The text on the Worthing Birdman Website describes it:

"The Birdman is a flight competition for human powered flying machines held each summer in the picturesque seaside town of Worthing on England\'s South Coast.
Many flyers take part to raise money for charities, other design complex machines to aim for the distance prizes. A substantial prize of £10,000 is offered for the furthest flight should a birdman achieve over a 100 metre distance"

The Saturday is reserved for the “Serious Flyers” but with the wind causing a significant swell this year, only two demonstration flights were made before flying was cancelled for the day.

Sunday saw a lower wind speed and so flying started on time with the charity flyers. I say flyers but really they are “jumpers”. Many are in elaborate fancy dress aiming to win a prize by providing the best entertainment. The work that many put into this is fantastic only for them to be wrecked during the jump:

Although the wind was lower than Saturday, it was still strong enough to blow the light (mostly cardboard) creations in the opposite direction of the jumpers so the images are not quite what they could have been.

Following the fun flyers were the serious competitors, measuring wind, aiming to win the £10,000 jackpot. First came Dusan Vuletic all the way from Serbia who managed to stay in the air for 3 seconds, wrecking his purpose made craft in the process.

After Dusan came the remainder of the contenders, mainly in modified hang gliders although the winning flight of the day was Dr Bill Brooks with a flight of 78.4m in his purpose built flying machine.

An event such as The Birdman is made for photography – people doing outrageous things in a picturesque location. The problem we have though is where to shoot it from. The press photographers are placed out on the pier looking back at the flyers with the town beyond. This is ideal except, being on the fishing deck, we are too low. Ideally we would want to get the flyer filling much of the image but still with enough background to put the image into context; Where are they jumping from? is it high? How about the location? From our location we can either shoot a wide image – putting the whole jump into context but loosing the detail of the flyer or crop in tight but loosing all context.

If the aim is national press I know that the most they might use is one image and that single image is not able to convey the jump fully. (As the coverage in the national press proved).

Much is made of the jumpers and the town but I think many thanks should go to the guys in the water keeping the flyers safe:

All in all a great enjoyable event for the town where I live. Good fun and I look forward to next year!

You may see more of my images here..

Keep Out!

Now the summer is here it’s great to get back out on the bike/skates/running shoes in the sun to try and burn a bit of the fat off I put on over the winter (I am a fair weather exerciser!)

My plan is to jump on the bike at least once a week for increasing longer rides locally, taking a light camera kit to build both stock and maybe “art” images along the way. So far I have been heading north and east but Sunday I headed west; toward Littlehampton.

The South Coast Cycle route heads inland just west of Worthing but I thought I would ignore that and try to wind my way along closer to the sea. I soon found out why it heads inland; the coastal area between Ammering and Littlehampton is full of private estates all declaring no public right of way. I am all for privacy but not even having bridleways through the estates near the sea?

No Fun!

This sign is right next to the beach, beside a wide strip of grass. As I walked my cycle along the path with the sea on my left and 6ft high walls on my right I could not help feel that allowing many of those things would not cause a problem. All the houses nearby had big gardens but I’m sure the children growing up there would much prefer to picnic and play by the sea..

There were many of these estates and “Keep Out” became the theme of my ride. I could not help but be drawn to this “No Trespassing / Way In” sign combination..

Trespassers / Way In

Down by the river (on the west side of Littlehampton), there was a different reason for keeping out; the bridges and walkways were just too rickety..

No Admission

All in all, 3 hours in the sun, 25 miles covered and a new batch of stock.

Limited Edition

I am pleased to announce a new limited edition print/canvas.

Peace over the pier (click to enlarge).

You may also view the image in the shop larger without a watermark here..

The photo was taken on Worthing beach on the morning of the 2nd January.

As with all my art prints, this will be limited to a total run of 25. This means unlike canvases or prints you purchase in stores, you are almost guaranteed that it will be unique among your colleagues. I also guarantee that once 25 versions are sold, that will be all, ever.

Business and Pleasure

It’s an old adage that one should not mix business and pleasure but I’m not really sure it applies to photography.

On Saturday night I left my family at home (as I do many weekends) to photograph K T Tunstall (and support) at Brighton Dome.

The Pictish Trail

First the support (Johnny Lynch / The Pictish Trail; very entertaining ). Having shot a the first couple of songs I relaxed at the back of the venue with the other photographers discussing upcoming acts and commissions.

K T Tunstall

Next up was K T Tunstall. Her show seemed to have more of an “edge” than shows in the past (looking at photos going back I think thats true).

K T Tunstall

She sounded really great and I have to say it was another of the gigs where I would have really liked to stay longer. My only disappointment from the evening is I did not manage to get a good iPhone crowd shot. (I got an iPhone for christmas and since then I have been trying to take unusual quick views of the audience and pit at every gig).

Sunday evolved like most Sundays along the coast, (although I started with editing the night’s before shots);  A nice breakfast followed by a walk along the front (in the feeble attempt to walk off the eggs, bacon etc). As aways one camera is over my shoulder as we walked down Worthing’s to “Splash Point” which has recently been re-developed.

Splash Point

I captured this image of children playing in the mist/fountain with a small rainbow; a nice joyful editorial stock shot.

So you see, my work life and private life totally overlap, for me business IS pleasure (and visa versa in fact). The key is commitment, enjoyment  and balance…

Worthing sunset panorama

For the last week I have been mainly office bound, doing accounts and edits. However yesterday I had to leave the building for 5 minutes as I had run out of milk!

The radio was full of news about poor weather, snow and ice but the light I saw as I walked to the shops was amazing. So much so I turned round grabbed the camera (D700 + 50mm in you’re interested), tripod, panoramic head and headed for the beach.

The result was an image I have had in my head for quite some time; a 13 image panorama of the sunset, beach and pier.



The image could be printed up to 4M long, perfect for the walls of a local business!

Holly Walsh, Birdmen and Vintage

The last few days have been busy – with far more to come in the next week. Its’s great to be busy.

My first event this weekend was “Vintage” – a great new festival featuring a mix of fashion, art and music. A wonderful event with a lovely atmosphere which could not be dampened despite the rain trying it’s level best. I had planed to cover all 3 days but due to a personal matter on Friday and the accident on Sunday (see below), I only made Saturday..

Goodwood Vintage Festival Day 2 : Hiding from the rain

I hope it succeeds and if so, I will be back camping there for the full 3 days next year…

So Sunday and the accident. No, not my accident but Holly Walsh from children’s BBC. She was jumping (defiantly not flying!) in the Worthing Birdman for charity. Unfortunately as she landed she suffered some injuries to her arm and had to be recovered by the lifeboat. News images available for licensing here…



This delayed the event so to ensure I had the whole story, I stayed. A good choice because the winning flight or 81M was the final flight of the day.


The full Birdman gallery (not including the Holly Walsh accident – contact me for license information) is here..

Recently used online….

A busy week this week; Monday was David Gray at The Roundhouse and last night was “The Magic Numbers” in Brighton. Tonight I am taking an evening off before tackling “The Tower Music Festival” tomorrow night and then a few days at “The Goodwood Revival” (off to Brighton in a moment to find an outfit as if I want trackside access, I need to be in period dress).


I will post images from this week over the weekend but just thought I would link to a couple of sites that have used my images in recent weeks (a reciprical link is always a friendly thing to do)..

First, there was frightfest,using my image on thier home page. (The dailymail published a few frightfest images).

Finally, on the homefront, I photographed Prof. Glyn Edwards and Punch and Judy 200M from home.