2009 - Looking like a fantastic year

Well it seems everyone is talking about doom and gloom, but not here at Ultimate Images. we are looking forward to a fantastic year.

With lots of new events booked and all our old favourites running we have a busy year planned. Our new events are

Westcombe Park RFC Festival and u7's festival

RAF Halton Sponsored ride. This is the premier sponsored ride in the south east (possibly the UK) with over 600 riders taking part this promises to be a fantastic event, and we are proud to be associated with it

Milton Keynes unaffiliated 3 day event, this event runs to the long format and again we are very proud to be associated with the event.
In addition to the the MK 3 day event we will also be looking after all of the BE events hosted at the MK event centre.

Moss end show - this is another new event and we are really looking forward to increasing the number of premier showing shows we cover this year.

Finally we have been appointed the official photographers to the prestigious Side Saddle national championships that run for 3 days at Addington EC.

So all in all a busy year, so we look forward to meeting all our new customers and welcoming back our existing customers.


STOP PRESS >>>>>>>>>>>>>

With all the new events we have invested in a revamp of our event trailer and made it possible to increase the frontage at the bigger events with event more screens.

In addition to this, we have also purchased a second event trailer that will be fitted out in a similar way to our current unit

My week at Olympia

I had a fantastic week at Olympia, the atmosphere really was quite electric at times, and unlike HOYS you are right on top of the ring which is really quite narrow. The fact that I could get there in under an hour was also a bonus :)

From the outstanding FEI world cup dressage on Tuesday to the Puissance on Friday and the FEI world cup show jumping on Saturday it was a truly outstanding event.

So here are just a few of the 2000 or so images I captured during the week

Olympia - The London International Horse show

This is an event I've always wanted to attend and this year I finally get to go. I attended HOYS in 03 as an official photographer, and now this year i get to do the same at Olympia. I've been granted press access so I am really looking forward to the 5 days of competition.

I will (honestly) post some of the images from the event on this blog

Le Mans 24

I can't quite believe it's nearly a year since I went on my annual pilgramage to this historic race. I have been going since 1988, and have only missed one race in all that time (1989). So this is a mini milestone with it being the 20th visit.

I have been fortunate to have trackside access via a press pass for the last 12 years and will be posting some of my favourite images on my return

Liz Halliday, who competed three horses at Hambledon, has been ultra competitive in the last two years wont be competing this year as she is commentating for Eurosport on the race. Liz has had a super busy equestrian schedule this year and recently regained her CIC*** qualification, so all her hard work has been worth it.

If you want a preview of what goes on why not check out my posting after last years race

New Month - New challenges

May has thrown up some new challenges for me, that start of the month had me scheduled to attend the Chiddingfold Farmers Pony Club ODE at coomblands. The event as ever was a great success with over 200 entries in 3 classes. A great day weather wise and the course in superb condition.

I was then able to attend the Royal Windsor show for my own pleasure without the pressures of an event, which made a very pleasant change. I came away with some great portfolio images, one feature the queen in the Royal box watching the riding horse championship.

I then faced my first new event type in quite a while - indoor cheer leading!!. The event was held at the Chew Valley leisure centre just outside Bristol. Technically the event was a challenge, but not nearly as challenging as some of the routines the teams performed, there is far more to the sport and the competition than I ever imagined and would love to shoot another event. I will add some images from the show when I get a chance

The month of April

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last entry !! It certainly goes to show that the season is well under way now.

April turned out to be a month of mixed fortunes, with events lost to the snow one week, then running in glorious weather the following weekend (Plum park). The ground conditions were fabulous at Hambeldon Horse trials even with the extra day on the Monday. Some sun over the weekend, and the blue bells in full bloom would have been the icing on the cake, but alas it wasn't to be.

All in all it was a great event with over 1100 competitors over the 4 days and I'm already looking forward to going back next year.

The month closed with me back indoors at Milton Keynes EC for the 2nd round of the Trailblazers show jumping competition. There was some tough competition and all the winners deserved their chance to go to the finals at Stonleigh later in the year. good luck to you all, especially Rebecca Finn - as she used to work for me !!

Weather Checking

Well seeing as the weather has been winning hands down so far this year, I thought I'd add a link to my favourite weather website.

Metcheck seems to have the advantage over the BBC at the moment in accuracy*, and gives a far prettier page than the BBC. So why not give it a whirl.

*According to the BBC it should have been raining at my postal address, but it's been a rather glorious day so far !!

The weather wins again

Well another Sunday and another cancelled event. I arrived at Plum Park at 6:30AM to find a picture postcard scene, unfortunately this resulted in the cancellation of the event :(.

