"I Am..." an Olympic Table Tennis Player

Ask a professional table tennis player to serve eight balls towards the camera lens and guess what happens?

Eight out of eight shots soar into the lens hood at breakneck speed, blink and you'll miss it. This just goes to show why Andrew Baggaley will be representing Great Britain in this year's London Olympics.

With Andrew holding the title of Britain's leading Table Tennis medallist of all time at the Commonwealth games,  it didn't take long for him to showcase his talent. Precision, stamina and tactics all play an important part in the game he explains. Ranked as England number one in every age category (U10, 11, 12, 14, 17 and 21) and coached by his brother Stephen, the Baggaley brothers are a force to be reckoned with.

Having recently attended the kitting out session at Loughborough, Andrew arrived home to his training ground of Milton Keynes complete with various Team GB outfits. Unbeknown to me, Table Tennis is actually ranked as one of the most watched Olympic sports worldwide. Enjoying a quick game or two myself, it would of been rude not to knock up with Andrew, and as you can imagine I didn't stand a chance.

Sponsored by the Swedish brand Stiga, Andrew currently plays for SV Pluderhausen in the German Bundesliga and can often be found jet setting between various international venues. Highly regarded as a possible medal winner for the upcoming games, Andrew was selected as one of the London 2012 Olympic Bid ambassadors. I'm sure you will all join me in wishing Andrew the very best, hoping he can bring home another gold medal. If you are on twitter, follow Andrew's progress here and send him some support!

Rounding Off 2010...

First of all i'd like to wish all readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It wouldn't be complete without an end of year blog post to round off what's been a fantastic year for myself. This year has seen many opportunities in the photographic industry for me, and has brought about some great prospects for 2011. The blog has been a little bit neglected recently in terms of uploads, but i've been busy behind the scenes with new projects and website launch.

Not only am I super excited about what 2011 has to offer, I'm keen to blog and upload more of my work throughout the year. Hopefully you'll join in with keeping up to date with my work through the various social network sites I use.

Alot of my work is uploaded onto the popular site, FlickR. The ability to display work across an audience of thousands within seconds is a brilliant prospect for any photographer. If you use FlickR please feel free to add me as a contact. Even if you don't have a FlickR account, you can still check out my photostream.

You didn't hear this from me, but i've even come round to thinking Twitter is great. It's proved invaluable this year, and if your bored or fancy getting in touch/keeping up to date, feel free to follow me.

What's a blog post without pictures? Below are a few recent shots taken from my FlickR account. Clicking the individual photographs will take you directly to their page with information about how and why they were shot:

Thanks for reading. Here's to a fantastic and prosperous 2011!

Location - St.Pauls Cathedral

London at night is fantastic, as the city takes on a whole different look/feel due to the light radiated by nearby sources. After a great days shooting at HCPhotography, I found myself on the train to London with family for a birthday meal. Not the shot I was intending to get, as by the time we arrived at the London eye it had stopped rotating. I believe everything happens for a reason, and as such I've still managed to capture a great image which I initially hadn't set out to get. This is one of the reasons why I love photography, it's spontaneous!

This is a view along Millennium Bridge to St.Pauls Cathedral, part of the iconic London skyline. Thousands of people cross this bridge daily, so shooting at night not only allowed me to shoot this without disruption, but also capturing the fantastic light given off by the city.