Alex Orrow Photographer » Charity

Help Cambridgeshire Mencap win £6000

atgo — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:22:33 +0000

In 2009 I carried out a large photographic project with Cambridgeshire Mencap. The exposure to their important work helped me become more aware of how much support is needed for families with a child or adult with learning difficulties. There work in the community provides people with care, respite, support and independence.

Cambridgeshire Mencap has the chance to get £6,000 of funding… but they need your help!

NatWest are running a competition for local organisations to get funding through their Community Force website. Organisations have registered projects on the website, and now it is time for the public to vote for their favourite. The one that receives the most votes in each area will win £6,000 – and there are also cash prizes for second and third places.

Cambridgeshire Mencap has registered our Young People’s Befriending Scheme with NatWest’s Community Force website, but to stand a chance of winning, we need YOU to vote for us, and promote voting to as many people as possible!

To vote, you need to follow this process:

1. Click on to http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/2673,

2. Click on ‘Register’ on the top right-hand corner (assuming you haven’t already registered, but if you have, click ‘Log in’ and go to Step 5)

3. Fill in your name, email address and then a password. You need to click on the first tick box to confirm you accept the terms and conditions, the rest of the tick boxes are optional. Then click on ‘Submit Registration’.

4. You will receive an email to verify your registration. The email will contain a link saying ‘Confirm your registration’ which you need to click on and this will take you back onto the Community Force webpage.

5. Click on ‘Log in’ on the top right, and enter your email address and password, then click ‘Login’

6. On the next screen, click on ‘Find Projects to Vote For’

7. Just above the map, click on ‘List’ to enable you to search for Cambridgeshire Mencap

8. On the left-hand side, click the circle to search ‘By Project Name’, enter ‘Cambridgeshire Mencap’ in the box below, and then click on the magnifying glass icon next to the box

9. When the page loads, click on ‘Cambridgeshire Mencap’ and you’ll be taken to our profile page.

10. On the right-hand side, tick the box to accept the terms and conditions, and then click ‘Vote For Us’!

Photography Cambridgeshire Mencap Brochures

Sawston Fun Run 15 May 2011

atgo — Sun, 15 May 2011 13:42:07 +0000

Sawston Fun Run images available now! View Gallery Wonderful weather in Cambridgeshire today for an excellent and Fun Run through Sawston village.

Sawston Fun Run 15 May 2011

atgo — Fri, 13 May 2011 08:10:21 +0000

The very successful Sawston Fun Run is back for another year. View the S awston Fun Run 2011 gallery here

Images available soon.

Event Charity Photography: Pink Rose Ball 20th November 2010

atgo — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:28:10 +0000

Alex Orrow photography will be attending the Pink Rose Charity ball on the 20th November at Clifford Hall, Cambridge. The money raised will go to the Cambridge Breast Cancer Research Unit. Images from the event will be available online here: Visit gallery >

Remember to subscribe to the RSS feed to receive instant notification when images begin to arrive in the gallery.

Event Charity Photography: Living Sport Awards

atgo — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:33:25 +0000

I will be attending the Living Sport Awards ceremony on the 17th November 2010 at the East of England showground, taking photographs of all those attending. Images will be available from the online gallery soon after the event. View gallery >

Remember that you can use RSS feeds to see images as soon as they start to appear in the gallery!

Volunteer Photographer – Calendar Competition

atgo — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:40:02 +0000

Cambridgeshire Mencap’s 2011 calendar is now complete and available to buy. All the brilliant and beautiful winning art work was photographed in July.

To support Mencap and the work they do for people with learning difficulties in the Cambridgeshire area the calendars are available to buy from Cambridgeshire Mencap’s website

Cambridgeshire Mencap Calendar 2011 - Local support for people with learning difficulties

Volunteer Photography for Living Sport Youth Games PLUS

atgo — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:50:22 +0000

LIVING SPORT is the County Sports Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. It is one of 49 in the country, promoting and encouraging sports and physical activity at all levels across all age groups. Living sport help organise the Youth Games PLUS - the biggest disability sports festival in the region involving around 600 young people in June each year. I have been involved for a year now volunteering my time to take photographs at the Games. The event is a wonderful environment for the young people taking part and everyone involved is very positive and excited to be there. My photographic duties involve taking fun and eye catching images of the opening ceremony, the action during the games and also prize presentations.

