A day on the water

Due to work commitments I don't actually get to do that much freelance stuff these days. However, last Autumn I had the pleasure of doing some freelance work for Ebay UK, covering the 2012 Great River Race held on the River Thames, which ebay is a major sponsor of. I'd not heard of the event until I got involved - rowing isn't something I follow - but looking back on it, it's spurred me on to cover more events where I'm on the go constantly and have to work on-the-fly.

As mentioned, the guys at Ebay sponsor the event and for several years have entered teams into the 22-mile race that starts near Canary Wharf and finishes at Ham near Richmond. This year was the company's biggest turnout; eight teams and nearly 70 staff from within Ebay and its subisidary companies, Paypal and Gumtree. It's all done in the name of charity and this year saw in excess of 180 boats compete with nearly 1,000 rowers all told. It's a massive event that's been running from humble beginnings back in the late 1980s.

My brief was to document the day from the perspective of the Ebay team. From getting on the coach at Ebay headquarters in Richmond, through the pre-race set-up and then onto the actual race (and later the post-race celebrations) I was tasked with shooting a collection of images that would show both those involved and those staff who weren't there on the day, what happened as we passed through the capital.

London has always held a fleeting fascination with me; my brother has lived there for years, so I've spent some time there, but aside from those visits and day trips when I was at college, it's not somewhere I'm familiar with. Of course, I know the landmarks - who doesn't - but it's only when you actually see things 'in the flesh' do you get a sense of scale.

For me the day started at 4am as I set off down the M1 from Rugby, into London, finally finding myself in a sleepy, pre-dawn eBay HQ in Richmond. After a quick coffee and a chat with a few of the staff - and my contact for the day, Tony - I was rattling off frame-after-frame as the staff all huddled onto the waiting coach that would whisk us over to the start. Face painting, breakfast and a whistle-stop sightseeing tour of the city later, we arrived at the start. It was a mellee of boats, rowers and spectators. I found the press tent, quickly realised I wasn't going to be on the fast press boat (unfortunately) and then found the guys who were going to ferry me around on a comfortable motorised catamaran along with a Russian film crew, a videographer and the organiser and his wife.

I have to admit that at this point I did start to think to myself "what the hell am I doing?" - I was documenting what could only be described as organised chaos and somewhere in the middle of it were the Ebay teams. Thankfully, they'd had the forethought to all have flagged fitted to their boats that featured the Ebay logo plus some clever play on words associated with their business (such as Seabay Dragons,  The Oarsome Gumtree) plus some less obvious names such as Gin & Titonic and Sea To Sea Sailors. Anyway, I knew my targets for the day.

It was safe to say that everyone was up for it; teams from Holland, Malta, Cyprus, Ireland plus loads of UK-based teams, were all doing a mixture of stretches, group hugs and cramming in the last cigarette before four hours of hard graft.

After a chaotic rush for everyone to get onto their respective boats, the start cannon fired and the boats set off in a staggered fashion, with the faster dragon boats setting off last. These faster boats are an awesome sight when they (quickly) get up to speed, although less awesome when a speed boat was a bit to keen on the throttle and several of the dragon boats were sunk by its wash!

Organised chaos: I just rattled off frames and didn't ask questions.

The main problem with races like this, despite the best will in the world to win, is that not everyone works to the same pace. This presented one major problem; how was I going to photograph all the eBay boats during the day as was the brief? In reality, it was never going to happen so i just rattled off as many shots as I could of the teams as they crossed the start line and then started the journey up the Thames.

Far too many landmarks to take in... but I tried!

I nice way to see The Eye.

It was easy to lose the Ebay boats in the throng of competitors.

An Ebay team in acton - laughing now, laughing later I hoped.

The journey through London is fantastic when you're on a boat. The unusual angles of iconic buildings is wonderful to see as a photographer, although i have to admit that it was frustrating at times when I knew I had to point my camera at the water and not the surroundings. Still, being able to frame the rowers against landmarks such as The Shard, Canary Wharf and Parliament was still very special.

One thing that amazed me was the number of spectators; the bridges spanning the Thames were bulging with onlookers and once again, it gave great photographic opportunities to put the rowers in context and give them a taste of the race which they probably wouldn't be taking note of as they rowed.

The crowds were out to cheer the competitors on.

In terms of equipment for the day, I knew I needed reliability so hooked up my D7000 with the 17-55mm for all the close-quarters stuff with a D2x equipped with the 70-200mm because it had the faster frames-per-second shooting. Both cameras are great (I've now moved over to just D7000s) and aside from a few issues relating to differences in button placement on each body, I had no issues whatsoever. It's always nice to know that the equipment is the least of your worries.

The whole journey to the finish lasted about three hours, pausing now and then to grab shots of nearby boats. We were actually well ahead of the lead boats by the time we docked, giving me an hour or so to suss things out on the riverbank. Families waited patiently in the heat and we even had olympians (I can't recall who - doh!) to signal the finish as the boats came through.

This part of the day was a stress; I was hot, there was little or no room to move about on the riverbank because of the crowds, it was noisy (lots of generators for food vans etc) and there was no idea of when the Ebay boats would come in. I had to take a leap of faith and shoot as much from the finish line as I could, then run the 400 yards up to the mooring station to get shots of the teams as they disembarked, looking hammered and giving each other hugs and slaps on the back. By the time the last boat got in I just camped up at the mooring station and let them come to me. It was the only time when I felt I'd let myself down in a sense, although I couldn't be two places at once and I was the only shooter. Thankfully, the guys responded well to me sticking a lens in their faces as they struggled off the boats and I got some great shots.

The finish was a melee of boats, competitors and spectators.

One of the Ebay dragon boats making it to the end.

Even after hours of rowing, there were still smiles.

For many, emotions ran high once back on dry land.

Every Ebay team had a final group shot at the finish.

Once I'd got all the team shots I managed to grab some water then rush back to the Ebay 'HQ' tent where beers and food were being eagerly consumed. Never has ice-cold beer looked so good but I knew I had to just keep rattling off the frames. There was a short presentation and much applause as the teams were called out in order of finishing, with The Oarsome Gumtree taking the spoils as winners of the Ebay teams.

Ebay UK's winning team, The Oarsome Gumtree

And that was me done....

I declined a taxi back and decided to walk the mile or so back to the car, just reflecting on a hard, tiring but rewarding day. The fuss of the race had died off and couples were moseying up and down the riverbank while joggers and fitness freaks enjoyed the late evening sunshine. Richmond really is a nice place to be when it's like this and I'll go back for sure at some point.

The journey back to the Midlands was uneventful; roads around North London were a car park for a while but the M1 was empty. I got back about 9pm, utterly pooped but with that total eagerness to look through the several thousand shots and start work on editing. That would wait, this was time to enjoy the family...