A great 3 days at the Peebles Hydro saw 180 subpostmasers meet for their annual conference. 3 days of brilliant weather helped show off the town of Peebles and the Scottish Borders at its springtime best.

 A packed conference room was the focal point of much debate about their industry and it brought it home to me the challenges they face in running their sub post offices.I suppose like a lot of businesses, we the public take too much for granted. These are men and women who displayed an absolute passion for their businesses, and are facing tough times in today’s market place for post office services. Not only do they face competition from supermarkets and some other retail outlets but also from the main Post Office network too.  Alan Cook, the Post Office Ltd Managing Director, and government minister Gareth Thomas MP, were at  the conference to address delegates and to take questions – and believe me some were tough.

My job was to take photographs throughout the 3 days and the dinner so I wasn’t listening intently to all the presentations and debate but just caught just enough in between takes.

A Gala Dinner was held on the second evening. The local kilt hire shop must have done a brisk business as all the Sikhs and Indians hired full kilts for the night - great stuff!

Photos: Nikons D3 and D300. Nikon Lens 70mm-200mm 2.8 and 24mm-70mm 2.8. Nikon SB 900 flash. Most shots using available light at 800ISO.

NSFB web site and the slideshow I put up for them here… 

Chaired by Terry Smith, the Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign was set up to have a statue of Sir Keith Park placed on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square in London. On 5 May as part of a flight following the same flight path as Sir Keith did in May 1919 Terry Smith, Chief Executive of specialist broker Tullett Prebon, and the great great nephew of Keith Park, flew in a Socata T20 Trinidad light plane to Edinburgh as one of the stopping points.

Actually Terry Smith had just been bidding for one of the last flying Spitfires in order to stop it going abroad but was pipped at the last minute – thankfully though to a UK buyer. However when I got the commission for this shoot it was expected that he would have the Spitfire for the flight and I was due to photograph the arrival at Edinbugrh Airport.

Pictured are Terry Smith,  Terrence Stevens (great great nephew) and Pilot Officer Norman Brown RAF and a Battle of Britain veteran. Young air cadets joined the party at Edinburgh’s 5 star Balmoral Hotel.

Terrence Stevens & Norman Brown at the Balmoral Hotel

Air Cadets join the welcome party at The Balmoral Hotel

Ummm, we had a laugh! Gave up trying to get them all to jump at the same time and another  photographer found the same too. Got one shot OK though!

But all in good spirit as members of staff from the Edinburgh Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa, lead by the General Manager, known as JP, came to the Maggies Centre at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh to present a cheque for, well, guess the amount from the photos.

Pinning a number

JP the General Manager jumps highest

Posing for a news photographer