I'd made a couple of hundred quid...

In the mid-1990s, while living and working as a freelance photographer in Edinburgh, Scotland, I spent a year or so living in the area known as Gorgie - Dalry to be specific...16 Cathcart Place to be even more specific.

Cathart Place was lined with stark, featureless tenements, and one day after arriving home from a job, I was walking to the flat when I heard some shouts of excitement bouncing off the tenement walls. I looked up and saw two of the local kids, who I knew by sight alone, tearing down the footpath being towed on their rollerblades by their dog (who I also knew by sight).

I smiled to myself and then thought as they whizzed past, 'hang on...that could make a photo I can sell to the newspapers...'.

I was freelancing so was always on the lookout for a job/photo I could sell to the newspapers, and two kids being towed on their rollerblades by their dog...well, the dollar (pound) signs began flickering in my eyes as the cash register rang in my head!

I called after the kids and when they came back to where I was I told them if they'd mind doing that again while I got some photos. They knew I worked for the papers and were excited at the prospect they might get in the "Rec'rd" (Daily Record - Scotland's biggest selling tabloid). I, too, was excited that they might get in the "Rec'rd" and make some money for me.

The kids got their dog to tow them to the end of the street and they performed their routine for me while I got some front on shots of them belting down the footpath towards me.

Happy that I'd got a front on shot, I also wanted to get a side on 'panning' shot (achieved by following the subject with your camera and using a slow shutter speed, so the subject is sharp - in focus - and the background is blurred).

The poor dog, now panting, towed them to the end of the footpath and, having picked up momentum, sped past me. With the dog's well-being in mind, I didn't ask the kids to do another run for me (although they would've gladly done so if it meant getting in the "Rec'rd").

Being the mid-1990s and about 10 years before the advent of digital photography, I was unable to check the back of the camera to make sure I got the shot. Instead, I had to hope and pray that there was something on the film in my camera.

I processed the films in my flat and half and hour later held the negatives up to the light. The photo you see here was the one good panning shot I got.

I sent one front on photo and a panning photo to around half a dozen newspapers and, quite content with my afternoon's 'work, sat back and spent the afternoon relaxing. The next morning I went and bought the newspapers I'd sent the photos to and revelled in the fact 3 of them had used the photos - all up I'd made a couple of hundred quid for something that had fallen into my lap.

The kids were, of course, over the moon that their photo was in the "Rec'rd" - they were going to have bragging rights at school for a long time!

Gear used - Nikon F90X camera, Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens, Fuji 400 ISO colour film