Sawston Fun Run 2010 – Images Available Now

atgo — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:50:37 +0000

Well done to all those that took part and showed support for the event.

Images taken at the Sawston Fun Run 9th May 2010 are available online now. Visit the Sawston Fun Run gallery to see all the competitors in action, the wonderful supporters and all the fun.

Enjoy the slideshow full screen!!

Sawston Fun Run recce

atgo — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:41:49 +0000

Just had a look round the Sawston Fun Run route, and have identified some great places to capture all the action. Plus met two very keen participants training for the big day!! Looking forward to it gallery will be available here. Sawston Fun Photograph gallery

(IMAGES AVAILABLE NOW – visit the gallery here)

Magpas Medical Emergency Charity Photography

atgo — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:06:24 +0000

After waiting for almost 1 year I finally got a chance to photograph a team at the Medical Emergency Charity MAGPAS. The charity operates a team of volunteer doctors, paramedics and community first responders. MAGPAS is solely funded by donations and receives no money from the NHS or other Government funding. I had been approached by the press and PR officer at MAGPAS to help with updating their image library. As this might be an opportunity to photograph a helicopter hopefully in flight and possibly even the team in action I jumped at the opportunity.

After meeting and visiting the MAGPAS team it was not until a year later that the photo shoot was organised and executed. We agreed that the photo shoot would take place at two locations. the first was to be the airfield at RAF Wyton to capture the team with emergency vehicles, unfortunately in flight shots or images of the team in action for real where not possible. The second was to be in a domestic/community environment. Most likely to be where a community first responder might find themselves. The images to be taken at the airfield would involve two members of the emergency team with both the helicopter and response car. MAGPAS make use of two helicopters either the East Anglian Air Ambulance or Cambridgeshire Police helicopter. A scout of the airfield was a necessity as I knew from the outset that I wanted to light the team with mains powered flash. Luckily there was a 240v power outlet very close to where the aircraft is landed. The hero shot was to be two members of MAGPAS posed with the police helicopter.

The day chosen was confirmed in the morning after weather checks and we met at 3pm to commence shooting as the sunlight levels dropped and darkened. Due to both the unpredictablity of the police helicopter and their training schedule meant I had about 30 mins to set up and shoot the main image. Before doing this there was time spare to capture the team with the response car and both the response car and air ambulance.

Both images were set up quickly using a single bare Nikon SB800 on a stand providing a main source of light from high camera right. Although shooting these would have been fine with available light. The addition of the flash provides more shape to the two team members allows for a faster shutter speed helping to darken the sky and keep the highlight from blowing on the car and aircraft.

Example of a daylight only image.

At this point the temperatures were reaching below freezing and although I could have continued I think the two team members would have disagreed and may have needed to be plied off of the freezing car.

For the next set up with the police helicopter it would have been ideal to have had all the lighting setup and ready to go but due to the dangers of the heavy downwash it was impossible to have any photographic gear near to the landing zone and so I had to wait until I the helicopter was fully stationary before attempting to setup lights and run cables etc.

I chose a dramatic lighting set up and one which is favoured by many music and sport editorial photographers. This consisted of 1 bowens head with beauty dish mounted on boom centrally in front and above the subject. x2 elinchrome heads with barn doors on both one each on the left and right behind the two team members aimed back towards them. Another small SB800 was placed on camera left and parallel to the aircraft aimed back towards aircraft, in order to bring in some light to dark areas of the fuselage. See diagram below.

Results from a about a 15 – 20min window of opportunity from setup to execution.

MAGPAS - Emergency Medical Charity and Police Helicopter crew

I used a boom throughout at an approximate hight of 9-10ft. This meant that it was very close to the aircraft rota blades, and after being reminded by the officer in charge at my side, that each blade costs about £13,000 I could feel the tension mount next me as I inched the boom closer and closer to the aircraft. Soon after this image was taken the police helicopter crew were called to an incident, powering up whilst I quickly dismantled my equipment and packed away all loose items. I grabbed a few last shots of the medical team in the half light with their first response car, using an stand mounted bare SB800 on camera left to provide some separation side light.