I really enjoyed covering a recent corporate day for Dutch company LeasePlan at the Bedford Autodome hosted by Palmers Sports. All of the party raved about the day and the adrenaline highs they experienced going from off-roaders to go-kart to racing cars and more. Now, it could have been frustrating just recording the day (rather than being involved) but I did get to travel very quickly to the best vantage points around the race tracks! Most of the staff there are clearly frustrated racing drivers and didn’t hesitate to take the corners as quickly as possible to get me there…

Sometimes you have minutes to capture the right shots and this shoot at the end of the summer was a case in point. The Pro VC of the University of Leicester, Keith Schurer, and three members of the Leicestershire Asian Business Association were on very tight schedules but we needed to capture this photo opportunity marking the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

It was such a pleasure to meet and shake hands with the great man on his flying visit to Leicester to receive his honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University during degree week. He had a punishing schedule coming from and back to Cape Town in one day but was charming and patient throughout with an infectious laugh. Before joining the rest of the press pack at De Montfort Hall, I spent some time with him at the University Chaplaincy and then on his journey to the David Wilson building for lunch. A BBC radio interviewer had told him earlier that he’ll always be associated with a lower second class degree and he had the good humour to congratulate the graduating students on getting their firsts, two-ones and ‘what people call a Desmond.’  You can see how the Leicester Mercury covered the story here.

Update 08.07.11 The Crusader story and my image appeared in the Express on 6th June and you can see it as it appeared here plus a few additional images from the shoot in Bakewell.

24.05.11 I did my first job for the Daily Express last week. It was for a name and shame story in the Crusader section of the paper that could be printed any time over the next month. Can’t tell you the story details just now of course. Only to say that it was interesting to try to illustrate a story within the single shot. And the turnaround time was a challenge too! I thoroughly enjoyed this step into press and PR photography. Pictures to follow once the story’s been published…

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time I’ve appeared in my own blog! When I’m not taking pictures myself I can usually be found do something active. Last Sunday was Farmyard Frolics in Brooksby, a 10k fun (debatable) run over tyres and bales of hay, up and down hills and through streams, which I finished in a credible 59 minutes. Anyway, less about me… these pictures were taken by the excellent RandR Photos who specialise in sporting events like this. Who could resist buying a picture of themselves in action!?

Update 11.3.11: You can see the best of the shots from the game here. It was quite entertaining for an 8-0 scoreline and impressive to see some of the ex-players who made it look easy. I enjoyed the shoot but, for the future, must remember not to get too involved in the game and appeal for decisions when I’m meant to be taking pictures!

10.2.11 As a big fan of the show, I was pleased that Nick Osborne Photography got a mention on the latest Spurs Show* podcast by friend and regular Sean Singleton of Skive. I’ve offered to take pictures at the Spurs Legends charity game on Sunday 6th March at Waltham Abbey when they take on the Spurs Show team including Sean and hosts Phil Cornwell and Mike Leigh.

Playing for the Legends team will be Mark Falco, Tony Galvin and Garry Brooke amongst others. Should be a great day, followed by the Spurs vs Wolves game on TV. I’ll post some pictures on the site after the event. COYS.

* You can download the show or subscribe by going to Playback Media or searching for The Spurs Show in iTunes. It comes highly recommend – there aren’t that many football podcasts where you get Mick & Keith impressions thrown in…

I saw a really interesting piece on BBC2′s Culture Show last night about French street photographer, JR He came to the world’s attention during the 2005 Paris riots for flyposting large B&W images on public buildings as a way of challenging media stereotypes. Now his work can be seen in the flavellas of Brazil, slums of Kenya and bridges of Paris amongst other places and he’s been described as the “Cartier-Bresson of the 21st century”.

I took a trip to Norfolk last weekend with the plan to experiment with some landscape photography. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too good for it with lots of cloud cover and drizzle – with a brief half hour of blue sky on the Saturday. But that didn’t stop me exploring the areas around Brancaster, Blakeney and Cley-next-the-Sea for the future and capturing some interesting things around that you can see here from a lone seal to this deserted and rusting boat.

There’s a great collection of Norfolk landscape work by photographer Martin Billing that’s worth taking a look at – on his website Bringing The Outside In or at his gallery in Burnham Market.

Here are some off duty shots taken whilst visiting the Browne family in deepest Wales over the New Year. I love this style of photography when you catch children in their own environment and enjoying their favourite activities, whether throwing stones in the stream or releasing bubbles across the hills. There’s the full range of emotions and it’s lovely to capture these moods so you see your children just as they are.

Recruitment consultants, Macildowie used their half year update as the opportunity to get some shots of their whole team across the four offices in Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Northampton. It was a bitterly cold morning so we had to work quickly, trying both a conventional composition with the logo in the BG (see below) and something a little different shot from the top of a spiral staircase to the side of their building. We also took some candid shots of the office in action and it would be a shame not to use the image shown here for a press/PR story about their ‘Half Year Update’!