Give us a wave!

I walked in to the Western Gazette newsroom on Monday morning and it was  buzzing. Reporters are talking football, no suprise there. But there is a twist the girls are interested too.

Yeovil Town is to get a new manager and one of the worst kept secrets of the year will be rubber stamped for supporters at a press conference called for 2pm.
I'm looking forward to it but as always with press conferences pictorially they are not very interesting.
Firstly though I speak to our sports editor Chris Sweet and pop up to the training ground - which is very near us - to see who is taking the training, Result! Gary Johnson and Terry Skiverton are walking hand in hand, not literally but laughing and joking onto the training ground.
Within a few minutes I tweet the picture which in turn is retweeted everywhere by Yeovil fans hungry for any crumb of news.
Now I know it is not the biggest story in the football world but down here it's huge and Gary is a local God, no argument.
The press conference venue is packed.....well, three tv crews and four yes four photographers. I havn't seen that much fuss at Yeovil in years. There is even a pot of free flowing coffee to keep us all happy as we wait for the grand entrance.
As always the table where they will be seated is too high, there are large and in your face marketing boards obscuring our view and club logo's are in the wrong place. But all these things make it fun for photographers, we love the challenge and relish the chance for a good whinge.
My job was to get good pictures of Gary for the front and back pages of the paper. More importantly on a professional level I just had to get a better picture then the other togs there. That's what being a professional photographer is all about, it's the constant drive to create and prove that we are as good as we tell everyone.
Then the clock struck two o'clock and the prodigal son made his entrance, followed by the outgoing manager Terry Skiverton, a few respectful paces behind . Let the fun begin.
Photographers jostled for positions to get the best angles much to the annoyance of  tv crews and they in turn made it difficult for us. After half an hour and many frames later it was over, it was official.
Gary Johnson was the new manager...again.
The whole entourage then moved out onto the hallowed turf of Huish park where the photographers hijacked the new manager for the obligatory photos of 'man and scarf'.
All the pictures I had taken so far were fine but I still had to take a strong portrait to adorn the front of the paper.

But for this I had to wait til the the tv guys had there turn. So I leant against the wall and watched as he was bounced from one camera to the other answering the same old questions and replying with the stock answers new managers have learned to express over the years.

Then it was my turn, I only had a few seconds and my flash was playing up but I got the picture I was after. I was a happy snapper again and looking forward to Saturday when Gary will once again answer with arms aloft to the crowd singing 'Gary,Gary give us a wave!'.