on our patch JOANN RANDLES


In the eye of a storm


Come rain or shine – extreme weather can make a good story, says Ruth Addicott


G


etting up at three in the morning to be battered by torrential rain and gusts of 100mph is not the easiest of jobs but, for photographer Joann Randles (pictured), it is up there with the best. “I’ve got to be honest, I


love a storm,” she says. “And Porthcawl never fails.” Randles is on permanent weather watch and has learnt the art of capturing a storm. She is based in Swansea, a 30-minute drive from Porthcawl and her pictures have appeared on the front page of The Observer and other nationals. With a background in film and TV, Randles took up photojournalism when her work collapsed during Covid and now works as a freelance. The most powerful storm she has covered was Storm Eunice in February 2022, which saw gusts of 100mph off the South Wales coast – 122mph was recorded on the Isle of Wight, the highest on record. The storm caused fatalities across the UK and Europe. It tore a hole in the roof of London’s O2 and more than 200,000 homes were left without power. Randles says the key is planning, not just from a safety perspective (driving when it’s calm) but also being in the right place at the right time.


Blown off your feet live on air


Sky News correspondent Charlotte Leeming was almost blown off her feet live on air during Storm Darragh. The sight of flying debris means it’s not safe to


16 | theJournalist


broadcast, she says: “We want to tell the story, but we’re not reckless.”


Getting the picture Photographer Joann Randles


looks at everything from tide times to parking to a cafe. She has coffee and sandwiches as well as a blanket in her car. It’s about getting in first


and the right wave, she says: “I left home at two or three in the morning because I knew


the bridges would be closed,” she says. “It was calm when I left but, within the space of six hours, I was struggling to walk – quite literally, you could not put one foot in front of the other. The wind speed was insane.” Randles took her pictures at high tide before the storm reached its peak and sent her first set of images at 7–8am. She says it’s all about understanding the weather systems


and how they work. “I know when the wind is coming in, the tide times, the height of the swell, when the sunrise and sunset are… I look at everything, down to the last nugget,” she says. “From a press angle, Porthcawl can be quite competitive,


but I knew there’d be parking and cafes and my car wouldn’t be damaged. I didn’t want to go to a location that would put me at risk but I also wanted to get pictures that looked quite impressive.” Nick Ellerby, broadcast journalist for Talksport, has also had


his share of extreme weather and was nearly blown off camera reporting on Storm Isha on Beachy Head: “I was in my element. I was on the reporting team for the breakfast show on Talk TV at the time and they wanted to do a rehash of the weather channel in the States, so we were always looking for, while remaining safe, the most dramatic backdrop we could find.” He adds that the footage looked more risky than it was. Ellerby says the biggest challenge is having the stamina to


keep going.


“I try to look for composition as well to show the scale and power of the storm.”


Get close and pushy BBC journalist Alastair McKee advises sharing a written hazard/risk assessment with your producer/editor and


getting as close to the action as safely possible. He says: “Be prepared to


make yourself heard or push forward in a media scrum/ press conference. Develop your contacts, sources and interviews, and don’t feel you have to share them.”


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