I was up at stupid o'clock this morning, shooting the Smithfield Market Christmas Eve meat auction. By kind permission of market trader and Smithfield legend Mr Greg Lawrence, I was allowed backstage into the premises he and his team use to hold the Smithfield Christmas meat auction. A traditional event that has been held every year for hundreds of years, the auction is where market traders sell off surplus stock ahead of the Christmas break, direct to members of the public, often at a very substantial discount.
This year was busier than ever; a crowd of two or three hundred turned up, with many waiting several hours for a good place. It's absolute mayhem, but Greg always makes sure that everyone goes away with something for their Christmas dinner.
Short of shooting in a war zone, operating theatre or maybe at a bare-knuckle fight, I don't think I could have managed to get my camera gear more covered in blood and gore if I'd have tried. I ended up taking a Manfrotto light stand into the shower to wash the blood off it. My camera, lens, strobes and triggers got a good swab down with isopropyl alcohol to get the goop off them.
Here's some of my favourite ones, rendered in B&W:
Lyope_001 by
lyope, on Flickr
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Not really somewhere you'd expect to find a vegetarian, I do have to admit:
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lyope, on Flickr
It just goes to show, every once in a while, pigs really can fly:
Lyope_063 by
lyope, on Flickr