Wilton Carnival - The Milky Bar Kid!

Today was my fifth official photographic coverage of the annual Wilton Carnival. Five hours, all on my todd, trying to capture everything going on and complicated this year by it having a new venue, well, four venues, to be exact.

It's typically village-like, with lots of children doing lots of 'aargh' things and a few cheeky ones too. Last year's was in the teeming rain; today's was blindingly bright and hot and this award ceremony was held in a marquee.

Our Milky Bar Kid won his category easily and being a five year old (my guess, he could be seven?) he just stood around and posed moodily during judging but when he first went up for the rosette you see on him, so quick did he dash back to his parents, I couldn't even get a quick shot. One of those lovely little jobs such a snapper has is to get a cheesy pose with prize winner and judge/organiser etc.

This time, for another award, a certificate that you cannot see, you see the judge very keenly trying to get him to stop and pose, getting him to hang on but Our Kid, again, storms back. I'm crouching, ready and so just got this quick snap. Mind you, all the little girl prize-winners dutifully posed, which must say something about the differences between the genders!

I liked it enough to have it as my Blip as it mixes a bit of 'aargh' with the expression of the judge plus the lovely unpredictability of working with children - and animals - my alternative Blip was a dog that had been trained to balance a real cooked Waitrose sausage on its nose - and not to even attempt to eat it!!

Lens was the only one I took and used throughout - Nikkor 18-200mm VR. I don't like it too much but for getting every picture to a reasonable sharpness and with reasonable usability, it can't really be beaten. You really don't want to start changing lenses when in one shot you want the entire crowd watching the punch and judy show and the next, an extreme close up of one child pulling a face. I also used fill-in flash, here.