New Years Day.

Meet the Hunt.

As a keen and new enthusiast to photography at the age of 14, I went along to The Atherstone New Years Day Hunt to capture and record the events in the town.  I remember the bright red jackets worn by the huntsmen, all the hounds barking as the hunt gathered to go out into the local country side to do their thing.

I clicked away with my Prinzflex 35mm camera and solitary 50mm lens and enjoyed capturing some great images.   Got back home and headed straight to the family darkroom to process the film.  Whilst in the dark, I could only imagine the images that I had gathered that day, I would be able to parade them at the school camera club later that month.

Excitedly I flicked the light on to hang the film to dry.   The horror before me, was a totally empty film, not one image, just clear acetate.  I had not loaded the camera correctly and therefore had exposed nothing during the event!

At this point I decided it would be preferable to pursue photography as a hobby and not professionally.

Now after 30 years as a professional photographer (I didn't let it put me off) on New Years Eve I decided it would be a great idea to pop along to the hunt again the following day.  Armed with the latest and trusted cameras and no film to let me down, how could it go wrong again?

Checked out the time that the hunt would meet in the market square, I duly charged my batteries and thought it would be great to shoot moving image as well as stills, even packed my trusty sound recording equipment to record the ambience of the day.

Upon arrival at the Market Square I was greeted with total silence, not one horse, not one hound.  I did wonder if I had got the day wrong, but there is only one January 1st each year isn’t there? I guess this hunt shoot may be doomed for me, but I will try next time for sure.

As this was the first post on my blog, I specifically wanted this to be a great story behind some great pictures, but as you may see, sometimes things happen and some shoots don’t always work out as they should.

But this is going to be a great year regardless, I  have some more documentary work both here and in the States, I have some good shoots coming up and also some commercial jobs happening that can give a peek at what goes on behind the lens...

Warmest wishes for 2011 to everyone.

Steve

                                           Atherstone Hunt.

                                                          Market Street.