The good news is that Brian and Debbie from Plum Park have rearranged the event to the 12th, so all their hard work getting the course ready won't go to waste. Two weeks of very hard work had been spent getting the course looking A1, with all the fences spruced and polished, and a new water cascade on the Open course.

So hopefully I will see you all on the 12th

Darn Weather

Well I was all prepared and ready for the Goring Heath Horse Trials last weekend when I got a call from the organiser - there was standing water on the course, and with more rain forecast they had very reluctantly cancelled the event.

Luckily for me I hadn't set off, but I was still a bear with a sore head the rest of the weekend as I was really looking forward to getting outdoors again, after what seems like an age shooting indoors.

This weekend I will be at 2 events - The BSPS Area 16 spring show at Trinity Show ground Ipswich on Saturday, then at Plum Park Farm on Sunday for their spring Hunter Trial. It's still possible to enter the hunter trials so if why not pop along.

All the images from both events will be loaded onto My Event Photography Website - Ultimate-Images after the event.

Here are a couple of images from last years events at both the BSPS event and Plum Park. Nice sunny days - well it's good to dream :)

Goring Heath Horse Trials

Well the first British Eventing Horse Trials for me is nearly hear. I've been delighted and honored to be the official photographer at the Goring Horse Trials since September 2004, and in that time the event has gone from strength to strength. We were blessed with wonderful going and weather last season, but the weather gods are not looking to favourable this time around.

We have invested heavily over the winter to improve both the range of images we capture and increased the number of viewing stations in the trailer to ensure everyone gets to see the new images.

I'm particularly excited about the new kit, not only does is enable me to get angles I've not shot before, but I get to play with some new toys as well.... - It looks even better in the flesh


Below are a couple of images from last seasons event at Goring Heath

HIll House Cross Country Photo Call

I was very fortunate to be invited by Sara Trusting from Hill house cross country course to shoot their new feature fence being jumped for the first time. They had arranged for Nick Turner to jump the fence on his supremely talented Bay Gelding Rongotai.
http://www.hillhousecrosscountry.co.uk/
The fence (as can be seen below) will be used on the pre novice track, along with another new fence, a rather impressive chair. Hill house will be running a full BE Intro and Pre Novice event this season for the first time (26th / 27th July)The cross country track will be devised by none other than Philip Herbert - who designs the BURGHLEY course with the show jumping phase designed by Dave Conway. Hill house really is a fantastic venue and I'm really looking forward to be involved with both the BE event and the Derby House Open Horse Trials on the 25th May.

Very behind on my blogging

With all the effort that has gone into getting the new site live I have got very behind on my blog entries. Which is really bad, especially as it featured on my new years resolution list (along with eating less chocolate, and walking to the post box !!)

So as promised here is my image of the month for February.

A delightful little Shetland pony taking part at the Milton Keynes Equestrian Center clear round day during half term. A fun day was had by all, and I will openly admit that this was the first time I had seen a Shetland jumping, all my other experiences have been in the show ring. the little pony really did enjoy his day

It's finally LIVE

So after lots and lots of time and effort the new site is finally live.
www.ultimate-images.co.uk
I've also added a new address www.ultimateimageseventphotography.co.uk it ends up at the same site, but it gives me flexibility for the future.

So I'd love to hear from all my new users, it was live in time for the images from the Upminster Rugby Festival - which was a great day.

I'm still tinkering with various aspects of the navigation, so it may change, but the essential layout will remain, but I just want to "tweak" the site to the way it actually gets navigated.

New Website

The new website is coming along at a great pace. It's taken longer than planned, but that's mainly because I keep coming up with new idea's as the design evolves and I think I'm starting to drive my designer a little mad.

One of the hardest things has been to keep the quick simple navigation to the event images whilst expanding the site to reflect all the work i now get asked to do. I also wanted to bring the shopping experience more up to date and to be able to offer better discounts and order tacking.

I also wanted to have a portfolio of images for each of the areas that I shoot, so in addition to the regular navigation buttons, each of the images on the front page will open a portfolio page. All very exciting and well worth burning the midnight oil for

Here's a sneak preview of the new front page

The last few months

Well the autumn seems to have been and gone and it's nearly Christmas. I would like to wish all my customers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Talking of the new year, plans are well under way for a complete new look to my event website - http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/ The new site will have a fresh new look and have an enhanced ordering system that will hopefully make it easier to offer discounts and incentives. I'm really excited about how the project's coming together, and hope to have the site up and running by mid to late January

Home and Yard Visits

Sorry to talk about Christmas in August but if your always stuck what to ask for why not suggest an Ultimate Images Yard Visit. Even if you compete on a regular basis these visits really do offer something different.

