Pedal for Parkinsons
One of my favourite clients is the charity Parkinson’s UK – I’ve shot various PR stuff in the north east, and I cover the Great North Run for them as a means of giving something back. The charity organises all sorts of active events for its supporters – from climbing mountains, to participating in marathons. One of the events that grow in popularity on a yearly basis are the bike rides in various parts of Britain. The Pedal for Parkinson’s event in Stirling is one of the efforts that help to raise £££’s annually. A couple of summers ago, I was lucky enough to cover the whole thing for Parkinsons UK. The brief had a few specifics, and took some graft to fulfil.
I set off from my home on Saturday afternoon, and stayed in a small room in the Stirling Uni halls of residence in Bridge of Allen. I took a walk into Stirling City Centre to have a look around, and get something to eat. The city is beautiful, and my location was spot-on, if a bit basic. The security at reception treated me with a bit of deference, as my booking had been made online through hotels.tv, and they assumed I was some sort of celebrity. (For 10 seconds). It was going to be a long sunday, so I bedded down nice and early, only to be rudely awoken by several hundred unsupervised teenagers who had been let loose on the complex because of an international football tournament. Imagine hundreds of horny, drunk 14/15 year olds of both sexes chasing each other round a complex of corridors after a disco without any parental supervision until 6am, and that’s my night in a nutshell. No sleep. NO SLEEP. I was up at 6.30, to get showered, get kitted up, and get the f*** outta there while the teenagers kipped soundly for several hours.
Anyway, there were no breakfast facilities, so I had to try and get through a 12 hour day as best I could. Luckily, the events team had put together some sandwiches, fruit, and hot drinks, so I could fuel up. My brief was many-faceted – general reportage shots of the participants and staff before & after the event, a huge group shot of all the cyclists at the start line, and the difficult bit – shots of ALL finishers crossing the finishing line, and ALL finishers holding their medals, plus group shots of all who could be congregated together.
The reportage stuff is bread and butter – it’s just a case of wandering around with 2 cameras, shooting faces, conversations, and capturing the build-up to the event. It takes an experienced eye to find angles, and little scenarios that look interesting though. The group shot took a few minutes to set up. I had a megaphone, so got up on a ladder & beckoned the participants across to the starting line. I was a good six feet in the air using a 24-70mm lens on a Nikon D800, and got 30 frames off to ensure there were at least a few perfect images with everybody’s eyes open & waving furiously. Cheesy equals Press Success.
After capturing the riders leaving the starting position, there was a lovely rest period of a couple of hours before they started finishing. I had a plan for this – a Nikon D3 with 70-200mm fast lens for the “action shots” of riders finishing, then a D800 with 24-70mm for the medal shots. The heavens opened halfway through the ride, with a spectacular thunderstorm which flooded part of the course. I had to stow my kit in a bag, underneath a table to prevent it from getting a complete soaking while we waited for the first arrivals.
We didn’t have to wait long, as there were a few elite riders involved – they zoomed in, and out in no time – not stopping for any medal shots. Things began to ramp up when the general participants started getting back. Frame, focus, shoot….frame, focus shoot….again & again. Once a rider finished, and got their medal, I would get them in a certain location to get a medal shot, then spot another finisher, spin round, change camera, & frame…focus…shoot again.
This routine went on for hours. It’s a form of psychological torture, as there is never any letup in the finishers coming through. Not as bad as the Great North Run mind you, but completely draining. The pressure is relieved by some of the lovely people, and the reactions of participants, relatives & friends who have never completed a distance like this before. The picture below says it all – the sheer joy of achieving something tough in order to support those loved-people who have undergone real physical hardship due to this progressive disease.
There were some minor casualties en-route, and some non-finishers. I hung around until about 5pm. the events team started to pack up their gear for the long drive to London. I only had a casual 4 hour journey through some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen, and got back home for a neck massage & ice-cold beer. I’ve not covered the event since then due to budgetary constraints, so an employee or volunteer uses their camera now (it’s happening everywhere), but I still cover the Great North Run each autumn. Now that’s a different story. The images were delivered the following morning – indexed using the bib numbers. I’ve seen some of the shots in the press, & in promo literature for Parkinsons. Job’s a good’un.
