MDS Podcast, this episode behind the scenes at the MDS with photographer Jon Bromley, also known as ‘Desert Dad’

I awake with a mild headache, most likely due to dehydration from the desert and alcohol, I make my way to breakfast which I am hoping will compare favourably with the previous nights offerings, I am not to be disappointed.

We are awoken at 5:00am after another night of thrashing on my decrepit sponge mattress. Sleep deprivation is becoming an issue as well as the norm. Too hot to fight with my sleep suit and too cold in the early hours of the morning to not warrant a cover of some sort.

Sleep deprivation begins to take its toll and breakfast today is taken a little earlier at 6:00am.  The monotony of scrambled egg and a bread roll is now becoming too much.  Over breakfast we discuss various rumours and posts that groups are making, in the knowledge that the majority are unfounded.

A stage begins to appear in the centre in the camp and sound checks are carried out, and like a scene from an ice cream commercial a Coca Cola stand is erected and is suddenly swarming with runners, greedy for what is on offer …. a cold Coke!

We meet at breakfast and my friends join me for yet more scrambled egg and dried bread, albeit portions are rapidly diminishing due to the torrid heat of the day.  This is not a diet that I can recommend to anyone, I have no idea which type of animal has produced this egg although I keep telling myself it was a happy Moroccan chicken laying somewhere in the shade.  We can all dream.

A very poor nights sleep and I am feeling very tired and reflective. I walk into camp for my morning tour of the English Bivouacs.  Trying to keep up the moral in this intense situation is hard, people are dropping like flies.  Breakfast this morning was laden with Competitors who had either been disqualified or medically removed.  The numbers are increasing dramatically after yesterdays tragic news.

Over to the start now and we only greet 638 or so competitors today as others withdraw or are withdrawn.  The countdown is on and the dulcet tones of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell are once again piped through but not before a rendition of ‘Into the desert on a horse with no name’ which blasts through the swirling sand.

Once again, awoken after a better nights’ sleep, by some loud, classical music emanating from the back of a trailer.  Having been caught out by the sheer darkness of the previous morning, I have learned from my experience and left the essentials in a place where I can find them quickly, and it works!  

A very bizarre awakening at silly o’clock in the morning, firstly by an unknown man coming into the tent in pitch darkness and removing all the electrical plugs, lights etc.  The lights in the tents only work until Midnight and then all power is cut and you find yourself immersed in complete darkness.

It’s very early in the morning and we are ready to leave home on what will prove to be an extraordinary and life changing journey, photographing the Marathon des Sables 2021.

Due to a huge lack of sports photography in the last year I found myself having to diversify back into fashion photography. It’s been a while now since l have been in a studio but this one which my client chose was just perfect.

Let us capture that moment when friends and family are reunited after lockdown is lifted. With many family not seeing loved ones for a year, capture the moment forever with a unique photo you will treasure always.

The reason I entered the weird and wonderful world of the large screen was not to see myself in every minor detail in high definition but more as a photographer who was intrigued with lighting and camera angles.

Lockdown has put a stop once again to all the usual sporting events that l go to to photograph, so l thought that l would make use of my imposed free time by creating a studio near home.

I was recently approached to sponsor a very talented young lady called Jessica Moskalevitch and her beautiful horse Lullabye.

You may recognise this beautiful little cottage from the Christmas house-swapping rom-com The Holiday.

As we moved into 2021 I was hoping that Covid-19 was going to be under control, I would have had the call up for a first jab and fans would be allowed back into stadiums. Oh how wrong can you be?

I was a keen photographer from an early age and had a dark room in my brother’s wardrobe when I was 15! I just found it fascinating that you could take a photo and then develop it from a negative in a bowl of chemicals.