It's been a long,long time since I photographed a jumble sale. Last time would have been for The Northants Evening Telegraph more years ago than I care to remember. This week I photographed a National Childbirth Trust sale for The Guardian-they are doing a story about buying secondhand to save on the horrendous cost of having children.

I'd forgotten just what an experience it is to try and photograph these events when they are in full swing. Everything was relatively quiet until the doors rumbled open on the stroke of one o'clock and the hordes descended on the bargains inside. Standing in the way of bargain hunters whilst trying to photograph them was a no-no and I found myself being swept along like a pebble on a beach.


Here's a shot from The Sunday Telegraph job in Redditch. Taken on a monopod held at arms length it shows the police tent covering the spot where the body of disabled 22-year-old James Hughes was found in a suitcase in his family's back garden.
The area was a hot landing zone for the media and I ended up getting my foot slammed in my own car door by a drunken moron who objected to our reporter knocking on his door and came out of the house to show his disapproval. Sadly the police would not have shown much sympathy with me if I had retaliated or tried to press charges for assault.
Earlier the same reporter had a stone thrown at him by another group of yobs-this time swilling cans of lager in their back garden in between shouting obscenities at the media.