09 August 2007
PA photographers Do Something Different for CBBC
Viewers of Children's BBC tuned in on Saturday, 11th August to see two PA Photos staff working with presenter Mark Rhodes, who was challenged to become a Sports Photographer as part of CBBC's "Do Something Different" series.
CBBC are setting challenges for presenters and kids through their Do Something Different programme running throughout the summer holidays.
One of the challenges was for presenter, Mark Rhodes, to work as a press photographer at Wimbledon for a day; the ultimate test being, to see if Mark can get one of his pictures published.
PA Photos was approached directly by CBBC and asked to pitch for the opportunity to be the agency that would train and assist Mark at Wimbledon. Jenny Teasdale, marketing manager for PA Photos led the talks and was successful in securing the agency's involvement.
Mark had to find three specific shots, an action shot, an emotional shot and a picture that sums up the day. After just 4 days of training he went to Wimbledon and worked under the guidance of photographer Steve Parsons and sports picture editor, Kamran Rizvi.
Presenter, Mark said, "I couldn't believe it when I got my challenge - I love tennis but had never been to Wimbledon before so to be on Centre Court in the middle of the action was awesome!
"Working alongside Steve was great - he's very calm and really taught me how to track the action to take a good shot. It was so much tougher than I thought it would be. The vast majority of my shots were completely unusable - so many didn't have the player nicely framed and those that did were often soft! I got some great ones in the end though and was over the moon to know that two had been deemed good enough to be sent out on the PA Wire!"