Planning for the new season begins and a new RedHatPhoto service is launched

I often get asked if I do this gig for a living – I don’t and never want to. I do want to raise loads of money for Restart but if this ever turned into a job, I’d give it up tomorrow. I still have my season ticket, paid for by me, just in case the gig ends and I have to return to the stands. First and foremost, I want to take photos as a supporter of Northampton Saints not as photo journalist working at the behest of an agency and with no emotional connection to events on the pitch. I like the adrenaline rush when I get a great photo of the Saints scoring a try. I like being able to pack up post game and go to the bar for a drink whilst my colleagues tap furiously away at their laptops. I like taking photos of stuff that amuses me. I do do stuff for the club which I wouldn’t ever think of doing – some of it is really tedious such as the photos of the views from each block in the ground. Some of it is really exciting including something that I hope will be made public in the next few weeks. Either way, I love what I do and wouldn’t have things any other way.

I do however, want to raise lots of money For Restart so I have decided to launch a new service – from the start of this season you will be able to order prints from RedHatPhoto.com. Each match, I will choose 15-20 photos that I think are good enough quality to be offered as part of the printing service. The range of sizes will be from 6″x4″ through to much larger prints, I am hoping A3 and above. The prints will come from a company called Loxley Colour who are a well known good quality printing service in the UK. So watch out for the first batch of photos available from this print service after the Exeter game!

This season I’ve decided to be much more organised when it comes to planning my travel. The fixture list has been reasonably kind to me so far with the long trips to Castres and Dublin possible during a weekend without needing to take time off. This means I have everything sorted for the first 8 games of the season plus the Heineken Cup matches with announced kick off times. It means I can concentrate on what I want to get out of the trip rather than fretting about the logistics. I am flying more now too thanks to the purchase of my new airline friendly bag (EasyJet you’ve lost out badly with your recent change of hand baggage rules!). All my plans with supporting documentation are safely stored in my Evernote account – Evernote gets more useful by the day. I keep finding new things to do with it and now it is supported by a lovely browser called Dolphin which means I can post stuff from the web from my iPhone, I have everything I need. It is really such a great service.

The season isn’t far away and already, I have had a chance to meet some of the new boys. All were very gracious putting up with me pratting about with a camera. The trip to the Gardens to take photos of the lads training was just great fun – it is just the best being able to wander about taking photos in the sunshine of such a great bunch of lads. The trip to Stowe is one of my favourite events and this year had the added bonus of the team photo. You can still get a digital copy for a fiver to Restart. It was great to see the kids having such a great time with the players.

So the holidays are over – it’s time for the rugby to begin and I can’t wait!