I appreciate the sentiment, Princess, but I think it would be a bit of a waste of time. Clearly somebody has decided to make a rule and apply it to everyone, so I do not think they are going to make an exception for me. As I was walking up to the racecourse, there seemed to be a lot of police around, taxis were no longer allowed to drive down the road at the back of the grandstand, which had concrete barriers placed at intervals along it, and I passed two pairs of armed policemen with proper machine guns like the ones that we see at airports, not just holstered pistols. I gave them all the slip but the guy in the blue jacket caught me out. They may have introduced the ban on “long lens photography” as some sort of image rights crackdown but I have just been and searched their website and there is no list of “prohibited items” to be found anywhere on it, there is no mention of any sort of photography ban and the ‘terms and conditions’ page is more concerned with people giving the correct legal accreditation if they use anything obtained off the website. I downloaded the 2016/2017 newsletter and it is just a huge 8 page document full of photos and marketing waffle. If Newmarket and Sandown go down this route, I will have to find something else to do with my time.
Backed in to 7/2 at one point but I pretty much knew my fate when the Fehily boy got injured earlier in the day.
This is becoming an increasing trends at racecourses and a lot of it is led by professional photographers who want the courses to help protect their livelihood. Maybe you should see if you can get accreditation although they probably charge. A friend of mine who is an awesome amateur photographer is getting increasingly hassled at every visit to Newmarket!
Stick, I like Ali the hunter in the bumper! Any thoughts? Swerved the favourite because of the penalty. Had a good go at 5/2 a place and a little win dabble!! Cheers!
I know a professional racecourse photographer from thirty years ago. I am sure that Steve Cargill will not mind me name dropping him. He originally comes from near Doncaster and he used to get on the train to Doncaster that I was already on. He wanted to do it for a living and has done so very successfully. I always wanted to keep it as a hobby. You can see some of his work on his Twitter feed – go to steven_cargill Twenty odd years ago, I used to be able to get accreditations just by writing to the courses a few weeks before the meeting and they would issue an armband no questions asked. Nowadays, to get one you need backing from a publication or a photo agency. It does not bother me that I have limited access and can only go where the rest of the paying public go but if I were selling photos on the cheap to undercut the ‘professionals’, I do have some good photos that would probably have sold and then they would have reason to grumble. At Sandown it is still possible to stand a few yards from the winner’s enclosure and get good portraits. At Sandown and Newmarket, the pre-parade rings are easily accessible. At Newmarket the last two years, I have had to sign a simple agreement that I will not sell photos; and tie a tag to my camera strap so their security people know. It is, however, becoming less and less viable as opportunities decline, so I may just go and photograph something else.
Good to see my boy Max Dynamite strike tonight. For those who were not aware, that is Maximus in my avatar pic
We certainly don't agree on much BB, but you're spot-on there. Francesca is absolute class, and her family seem pretty good people too. I am surprising myself, but I am really beginning to like ITV racing after having big doubts at first. They are certainly trying hard to put on a good show. Can even tolerate the fashion guy, he ain't so bad at all, although fashion interests me not one bit. Matt C. is just a bit hard for me to 'absorb', but that's just personal; he can be quite funny at times though.
She is the “ITV Racing Weather Expert”. I saw her on Wednesday at the start of the coverage on TV when they were showing the Biblical proportions of rain that fell before racing; and she smiled serenely and promised that was all the rain for the next two or three days, which is why there was light drizzle falling when my train pulled into York on Thursday lunchtime.
Boo-hoo, was switching between LBC (wireless) and Racing UK when the truly scrumptious Ms Verasamy would have been on ITV. I trust the delightful and appealing Lucy was not the reason for your 'long lens' entrance problem! Sorry; have just realised there is so much wrong with the second sentence above.
No, when I want pictures of Lucy and the other weather totty, I hang around in the bushes outside the ITV studios with all the other stalkers. Occasionally, you get the bonus of some of the news reporter totty.
I can't comment on Francesca or Matt as I've never met either of them (though a friend of someone I know nannied for Francesca and her husband in Oz and said they were lovely people to work for), but from my experience, Mrs C has the attitude of "Don't you know who I am" and Luca can be very unpleasant - I know one of his former secretaries and she told me when she gave him her letter of resignation he was verbally abusive to her.
