Only the local paper so not hugely glamorous (and some rather average print quality!) but you can't complain really can you? It all started on Monday when I spotted an article on Telegraph Travel about how boring Buckinghamshire allegedly is. You can read the full thing here if you like.
Skimming through the piece I then spotted the immortal line 'Then there’s Milton Keynes, which is big on roundabouts but woefully short on beauty' and I had to sit up and take notice. As a huge advocate of MK, and creator of the Unexpected:MK photography book as part of the city's 50th birthday celebrations in 2017, I couldn't let that pass now could I?
I tracked down the journalist's Twitter account and tagged him in a fairly politely worded tweet, telling him what I thought of his article, adding one of my favourite images of Campbell Park, and challenging him to come and visit us for himself - which he clearly never has. And that was that, or so I thought. Next thing I know, many other equally astounded local residents had joined me in posting a selection of fabulous photography showing him just how beautiful MK really is - and so it continued over the next few hours. So I felt as if a good job had been done, and we'd made our point!
Then, on the Tuesday afternoon I was at my desk when a call came in from the MK Citizen - our local paper. A lovely journalist called Sally, telling me they were going to respond to the article and asking for images to support it, and a little more information about me, which I happily supplied. The piece appeared on their website that afternoon, and then on Thursday, when the print version came out, I found my photos of MK not only on a full page inside, but also one on the front cover! I did feel slightly bad, as they only featured my images and not any of the ones which other people had posted, but I guess they had mine there ready to go to print, without any permission issues - so that's probably why.
Either way, I must thank everyone who hopped on the bandwagon after me, for the support and for posting lots of lovely images for Telegraph Travel and many others to see! As we all know - Milton Keynes is a beautiful place, and we won't let anyone tell us otherwise . . .