Sometimes you feel you shouldn't be there.

Lanterns are made ready to brighten up a wet evening

Some events fill you with a sense of trepidation or at least the feeling that you shouldn't be there and last weekend was such an evening.....I shouldn't have worried.
A few years ago a beautiful little girl, Sasha Bartin, aged only 13 sadly passed away years before her time, during a school hockey lesson. I was sent to photograph the funeral procession -with permission from the family- which passed by the school where about a thousand students lined up to pay their respects to a friend and loved one.
Last Saturday Sasha would have been 18 and her family and friends celebrated this with a special ceremony culminating in the launch of balloons and lanterns into the night sky at a local park.
It was an awful day very cold and pouring with rain to the point where I felt sure that the event would be cancelled. I could have phoned but didn't want to intrude on the family. So I decided to go and wait.
It was 6pm and no-one had arrived or so I thought. then a young lad appeared lit by a street lamp in a carpark, completely covered up apart from his hand holding a balloon. Then a car arrived followed by another, people were appearing from all directions.
The strange thing was I could hear lots of talk, not just of sadness but of good times punctuated with laughter. This evening,  I very soon realised was to be a celebration, maybe a few tears but mostly a happy occasion.
I stood back for a while not wanting to intrude until I had to. I protected my cameras from the rain as best I could until they were needed. Almost immediately one of the family approached me and I thought they might ask me to leave and I would totally of understood.
But now they thanked me for turning up in this appalling weather. I was extremely humbled at this but also I new I was accepted and could get o with my work, for this was my reason for being there.
A few words were said by the family and silhouettes looked skywards as the balloons were released into rain sodden night sky.
Next was the lighting of the lanterns and this was where the fun began, I dispensed with flash as I wanted to stay in the background and not annoy or outstay my welcome. I shot everything by the light of the single street lamp, it gave the pictures that orange glow but that worked in my favour, flash would only have killed the mood.
The rain was truly the lanterns enemy, making it nigh on impossible to light them and even when the tiny wicks to catch light the lanterns were heavy with rain and wouldn't rise to the air. Someone called out ' Sasha will be laughing at us from up there'. And they were right no-one seemed to mind and eventually a lantern was launched.
It was time for me to disappear, I was not needed any more.
It was a beautiful assignment and one I will remember forever.