Monday 25 July 2011

Going Underground.

It's just bloody typical. I've been hauling my pasty looking skin around in the search for news for the past few weeks in the usual English Summer of rain and damp. So what happens when the temperature rises and the glowing yellow orb makes a welcome appearance...? Yep, you guessed it. The BBC in it's wisdom sends me on a filming trip into a 1.2 mile tunnel under the Hampshire countryside.





The warmth of the sun and it's lighting properties are replaced with a cool breeze and builders dust, not to mention the orange glow of sodium lights just to ruin any cameraman's day.

But seeing as the department of transport is just about to open one of the longest road tunnels in Europe, bypassing what was the biggest bottleneck in southern England, I suppose I had better be grateful for the chance to be one of the very first people to drive through it.





I must admit to being impressed at the marvel of engineering that has taken place here, allowing more vehicles to speed through the countryside and quickly arrive at the automotive hell that is London. You know, that place of freeflowing traffic and clean air...

So instead of a story chasing ice cream sales figures at the beach, or chatting with picnickers on the South Downs, I dutifully captured the mixed lighting of the underground tunnel in all it's orange glory whilst simultaneously wiping road dust from my lens. But at least I suppose, I won't burn my delicate skin like a Scotsman south of Glasgow. No... I shall return from this job looking like Gollum, fiddling with my ring. My focus ring, that is clogged with dust...

Paul Martin is @ukcameraman on Twitter

http://www.media-attention.co.uk