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In 2003 the government changed the laws on gambling, which had the positive effect on bingo customers of putting a little more money in their pockets. The Rank Organisation, owners of Mecca bingo, commissioned photography for a press release to publicise this news using bingo enthusiast Nell MacAndrew at one of their prestige sites. The vast bingo hall at Wood Green, although very modern, is a very large open space, which can present problems from a photographic viewpoint; far backgrounds can be very dark and there is little sense of depth without some sort of foreground interest, and architectural shots often lack any sense of movement or dynamism. Having Nell was obviously a huge advantage in making photographs with visual impact, but what was needed was movement to imply activity and excitement. I had Nell throw the money into the air, and using a flash & blur technique she remains sharp while the cash has motion blur, or whizz lines. The increased time exposure also lightens the background to show the bingo environment. I shot a variety of types of picture to provide a choice, but this one was always going to be the most interesting; the biggest problem was of course the random distribution of the notes once in the air. Conventionally this would have meant shooting a lot of film for a still uncertain result, but working digitally Nell, the client & I could review the images after each effort and be certain when we'd got the shot. "The photography went very smoothly", says Jackie Abrahams, Head of Marketing for Rank Group Gaming Division. "I really had no idea what to expect from the shoot but Ian put everyone at ease and came up with a plan which involved taking pictures of Nell both on her own and with groups of players in the hall, culminating in a spectacular shot of her throwing cash into the air. We could all see the results immediately on the digital camera screen, which was very reassuring, and it definitely helped to get the best from Nell she was really involved in the process because she could see what Ian was after. We could make our selections for the press release on the laptop screen, and before we left the site Ian had produced a CD of images for me and had emailed our chosen image of Nell along with our caption to the tabloid picture desks. I went home knowing that we'd achieved the result we'd hoped for".