It was a very different day at the races for me yesterday when I headed to the Melbourne Cup. Normally a day at the races for me involves studying the form meticulously the night or morning before and making sure I had plenty of cash for drinks and a punt.

What made the Melbourne Cup different for me was this time I was covering it as a photographer for Retna Picture Agency and my brief was to capture international celebrities enjoying the festivities at Flemington. The photos had to be off to London ASAP after the races.

My preparation started a month or more out from race day – the first step being to secure media credentials with access to The Birdcage at Flemington. The next step was to find out who the international celebrities in attendance would be and who would be hosting them. Then I had to track down the publicists for the celebrity hosts to gain access to the marquees.

Tuesday morning saw me up at a reasonable hour making sure that my camera gear was properly packed, all batteries were charged, spare batteries, the right lenses, flash, memory cards etc. then it was off to Flemington.

The day was sunny, cool if you stood in the shade but if you were in the sun and out of the wind it soon warmed up – the red face I’m sporting today is testament to the amount of sun out there yesterday.

My first stop was the Fashions on the Field final; my goal was to capture international guests Candace Bushnell and Carson Kressley there. I arrived before the announcement of the finalists and shot a few frames of some contestants who were waiting backstage to see if their number would be read out as one of the 10 finalists.

I then had to find a spot to shoot the final – I hadn’t ever shot a fashion event before. It was pretty competitive to find a decent spot to shoot from but I found a spot to the right of stage which wasn’t too bad – I just had to stay out of the sightlines of the VIP guests seated by the catwalk and dodge a few other photographers (including one lady with a massive hat).

With shots of the final, Candace Bushnell and Carson Kressley in the bag it was off to The Birdcage to visit the Lavazza and Andrew McManus Presents marquees where Snoop Dogg and Chris Isaak were set to be their celebrity guests.

There were plenty of local sports people and Australian entertainers in attendance at these marquees including Shannon Noll, Michael Klim, Grinspoon guitarist Pat Davern, Lance “Buddy” Franklin and Brendan Fevola – but none of these were on my list for the day.

I was told there would be a media call to shoot Chris Isaak at 2pm and Snoop Dogg at 2.15 at two different marquees.

The Chris Isaak media call went smoothly – with him talking to photographers and making sure he gave each photographer some good shots.

Then it was off to the Lavazza marquee for Snoop Dogg – I got there early but in no time flat there must have been 50 photographers jammed up against a rope barricade waiting for the Dogg to arrive.

2.15 ticked by, 2.30 ticked by, 2.45 passed and with the Melbourne Cup starting at 3pm some people were getting anxious about whether they would get to see the Cup. The longer we waited the more the throng of media and general public continued to grow – even Classic Hits FM and 3AW were there – I didn’t think Snoop Dogg would have much appeal to their demographic.

Finally, at 2.50 a couple of man mountains and a host of security guards cleared a path for Snoop Dogg to enter the Lavazza marquee – his entrance was like watching almost presidential the way he was whisked through the crowd. The crush of people and the number of cameras held aloft made it a real challenge to get any shots of him there.

I then headed to the Andrew McManus marquee where I caught the end of the Melbourne Cup on a big screen and managed to get a couple of nice shots of Chris Isaak enjoying himself with a few guests.

It was then back to Lavazza where I happened to shoot former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins and her boyfriend Jake Wall leaving the marquee. I had to wait my turn to get into the marquee where Snoop was partying it up with a large contingent of females in a roped off corner of the marquee. There was a horde of onlookers gathered to see/photograph him through the window – I got a couple of reasonable shots from outside before heading inside for a couple more shots.

About this stage the last race had been run, I was footsore and a little parched so I headed for home to put my feet up for half an hour, had a beer and then sorted and processed my photos and sent off a set to Retna.

All in all a pretty good day, I got some good photos and had a very different race day experience – I arrived home sober, solvent and didn’t see a single horse all day!

A full gallery of photos from the day can be seen here.