Corporal Dan Bardsley

My name is Corporal Dan Bardsley. I am 32 years old and I work for the Royal Logistic Corps. I have been an Army photographer for four years.

I am currently a stills photographer in a Combat Camera Team (CCT) working in the Defence Media Operations Centre.

What does your job involve?

The aim of my job is to gather imagery for the media and for historical purposes. These images initially going to the press and for internal use before eventually being filtered through to the Imperial War Museum archives.

In my role I am part of a three-man team which provides the capabilities for stills and video, with an Officer commanding providing protection for the video cameraman.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The most enjoyable part of my job is getting to see the wide variation of the work done by all three Services. I'm not an historian by choice but any photograph is a moment captured and when you get the images you wanted, it's a great feeling, not just for yourself but also when the subject knows that the work they're doing has been seen.

I love getting to work with different units, and working on the ground produces such highs and lows that I can't think of many jobs which come close.

Why did you decide to become an Army photographer?

There wasn't a single event that made me decide to become a photographer. I always wanted to be an Army Photographer and when on the initial Op Telic I wanted to see more, staying awake at night between tasks, sitting on top of my tank to watch events around us.

I was picturing in my mind what was happening and looking at shots when the newspapers came round. I think that urge to see things is a driving force for most of us. I looked at the works of Don McCullin, Phillip Jones Griffiths, Eliott Erwit, Capa and several others when I was preparing to cross over.

I think what struck me was how the right moment can convey emotion, some of which can be fleeting. And that makes the work all the more special, gives it a reason to be.

What different types of assignments have you covered?

Recently I deployed as part of a team from DMOC sent to train Afghan National Army(ANA) CCTs. So far this year we have deployed a CCT to Afghan three times and our roles are quite wide ranging.

We covered the fighting during Op Panther's Claw, mines awareness training with the ANA, and we provided mentoring during media training courses amongst a myriad of smaller taskings.

It's all valuable and sometimes in ways you don't realise at the time.

What is your most memorable assignment?

It's hard to define one job as 'most memorable' but when we were on Panther's Claw I was on a roof with the lads from 6 Platoon, 1 Welsh Guards during a contact, having been third man up there to catch the enemy.

Their compound was about 40 metres away and the action was quite lively. In order to get the work I was after I had to balance safely and work with the position of my subjects and compose the shots.

We were involved in several contacts over the space of a couple of days, encountering RPG, mortar and small arms from a proximity close enough for one lad to throw grenades under fire.

Because of the action and the lads we were with, it was a memorable time indeed.