So, Saturday brought with it the yearly wing dinners of Cambridge University Officers Training Corps. I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to photograph various wings every year since the inception of the dinners, and this time I had the (dubious) honour of photographing both the Royal Artillery and the Royal Armored Corps.

The guys are a really fun gang and if anybody out there is presently at university and not part of a UOTC I highly encourage you to check it out. Definitely beats working at Sainsburys to fund your degree!

Anyway, on to the photographs… Both actually presented some fairly major challenges, more after the jump.

The first photo session was in Queens College. As usual time was tight so I recce’d the college first. Unfortunately however the staff weren’t able to provide any chairs, benches or anything else to get some high differential (something about all the chairs being several hundred years old and not wanting to take them outside…). If you’ve ever tried to photograph 30 odd Officer Cadets one thing you’ll know is that you need a way to get some hight between them. This unfortunately meant that I had to skip all the magnificent Tudor buildings and instead scour the college for a suitable set of steps. The ones I found weren’t perfect but in the fading light I think we pulled it off pretty darn well.

The next photograph was in Peterhouse college. I knew from the moment it was suggested to me that this photo was going to be a problem. While the Peterhouse butlery staff are much more accommodating and willing to help find chairs/benches, the photograph was due to be taken at 19:15. For those of you not in England, at this time of year it’s pitch black by that hour. The first location I had scouted was a no-go, although I could overcome the black for the photograph it had absolutely no ambient light which meant I couldn’t focus! Doh! Plan B: A little bit more scouring and I managed to find a suitable set of steps with a large porch light overhead to focus on, add in two small benches (kindly provided by the kitchen staff) and all that was left was the light. In order to fill the (nearly) black space, I opted for a three light deal. Main comes in through an umbrella high right, a little fill comes in from the middle left and then a nice accent light behind provides some separation and beautification of the brickwork. All obviously fully CTOed in order to gel with the overhead lamp. Job Done.

Sorry to have swamped some of you non photographers with details but hey I had some requests for more info

Alex