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1 / 10
This was taken on Ex Swift Response 2022 in North Macedonia. The Parachute Regt were working with American Blackhawk airframes and the troops were originally quite far back and out of frame. The Blackhawks were doing multiple lifts, after the first one I grabbed one of the sharpshooters to frame him for a shot. The poppy fields were in bloom, and I had remembrance images in the back of my mind. I had to maintain a shutter speed that shows movement in the rotors but also kept the image sharp.
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2 / 10
This image was also taken on Exercise Swift Response in North Macedonia. The British Pathfinders jumped onto the drop zone to secure the location for the Parachute Regiment to later jump onto. I noticed the weather in the distance and knew that I wanted to frame a Pathfinder within that background. This took a lot of patience and running around trying to get it framed in the right place at the right time. I intentionally left a lot of negative space to give the feel of the weather on the evening to show as much of the environment as possible.
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3 / 10
This image taken from the Queen Victoria memorial was taken on a wide long lens to capture the depth of the parade during the late great Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Parade also known as Trooping the Colour. During the parade I started on the Mall, at the side line of the parade square, then moved to the roof of Horse Guards. Near the end of the parade, I moved back down, quickly passing the Royal Family to ensure I had plenty of time to get onto the memorial back up the Mall. I then took the shot to emphasise the grand mass movement of this parade.
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4 / 10
This portrait was taken during a task in Scotland. Unfortunately, all the “interesting” things to photograph had happened the day before we arrived. So the task quickly became “capture whatever you can”. Luckily for me a few of the lads were up for a quick portrait session. I love flash so I set up my softbox, exposed for the ambient light and captured a variety of environmental portraits.
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5 / 10
I took this photograph while deployed with 2 PARA in Slovenia, Sep 22. We embedded in with 2 PARA while they patrolled in very difficult and steep mountainous terrain before they carried out an assault on a position at the top. This was the image I had been hoping for throughout the trip which really showed the altitude and terrain that we were all working in. It puts into perspective the physically difficult job the guys in 2 PARA have.
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6 / 10
I took this photo when I was deployed with the Queen’s Dragoon Guards and 1 Royal Irish to Op Newcombe in Mali. With the airframe coming into land, much closer than usual to the camp whilst delivering supplies, I positioned myself to see the helicopter and the dust cloud left in its wake, whilst also attempting to maintain a foreground element for context (in this instance, the troops and vehicle). I used a shutter speed of around 1/125 – 1/250 to allow motion in the blades of the helicopter.
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7 / 10
Having recently transferred to the Army photographic trade at the end of last year it was a privilege to cover the trade’s remembrance service held at Pinewood Studios as my first task. The Army photographic trade has a long history with Pinewood due to the Army Film and Photographic unit which was first formed from photographers who worked there. They were then sent to the frontline during the First World War. For this shot, I liked the atmosphere created, enhanced by making the image black and white.
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8 / 10
This is one of my best images of 2022 where the blokes from the Yorkshire Regiment were conducting close quarter battle training with new experimental kit during the Army Warfighting Experiment at Portsmouth Naval Base. Passing through the old training buildings I noticed this cool spiral staircase along with the battered walls and environment. I thought it had good potential to get a staged shot of the training. My main issue was lighting the subjects enough where they could be identified as the bottom of the staircase was disappearing into darkness. The rubble scattered along the staircase gave the image some good texture and I had to use two photographers to hold soft boxes in each corner of the staircase to light the subjects but just about avoid being in shot.
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9 / 10
For this image, I was trying to capture the Queen’s coffin inside the hearse alongside the ceremonial troops. I was fortunate enough to be raised up high in a stand. However, I was limited as to where I could move as this was a static position. Nonetheless, I felt immense honour and privilege to have captured Her Majesty The Queen’s final journey to her resting place.
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10 / 10
This photo was taken during Exercise Vigilant Fox in Finland. 2nd Battalion The Rifles are disembarking a Chinook after being dropped into the area of operations of the enemy during this validation exercise for the Finnish Army. I did not anticipate how dusty it was going to be, so I did not have any protection to shield my eyes from the debris kicked up by the downdraft of the helicopter. So I stayed well clear of the landing site and used a longer focal length to get the shot. And the one I wanted was of the troops disembarking the back of the Chinook.
Army photographers' favourite images of 2022
06 February 2023
