General Sir David Richards

The next phase of my “Gurkhas Behind the Lens” saw Sapper Sangum Magar from Queen’s Gurkha Engineers in Maidstone accompany me to photograph the Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, GCB, CBE, DSO, ADC Gen in his final week in post.

He invited us to his home in Kensington Palace and, although he was between appointments with very little time, he was, as usual, relaxed and charming; taking lots of interest in my career and Sangum’s job with QGE.

The shoot was straight-forward using 2 off-camera speed lights – one key light and the other behind the sofa to remove some of the harsh shadows.  Sangum has just returned from a military photography course, so his camera understanding was excellent, and he knew the shot he wanted to get.

It was stormingly hot, and even shooting inside was very warm indeed; so despite that and the pressure of time, we got some half-decent results!