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If there is one event the onEdition team know like the back of thier hand its the London Marathon, for many years we were the official photographers for Flora, during their sponsorship and have worked with many of the charities involved.

This year we are working with Lucozade, who are the official sports nutrition partner and helping them deliver their sponsorship to the worlds media. Lucozade are no strangers to the event having been sponsors of the Marathon for 13 years and have helped many thousands of runners over the years, keep hydrated and make the finish line.

This week, in the run up to the start (no pun intended), we have been shooting Lucozade’s involvement at the Virgin London Marathon EXPO at ExCeL. We had many excited visitors picking up hydration tips on the stand, not just from Lucozade’s nutition experts but also from real live Marathon gods, including multiple marathon champion, multiple Paralympic gold and all round good guy David Weir and expert running coach Martin Yelling.

The London Marathon is a joy to work on as a photographer, in all conditions, and over the many years we have been working on the race we have experienced everything from driving rain to really warm sunny days. But whatever the weather you can be sure of a great days action; from the elite athletes competing right through to the fun runners, which get more extreme as the years go by, but are now an integral part of the Marathon.

We have shot literally along every mile of the course and though we have our favourites, the start, Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, Parliament Square, for us the best spot is always the finish line from the gantry overhead. It is here that you get to witness the emotion of the race -what it exactly means to run 26.2 miles around the streets of our capital city and to cross that finish line. The most humbling time, is when many of the media have left for the day, around 5 hours after the start of the race. This is when you get the ‘stragglers’ crossing the line. Those runners battling with the personal monstor that is a marathon and it is these humbling moments, when people are at their most vulnerable that we often get the strongest images of the race. These are the photographs that show pure raw emotion and we cannot wait to get out there and capture it. Roll on Sunday, it will be a long tough day for all of us out there on the course -we cannot wait…

Marathon legend David Weir

Hydration advice from the Lucozade experts

As temperatures barely made it above freezing, Saracens cool and calculating kicker, Owen Farrell, made easy work of his place kicks, firing over 17 points and helping Saracens deliver a resounding victory over their top of the table rivals, Harlequins.

At the end of a fabulous game, during which Saracens delivered an impressive win of 27-12 and saw them rise to the top of the Premiership, means that they are now sat on top, with a 5 point margin over Quins.

With tries from Shalk Brits and Will Fraser, Saracens have stamped their authority at the top of the table, as the play-offs are looming fast. No doubt we will see Sarries and Quins battling it out for the lead of the Premiership until the end of the season, but this victory on the cold front may prove to be decisive, as the season heads towards its final stages.

Quins only managed 12 points, all garnered from the boot of Nick Evans. With Joe Marler getting sin binned for 10 minutes, it was Sarries who took advantage of being a player up and added 11 points to their tally after he was yellow carded. Chris Ashton, lucky to escape a red card, found himslef on the sidelines for 10 minutes, after a high tackle on Harlequins’ replacement flanker Maurie Fa’asavalu. It is perhaps telling about the depth of the team in Saracens, that Quins failed to make their one player advantage pay dividends and saw Saracens putting in some determined defence, despite some hard rugby from Quins.

The onEdition team really enjoyed the game, despite sitting on the touchline in near Arctic conditions, we are really excited about the possibility of Saracens reclaiming the title from their London rivals.

Lets just hope next time we are out shooting rugby, it is just a little warmer… 

JP Morgan 7′s launch

Three is no longer the magic number. Fact. The new Magic Number is definately Seven, or to be more precise the JP Morgan 7′s. Never before has a 7′s series been so heavily anticipated. This fast ‘n’ furious offshoot of Premierships Big Brother has often been viewed as the annoying kid brother, who is there in the background trying to be big and tough like is older brother, but often gets ignored and lives in the shadow of his elder sibling.

Well let me tell you that is about to change. With the new series kicking off at Gloucester’s Kingsholm on the 1st of August, the new format for the JP Morgan 7′s means that we will have just three qualifying legs, before the final, where Pool A sees Gloucester Rugby host Bath Rugby, Exeter Chiefs, and Worcester Warriors on Thursday 1 August.

Twenty four hours later Pool B features Northampton Saints, Leicester Tigers, London Welsh, and Sale Sharks at Franklin’s Gardens.

Completing the pool stages on Saturday 2nd August at Saracens’ Allianz Park; Harlequins, holders London Irish and London Wasps will take on the hosts for a place in the Final in Pool C. The Final will then take place on the 9th August at the Rec in Bath.

At the launch on Monday, former England International, World Cup winner and J.P. Morgan Premiership Rugby 7s ambassador Will Greenwood is relishing the start of the series:

“It’s a great evening of summer rugby, a show case of the exceptional young talent who are coming through the Premiership ranks,” said Greenwood.

“There’s no space to hide in this game and the J.P. Morgan Premiership Rugby 7s series offers a fantastic platform to develop their skills, their fitness and their taste of playing for their club on a big stage. It’s a cracking night of entertainment and fast flowing rugby and I for one can’t wait to get down to see all the action.”

We for one, cannot wait to get stuck into shooting the series for JP Morgan and are looking forward to the JP Morgan 7′s delivering some fantastic summer rugby…

All round good egg, Will Greenwood at the launch

Early March is a busy time for the onEdition team, as it’s when our thoughts turn to the world of dogs, or to be more precise, dog shows. And not any old old dog shows. oh no, but The dog show, the biggest and best in the world, where over 20,000 of the world best dogs come to compete.

Founded in 1891 by Charles Cruft, it has become the most instantly recognised dog show, celebrating all things Canine. It is so much more than just a dog show; you can come to see some of the worlds most talented dogs compete in Agility, Obediance, Heelwork to Music, the incredible Flyball, to name just a few.

From a photographers perspective it is a dream. Great fun can be had by spotting and shooting owners who look like thier dogs (and believe me their are plenty!) Dogs arriving in rain coats, wearing bibs, to stop the drool, on thier immaculately groomed coats. Huge dogs and tiny dogs and every shape size and breed in between mean we are never short of an interesting subject and never far away from a publication.

With a full of team 11 covering the event, we had four photographers working with four reporters covering off all of the news stories for the Kennel Club. This ranged from offbeat images for the national and international news media, to interviewing and shooting the Best of Breed winners for their local and regional newspapers.

We had a crew of two cameramen delivering regional content to the 12 English BBC/ ITV regions as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. An exhasuting week, but another stellar year with a huge amount of publications delivered and a happy, but dog tired team at the end of the four days!