Covering the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the studio's biggest challenge to date. I'm still in a daze about the whole thing. Being the only photographers allowed to shoot certain behind-the-scenes events and being allowed closer to Her Majesty the Queen of England than most, stirred a lot of emotions. My grandmother, were she still alive, upon seeing her grandson come so close to the Monarch, would have surely died... of bliss. Although people keep asking me: "how did it go..." I know I'll never be able to get my thoughts clear on it until I write them down.

So in a way this story is a catharsis, therapy for me. If you are a photographer, event coordinator or anyone interested in the studio's developments you'll appreciate this story.

I said it was "the biggest challenge" not because it was the longest assignment, nor the most physically demanding. Check Coast2Coast for that. But it was certainly the most high profile. We were also under intense scrutiny by the secretariat not just because of heightened security but also because we did not intend to fail.

Our preparations began weeks ago. Selecting additional photographers, equipment, getting accredited, meeting with secretariat protocol deep in the heart of the near-completed National Academy for the Performance Arts (NAPA.) The location for the official "family" photo (the Queen and 50+ heads of state) was moved from here to there and back again - and subsequently so did my lighting theory. Every day we were issued a new set of instructions concerning access, security, transport, schedule changes; and that didn't end until the job was finished.

Moreover, just a few weeks before the start of the assignment we managed to clarify some odd semantics - only to find that we would be required to provide real-time editing and uploading of our photography, from within the field, to a server housed in the secretariat, accessible to the international media. Slam on the brakes, change gears, configure a handful of mobile editing suites, wireless Internet and mobilise editing staff with extremely quick fingers.

As we neared the start of the assignment, our "planning" became more of a quick reaction and we started operating day by day; minute by minute with Brianne at the helm. All jtography shooters and editors had in-ear radios and the highlight of this event for me as the studio's director was while I was crouched inside NAPA, quietly shooting the arrival of the heads while listening to the radio traffic as my crew worked the rest of the building: one by one members of the team would call in a disaster with all the candor and hilarity I'd expect and Brianne would fix it. I wonder if SAUTT or the blimp was monitoring that discourse and thinking: "who the hell are these kids?" I listened with keen interest, while quietly panicking, preparing to take the most important photograph of my career.

Once my team had settled into our office space within the IFC building on the waterfront, we began to fan out in the direction of each event. We soon learned that the radios' 35mile range was being cut by the bulk of the cruise ships in harbour, inside which we covered most of the youth forum and the business forum meetings - precursors to the actual CHOGM. Once one of our team were outside the ship with the task of running camera content back for the main editing suite in the IFC, the radios helped us locate each other on board.

As things heated up we had one team in the airport's north terminal for the arrival of heads by domestic flight and one team at the south terminal for private jets; a shooter on each of the ships, one in the IFC for press conferences, one in the St. Anns area for events at the Hilton/Cascadia... it was kind of endless.

On Thursday, I stood with a modest gathering at memorial park, waiting for the Queen to lay a wreath at the base of the plaque there. In the sun, cross-shooting the main-stream media, I stood with the palace videographer and shared my incoming text updates of the Queen's itinerary with the the event's most important witness: a little girl named Jodanna who had drawn a small picture of herself and the Queen on a square of paper, clutched in her fist. What Jodanna must have thought of me, standing on the 'inside' with a lens as big as her leg and a 'secret service radio' in my ear is anybody's guess. But by then I had made connections with the palace shooters and promised Jodanna I'd get the picture to Her Majesty. Things at the site were tense and I kept hold of the picture until Friday night when I put it in the hands of one of the palace staff who ran between the Queen and the media. Jodanna, she was very impressed with your drawing and I know she gave it to the queen later on - these people keep their word.

Her Majesty is not tall. And it's amazing that people don't take this into account when designing her procession. Or maybe they do...! One the best shots I have of this event is from a 300mm 2.8 held high above my head to clear the heads of those surrounding her - 30 feet away. I rattled off about 60 exposures and one of them hit the mark just right.

That night, I returned to NAPA for my final 'test shot' of the official family photo. The shot would be taken at the back of the main stage, right after MacFarlane's show. We would have 10 minutes to clean the stage, set the lights, push two large stands into place and coordinate the heads back into place for the shot. The test was fine and it relieved me to the point where I would be able to sleep that night - once I didn't think about it too much.

The lighting was talked through with benny who was in charge of the lighting for the entire show and I had done some numbers with him the night before: the 'key light' was from 8 cans overhead - each about 2000watts. There was minimal backlight, plenty of murky fill and 50 spot-lit national flags as a backdrop. Lastly, in the background, above the flags was the CHOGM logo, which I was pretty sure would be blown out once I exposed the heads correctly. Rather than give Benny too much information (he had a lot to think about) I opted to bracket the exposure and compromise the logo if I had to - it was the one thing that could be fixed in post. In hindsight, a graded filter would have been perfect for this job but like so many digital shooters I don't own one.

The overhead cans gave me f5.6 at 1/200th without going crazy with the ISO. I was shooting with a 5Dmkii so I had some room there. But being THE photograph of the event I wanted to bring as little noise as possible to the mix. My only reservation was the spread of the key light was so wide, there was no definition, no shadow to help make the shot more interesting and not enough backlight to make each head pop out against the flags. Days before we had done a test exposure using the studio's equipment and we timed the setup at 7mins. But we soon started to learn how difficult it was going to be to have a "team" helping me (security again). Most likely I'd be on my own. Plus, the final shot was done at 20mm: from the first flag to the last the shot was about 40 feet wide. Not easy to light... Then I met Benny. The best trait you can adopt in critical photography is how to make it work with the simplest set up. Tomorrow would tell - I was ready.

