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| The Fields along the Thames at Cookham during DTUF 2017 |
Hello Again !
Another fortnightly update on all things SSP - we've had a very very busy weekend previously with the long overnight action from the RTTS. It's an exhausting event for the participants and the event organiers alike. To be honest I was grateful we only had one event this weekend !
For the long ones we get to be up earlier before the event and also provide continuous overnight coverage at two key locations - which inevitably means 4hrs sleep in the back of a car whilst someone else takes over the shift for 6 hours through the darkest hours, and then ongoing work through until 8pm on the sunday.
so that's a friday night on site, 5am start, and then at the end a drive home 2.5hrs at 8pm on Sunday - essentially 52hrs at work over the weekend. Even EU regulations don't cover this much work - when you have a 40-50hr week to do as normal on top of that...
As you might imagine, that wipes us out physicllay and mentally for a few days, but we still make it into the office and get some of the admin done to turn around the high resolution galleries, and of course - all the other event galleries from the weekend !
That's the third overnight weekend we've covered this year, and next weekend is the Oxfam Trailwalker - which ends at Brighton Racecourse - another 100km challenge that is mostly walked in teams of 4, and you get to be supervised by the Gurkha Signal regiment. Click on the link below for details entries are still open
Recent galleries that are now live
| Date | Event | Race Gallery |
| Sat-15/07/2017 | Race To The Stones - #RTTS2017 - Free images with Pic2Go - straight to your Facebook | https://sspimg.com/RTTS2017-gallery |
| Sun-16/07/2017 | REP Arundel Castle Triathlon - Free race downloads | http://sspimg.com/REP-Arundel-Castle-Tri-Gallery-2017 |
| Sun-16/07/2017 | Harry Hawkes 10 | http://sspimg.com/Harry-Hawkes-10-2017-Gallery |
| Wed-19/07/2017 | Wakehurst Willow 8k | http://sspimg.com/Wakehurst-Willow-2017-Gallery |
| Sun-23/07/2017 | PP DTUF Half | http://sspimg.com/PP-DTUF-Gallery-2017 |
Take a look at the next races on our timeline - we often get people wondering what to do over the August holiday period - the truth is - most event directors go on holiday as well.
September gets busy - with the Ride Across Britain taking out half the office for 11 days (don't forget to add the days travel to the start and two days back from the finish!) across two busy weekends, and that's just after the ever popular Nuts challenge - which takes an age to catalogue - because of the mud...
Take a look and pick your challenge !
Future Race Galleries over the next two months
| Date | Event | Event Website |
| Sat-29/07/2017 | Oxfam Trailwalker | http://www.oxfam.org.uk/trailwalker |
| Sat-12/08/2017 | Pride 10k | https://pride10k.org/ |
| Sat-19/08/2017 | Brutal Pyestock | brutalrun.co.uk |
| Sat-26/08/2017 | REP Adur swim - Free race photos | http://www.rawenergypursuits.co.uk/events/river-adur-2-5km-swim-220712/ |
| Sun-27/08/2017 | Arundel 10k - Free Race photos | http://www.arundelscouts.org.uk/10k/ |
| Sat-02/09/2017 | The Nuts Challenge | http://www.thenutschallenge.co.uk/ |
| Sun-03/09/2017 | PP Maidenhead Half | http://www.purplepatchrunning.com/index.php/maidenhead-half-marathon |
| Sun-03/09/2017 | Reading Triathlon | https://tri2otriathlonclub.co.uk/reading-triathlon-2017/ |
| Sun-03/09/2017 | The Nuts Challenge | http://www.thenutschallenge.co.uk/ |
| Sat-09/09/2017 | Ride Across Britain - Free race photos with Pic2Go - Straight to your facebook | http://www.rideacrossbritain.com/ |
| Sun-10/09/2017 | Pilgrim Half and Full | http://www.farnhampilgrim.org.uk |
| Sun-10/09/2017 | Chestnut Tree House 10k | http://www.chestnut-tree-house.org.uk/events/littlehampton-10k-run/ |
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| Boating on the Thames is jolly nice |
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| It's jolly nice at this time of year |
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| kindly parked scooter in front of the second camera |
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| better than boating in luxury |
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| mind the dog poo and check the bottom of your shoes |
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| rocking the 80's sweatband look |
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| Sure, for men |
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| all going well, churchill style! |
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| easing into the finish |
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| the two handed wave of victory |
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| good work for the Shanley foundation |
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| Going via the river is technically cheating |
So it was all a bit of a different finish for DTUF to previous years at the windsor end, with the finish line a bit round the corner and out of the way - which obviously was a good thing because the big yellow boad didn't knock anything over, but on the other hand - where we're all the pretty flags in the background along the grass bank ?? ours looked a little lost on it's own... There used to be lines of supporters along the pavement and runners streaming down the road. It might have been a 20 yard change in finish location - but it has had a significant impact on the vibrancy of the finish straight and photos. It's this sort of thing you notice after a few years.
The other gallery for this weeks blog was going to be the Wakehurst willow.
But you know when your facebook timeline gets flooded with pictures from friends of friends - and then all your work is there - only this time it's stolen with clear text across it which says "not licensed for use", it makes your stomach turn. It tightens and it makes you angry, and sick, and listless, and fed up.
You work long days, into the evenings, pay babysitters £10 an hour over massive long weekends so you can cover events, but have to spend time away from your kids and that's before you have to pay all the staff, servers, gallery storage, insurance, not even counting the equipment (where do I start with that), or the office rents. You have a passion to do your job. And then you see this...
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| Blatant image theft from the gallery |
It makes me feel slightly ill seeing this, and this is just one of many incidents I saw from last weeks Wakehurst Willow. Facebook removed another one we saw, and in the past they have closed peoples accounts - simply because it's against FB terms and conditions to use unlicensed images. It's not our rules - It's the law. It's illegal. And they FB don't like being implicated !
In the past 12 months we have dropped over 10 events from our calendar - and this is the primary reason for it.
So if you do see any of your friends using unlicensed images anywhere, please tell them that it costs. It costs a lot of love, and it costs a lot of friendships, and it destroys peoples passion to want to provide a race gallery service, and it's certainly destroying mine. And we all lose out in the end.
Goodnight.
Anthony
