Susan Boyle - Back On Song

I was in Birmingham at the NIA last night photographing the first night of the Britain's Got Talent Live Tour.

All of the acts gave fantastic performances but it was Susan Boyle who made a show-stopping comeback last night after many feared the tour would be too much for her. She returned from her health problems with a stunning makeover to give a brilliant performance which delighted fans. One fan said "She looks like she's been to Hollywood rather than The Priory. She's fantastic"

Remote Cameras Help To Capture Britain's Got Talent Auditions 2009

I had the great pleasure of photographing Britain's Got Talent this year, one of the jewels in ITV's crown.  Shows of this nature are multi-camera events and can have upwards of 15 cameramen recording everything that happens, so how do I, as the lone stills photographer go about covering a show of such magnitude.  A little forward planning Pocket Wizards, Sound Blimps and a few other tricks help me to be in more than one place at a time!  

Thanks to Sara Lee, Talkback Thames and my colleague Neil Genower for helping me make this short video.

Britain's Got Talent Final 30-05-09

Images from Britain's Got Talent Final which attracted an audience of 19.2 million viewers!!

Britain's Got Talent 5th Semi Final 29-05-09

Britain's Got Talent 4th Semi Final 28-05-09

Britain's Got Talent 3rd Semi Final 26-05-09

Britain's Got Talent 2nd Semi Final 25-05-09

Britains Got Talent 1st Semi Final 24-05-09

Britain's Got Talent 1st Live Semi Final

Wow! What a great 1st semi final we were treated to last night on Britain's Got Talent.   Susan Boyle was amazing and Diversity were on fire! Congratulations to both acts for reaching Saturdays final.   Commiserations to those that didn't make it...your time will come!

The press team worked tirelessly to make sure my images from the show made deadline,  I swear I saw smoke coming from Steve's fingers such was the speed he was tripping those computer keys!!  Judging by the acres of coverage we have achieved in  today's newspapers it was worth it. The number of front pages and double page spreads is fantastic and greatly satisfying.  My heartfelt thanks to Steve, Chris, Sara, Hannah and Gary for all their hard work.

For those who did not manage to catch last night's show, I'll be posting a link to a video of last nights highlights shortly.

Britain's Got Talent 2009

Next week is going to be very busy.  I will be spending most of my days, evenings and nights! at Fountain Studios shooting the live Britain's Got Talent Shows. 

I have a great team helping and supporting me.  Sara the brilliant publicist for the show and Steve (my fantastic wire man) will be editing and sending my images to all national newspapers and magazines throughout the week of transmission.  Chris at Rex Features always does a fantastic job adding them to the Rex site for any publication to collect that is not on our distribution list. I anticipate that It will  be a pressured but fun week, however nothing is better than the feeling of satisfaction you get seeing your images published, it makes all the hard work, pressure and effort worth it.

I am really looking forward to next week, although the hours and pressure will be extreme and by the end of the week we will all be shattered, the team at BGT make everything run smoothly and are great fun to work with. 

I hope to post images from the shows here during the week (if time permits) so keep checking in

Cheers