We woke on Friday morning at 4am. Somehow, an endless buffet breakfast at that hour just doesn't work. And I was anxious: the last thing that needed tweaking was the most critical. Somehow, all week we had been getting too much trouble with security. We weren't media, we weren't palace staff, we weren't protocol - yet we were being asked by the Office of the Prime Minister to walk into the highest levels of the event, shoot what we wanted and walk out. Things hadn't gone so smoothly in that regard and although I'd called a meeting the day before, I didn't have any new level of confidence about it. We decided to pull a fast one...

To get out of the IFC and off to NAPA without raising too many questions, we became "the media", donning those bright, florescent vests that scream "throw me out of this event!" En route to NAPA I got the text I'd been looking for: "take off the vests when you get there..." On arrival, we did that and walked out of the media pool to our planned positions. I could feel the glare of the media burning into my back. Sorry guys, not my call. And I’m sorry to be in your shot. Here's how we broke it down.

Keron, east entrance, VIP arrivals.

David, south entrance, presidents and HMQ arrivals.

Dos, western entrance arrival of heads.

Anthony, reception, inside napa.

Lisa, real-time edits, napa.

James, official greeting shot, western entrance, and official group shot, napa.

Brianne, trouble-shooter, all over.

And we still had Anton back at the IFC...

We waited...

And then, everything pretty much happened at once. To give you an idea of how much time we had to work in, how little room for error there was, The Queen arrived at 9.40 and the show started at 9.45. That's why I knew we wouldn't have time to negotiate with security. Needless to say, Brianne, Roxanne Pantin, protocol, and the top security people had doors opening for us like water. There were a couple of near-misses, but generally, this all went like clockwork. At 9.45 I was inside napa at the front of the stage explaining to a SAUTT officer that if I wasn't allowed to stay, there'd be no official photograph. That seemed to work and I settled in for the performance.

MacFarlane is a genius - I suppose by now everybody knows this. I don't know if it was just the show, the killer audio system inside napa or my level of fatigue mixed with the anxiety of the next photograph, but I fought back tears during Denise plummer's "Nah Leaving". I shot the performance anchored to one spot, wishing I had the 300mm, while Lisa crept in and out with my camera's cards.

Show over. deep breath. Start counting down 10mins. Get onstage. Where's Benny? 9mins. Find the stands and push them centre-stage. 8mins. The chairs are being moved out and replaced by place/tags for the heads of govt. 7mins. Climb up the stands. Where is Benny? Stage area is now clean. 6mins. Benny hits the lights, thank you! 5mins. I'm surrounded by a small media pool that are all 6 foot below my stands, looking up at the shot, terrible angle, not my problem. 4mins. Double check exposure from my test notes. All ok. Unless media all use flash. Confirm no flash allowed. 3mins. Lisa shoots a behind-the-scenes image of the situation: it's comic. 2mins. Some press guy tries to suggest there's room on my stand for him two of us. My response is unpublishable. 1min. Heads arrive. Followed by HMQ. Ready?

Click.

Nobody said a word. There was no need. Com-sec and protocol had the event so wired that there was nothing to do but follow the plan I'd laid out and get it done. The final shot was pretty much perfect given the constraints. Every individual head, every flag, perfect lines, sharpness throughout, perfect exposure. It was up online and seen the world over in mere minutes. Disclaimer: if you see any versions of that photograph in the local media, taken from below the riser, with a distinct, unfortunate emphasis on her Majesty’s knees... it's not mine. In my opinion, no photographer should have been allowed to leave that room without a QC check. You just don't go to all that trouble to have some amateur portray the event in an extremely negative light and the sell it to the press for a dollar, ok? ...ok?

The rest of the event was a piece of cake by comparison. We did lose, overall, just two 70-200 2.8 lenses. Why do we keep breaking stuff? That night we finished printing, framing and boxing the official photographs to be sent out to each head of state as a gift from the Prime Minister. We are currently putting together 100 coffee-table-books.

Packing up on Sunday was a moving experience. We made a lot of friends within the IFC building and we don't know when we'll work together again. Some of the people who opened doors for us were:

Bibi Kahn, Roxanne Pantin, Charles Achong, Beverly Kahn, Evyeinne! Crispin Thomas and his whole team including the guys at proudfoot communications, the protocol crew, Vaughan, Jacqueline, Louise, Kenneth DeBique, the guys and girls from GlobeCast (Stefan and Melanie)... I've left out too many names. I know.

I especially want to thank my team for their professionalism and humor without which my studio would be in a mess - Lisa, Dos, Anton, Anthony and 'outsiders' Keron Riley, David Wears, Tyrone Chang and Oswin Browne. Brianne Laurayne is the studio's manager and I am indebted to her for life. Without her CHOGM would have beaten us.

I'm wary of self-praise but two things are important to note: Firstly, for corporate sponsors, organizers and the govt. (not the media), this studio has covered most of the highest profile events in Trinidad and Tobago this decade - from the world cup through to this CHOGM. Secondly, I suspect that I might be the youngest photographer ever to be charged with the responsibility of taking the official family photograph for a CHOGM.

I'm honoured.