See a gallery of 22 shots from the event below

All photography assignments have their own set of peculiarities, but some seem to have a few more than others.

And that’s what I encountered last November when I was sent to Ottery St Mary in Devon to capture the annual running of the Tar Barrels, an event dating back hundreds of years.

Having never shot this, the first thing I did was some research. I combed online picture agencies like Getty, Axiom, Corbis and Lonely Planet Images to see how others photographed it.

gallery

• Tar barrels in Ottery St Mary

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I think it’s important to have an idea of what you’re getting into, especially if it’s an event or festival or place where there might only be one chance to get it right. Still, research can only ever give a photographer a taste of an event. There is no substitute for being there.

Like any assignment I try to get to the site at least an hour or two before it all starts, especially if I don’t know the area.

Scouting the scene gives me an idea of what to expect. In this case, I talked with the event organizer who walked me through the route and told me a little about what was going to happen – big crowds crammed into narrow streets with people running around carrying burning barrels on their shoulders. So just another ordinary day in Devon.

The first thing to do was to stow any unnecessary equipment, especially lenses longer than about 70mm, at least for most of the event. During the organization of the shoot I was also put in contact with a local pub owner whose establishment was on the village’s main square where the big finale would take place. He allowed me access to a first floor room with windows facing the square. This is where I would get any long lens shots (an, incidentally, where I stashed most of my gear).

Because it is an event full of moving crowds – and dozens of others snapping pictures – the only logical way to go was to pare down my equipment to as little as possible. My bare bones gear list was one camera body, a 16-35mm f2.8 wide-angle zoom, a 24-70mm f2.8 short zoom, a 50mm f1.2, a speed light with an external battery pack, a few CF cards and extra camera batteries.

Because I didn’t want a camera bag getting in the way I ditched it with my other equipment and carried everything in the zip up pockets of my fleece. As for the flash battery pack, I attached it to my belt making sure the lead to the flash snaked inside my jacket so as not to get it tangled on anything or anyone. I was all set and ready to start.

If there was ever an event that reflects Robert Capa’s famous quote, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough,” it’s the Tar Barrels. It’s simply not possible to get those good images without getting up close and personal with a man hulking a seven-stone burning barrel on his shoulders.

By the end of the evening I had shoved my camera under the nose of so many barrel men – and women and kids – that I began to understand how the paparazzi must feel when trying to get a shot of Paris Hilton’s knickers.

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