It’s not everyday you get to see the leader of a country, let alone be one of a small audience that has the privilege of listening to a prime minister make the case for his re-election. So, when I heard that MSN UK were sponsoring an election briefing with Gordon Brown this week, I jumped at the opportunity. As part of MSN’s election campaign coverage they sponsored this event, which saw questions being directed to the UK Prime Minister from people on Twitter, the official Labour web-site and of course MSN UK. In addition, those in the audience had the opportunity to ask questions directly as well. It was fascinating to watch, but what made it extra special was that I was able to photograph him freely, just like the number of official press that were capturing the event.

I used my Canon 5D2, and a 70-300mm lens. I favoured this lens as I wasn’t sure how close I would get to the Prime Minister to get some good shots. As it happened it was a good choice. I was photographing him and the event host from a short distance of 3m away. Additionally, I hadn’t brought a flash gun with me, as I wasn’t sure whether I’d be allowed given it may interfere with the coverage. So I opted to use a high ISO, ranging between 2000 and 2500 to capture the scene. The 5D2 revels here, and there is barely any discernable grain in the photos taken. I did some black-and-white post processing on a number of them too. There is something about black-and-white, which really reveals more of a subject’s character in the photograph.

Below are a sample of photos, although more can be found on my Flickr Stream and on stephenjkennedy.com in due course.

Portrait of a Prime Minister

Counting Policies

Of course the event concluded with the Prime Minister walking by me, so I took the occasion to shake his hand, and came out with the feeble “Thanks Gordon”. In retrospect, I wasn’t sure, what I was thanking him for exactly. But, I was certainly grateful for the opportunity to photograph and listen to him. I did find him very human and candid in his answers. And quite relaxed too, given the media onslaught he has had to bear in the last 12-18 months. No matter what your political opinion he does command a great deal of respect. All, I need to do now is think about who I’m actually going to vote for on May 6th. Yes, I’m still undecided.