This time of year really is a great time to have them as the daylight hours are still long and the rugs are still where they belong, in the tack store.

I've recently shot a really great set for Emma at my local yard as a birthday present, with an eye on other products for Christmas (canvas prints, Acrylics etc etc). I spend a couple of hours with her at the yard. We started off with some natural shots in the field, then some riding / jumping / lunging or what ever takes your fancy. Then as the light starts to drop (the last hour before sunset really is something special) I shoot some images of you and your horse together.

Below is a montage print that Emma wanted put together. Click on the image to see it larger



Here are a few of the other shots I got on the day. As you can see Sam was a bit of a character. Again just click on the image to see it full size



So to book a really special Yard Visit just get in touch on 0845 838 3199 (A Local rate call no matter where you are) or 07854 170 711 - or drop me an e-mail at info@ultimate-images.co.uk

Le Mans 2007

I've been playing with some software that is available at www.photobucket.com, which is a great site for sharing images quickly and easily online.

Anyway the slide show below was created using images I took at this year Le Mans 24hr race. the race is an annual pilgrimage for me as this was my 19th year, and the 12th year having full press access. It also shows that it's not just England that's getting drowned...

I hope you enjoy the show

A weekend in Bucks and Northants

I had a weekend of showjumping this week, and to keep up the trend I was very damp on Saturday, and reaching for the sunblock on Sunday !!.

Saturday found me back at the excellent facilities of Milton Keynes Eventing centre www.mkec.co.uk for their annual Mini One Day event, it's a great chance for a fun day out for the unaffiliated rider with all 3 disciplines available over simple well built fences. The idea of these days is to provide a taste of eventing and an education for both horse and rider.

The day had been rescheduled from earlier in the month due to the weather, and despite some sticky conditions in the trade stand area the event went ahead as planned. With the paking accessed via a compacted road, and everyone facing down the hill access in and out is never an issue at Milton Keynes. As we all know the weather this year always wants to make it's presence felt, but shirt sleeves seemed the order of the day for some hardy riders -
It was raining so hard at this point the camera focused on the rain rather than the rider!!

I must commend the photographer I had working for me on the day - Lucy - she used to work for Chiltern and Thames magazine, but now works freelance. Lucy was pretty damp by the end of the day, while I just popped out in the sunny bits and took a few of my favourite snaps while puppy spotting -


On Sunday I was at Earls Barton at the invitation of Rockingham Forest Riding club www.rfrc.org.uk for a team showjumping for both seniors and juniors. The facilities at Earls Barton are really first rate with a very level field with crushed gravel access to the lorry park and very firm ground, so no chance of getting stuck on matter how bad the conditions. the ground conditions in the rings were also first rate. There was some excellent jumping on show and the team from Cambridge swept all before them winning both the juniors and the seniors competitions. I did again indulge in some puppy spotting with a very adorable Labrador puppy, and some inspiring head shots of ponies while they were competing rather the more static head shots I usually take, i think they work rather well

And here are some shots of the winning Junior team.

And lastly one of my favourite shots from the day -

Welcome to my first ever blog entry. The idea behind the blog is to give everyone some insight into what goes on, and what I get up to.

This month (July) is proving to be very busy, which is nice, with lots of variety. I've been covering events up and down the country from Osbaldeston North of England Pony Show with it's £1000 first prize champion of champions class to Cranleigh in the south for a dog agility event, which are always great fun. I even found time to attend a celebrity event hosted by Halpern PR at the Haymarket Hotel. Halpern always put on a good event, and this was no different. Celebrating the Westfield London and British Fashion Council fashion Forward event, most of the listed celebrities attended, and a few over skinny 6' models, who all looked in need of a good meal.

The Pony event at Osbaldeston took some getting to, with the M6 proving it's normal troublesome self, but as I'm newly equipped with a Tom Tom I managed to avoid the worse as it keeps me updated on the traffic far better than any radio station. The event itself was unfortunately moved indoors, but the classes were still very well attended and the event ran well into the night finishing around 9pm.

The late finish gave me a bit of a problem as I had to drive to Cranleigh in Surrey to be ready for the dog agility on the Sunday. Dog agility always brings a smile to my face, and utmost admiration for both the dogs and the owners, the dogs of all shapes and sizes know their left and right far better than I do.

Anyway enough waffle here are some of the pictures from the various events, and I promise to keep subsequent entries shorter.

Amy Sargent from Halpern making sure everything works to plan