Nominated for the awards

My borrowed alarm clock woke me at 5-30am this morning instead of 7-30am, and I didn't get back to sleep. Despite this, I had a good day.

I used my free bus pass for the second time when heading to the Palace Theatre, on Cambridge Circus, for the English Heritage Angel Awards. They were conceived, supported and now hosted by Andrew Lloyd-webber at this wonderful home to some of the creative arts. Most of the trustees of Stroud Preservation Trust managed to get to the ceremony and we met in the Stalls bar for coffee and almond croissant (my choice) and milling about amongst the other 15 finalists. I made sure I found the event manager and asked for permission to take pictures. This was a good move as the tickets, we had were for the second row of the stalls and I had the aisle seat. (This happened once before when I saw Bruce Springsteen at the Hammersmith Odeon on his his first visit in 1975. The following night I was in the gods. I never saw him again live.)

I took pictures of amongst others Melvyn Bragg, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Clare Balding who hosted the whole event (very well too; she is great) and Charles Moore, the editor of the Telegraph who are sponsors and have covered the whole voting process.

I only had my lovely little 50mm prime lens costing £80 as it was the fastest lens I have, which turned out to be advantageous. Sadly, I still had a hard time taking good pictures consecutively, if at all, with the varying lighting conditions. At least when the subjects were on stage the lighting was set for the cameras of the BBC2 Culture Show, who will feature the Awards ceremony this Friday night.

The picture I originally chose wasn't my favourite, but I felt like being mercenary, as I know the few browsers who might see this would at least recognise Graham Norton from his TV persona. I was rather pleasantly surprised at his softer than imagined manner and more charm than anticipated. He was funny too.

The show closed with a performance by the third-year students of the Arts Educational School of Musical Theatre. It was interesting to be so close to professional artists in their chosen domain, with the right conditions and permission to take photographs. One picture stood out for me of the male singers, who were later joined by an equal number of women. Although I said I was mercenary, which is why I am in London in the first place for the moment, I have followed Helena's advice and chosen to blip what I like. I will post a few of the others on my gallery here.

ps
I expect you realise that we didn't win the Industrial Category which we were nominated for! I never expected to, and we, very cornily, just enjoyed the fun! I also found that my photograph of our nominated building, the Brunel Goods Shed, was featured in the Awards programme.