May 2024 has been off the scale with constant editorial photography assignments.
Commissioned for my second UK Defence assignment in 7 days for The Daily Telegraph News section. On this occasion sent to Poland to photograph British Military forces taking part in combined ground exercises.
Largest NATO exercise since the Cold War
A busy couple of days landing in Berlin and driving across Poland. Finding ourselves in hot, dusty conditions photographing UK Armed Forces working with the Polish and US conducting water crossings with the M3 Rigs and Challenger 2 tanks. Part of the Exercise Immediate Response, Steadfast Defender included more than 20,000 troops displaying their ability to react quickly to a variety of threats. I haven’t been on an editorial assignment which involved photographing British Challenger 2 tanks for nearly 20 years (last time photographing King’s Royal Hussars driving Challenger tanks on Salisbury Plain) so it was great to witness them again in action. Although I didn’t get to ride on one this time round! There were also great photographs of the British Military deploying the M3 rigs across the large river.
So much dust my cameras nearly gave up
The only downside of this assignment was the constant dust kicked up by the rapidly moving Challenger 2 tanks as they sped past us churning up the Polish countryside. Each time I had to cover my cameras and smother them in my photo jacket to avoid them completely filling with dust. It’s definitely going to mean a trip to Canon for a full service on return from this assignment!!! £££
Overall it was a successful trip and well worthwhile the 4 am starts to capture the early morning manoeuvres. The main article was published a good size in Saturday’s newspaper with my image right across the page. Also a short video I shot on my Canon R5 got very good view rate online.
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