After two weeks of rainy, cold and windy tennis, somehow kept on schedule courtesy of early starts, late finishes and a much used Centre Court roof, the traditional tournament highlight of the Men’s Singles Final took place on Sunday.

For the first time in 75 years a Briton would contest the match. The only obstacle in Scot Andy Murray’s path to glory was the huge boulder in the shape of sixteen grand slam winner and six time Wimbledon victor, Switzerland’s Roger Federer.

I was lucky enough to have my name pulled out of the hat for the East Pit photographer’s position at ground level, with Reuters colleague Dylan Martinez shooting the game from one end, near the coaches, and where players often react to provide strong images.

SLIDESHOW: BEST OF WIMBLEDON

Despite this being Murray’s best chance at a Slam after three previous dismal performances in Grand Slam finals, I already had a sense of foreboding after our top London-based Swiss tennis shooter Stefan Wermuth – fellow countryman of Roger Federer – had NOT had his name pulled out of the draw between the three Reuters shooters for the two photo positions. Small retribution for this bad luck would at least be if Federer blew Murray away…I should have guessed!

Prime Ministers (David Cameron), Princesses (Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince William) and Performers (The Beckhams) – none necessarily known as tennis aficionados – found prime spots in the Royal Box on centre court, such was the British appetite for a home-grown (-ish!) winner…

The usual photographic demands of mid-match strong action, cleanly composed, was complicated by keeping a constant eye over the left shoulder at the Royal Box, continually scanning the stands for other big name guests in the crowd (where WAS Rupert Murdoch?!), and being alert for coaches and wives / partner’s reactions behind… where did those extra pair of eyes, arms and cameras go to?!

And despite all that, almost always only match point player reaction and the ‘pot shot’ would publish extensively. And success in that would be down in part to complete luck of where a player would fall, leap or collapse at the instant of winning – behind the net, obscured by a ballboy, or back to camera being as likely a scenario as in front of camera. Unfortunately, there was no chance of having six photographers to cover nearly every conceivable angle as happened in Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis finals.

So, back to Murray, the Scot shot out of the blocks with all guns firing. He took the first set 6-4, and at 4-4 in the second set had 2 break points to get a sniff at a two set advantage. Federer was playing well but making unforced errors. By his own standards he was a little under par. However, rarely does Fed look harassed or stretched on court. He’s a perfectionist, a truly graceful player and a man with years of experience in dealing with pressure at the very highest level of sporting competition. This makes him the truly formidable opponent and great sportsman he is. Perversely, give me Djokovic, Nadal or Murray to photograph any day of the week! They career all over the court, throw themselves around, grunt, groan, shout, celebrate, and contort their faces when missing shots. Fed, the cool Swiss, does none of these, and hits the ball with his ground strokes so low to the floor that making strong image shapes is frankly a right royal pain in the backside!

Murray missed his chances to break Federer’s serve again in the second set. Federer sniffed an opportunity and clawed his way back to one set all. Game on! Rarely does the Federer-al Express look back once he has muscled his way back into a game. A rain break and enforced 30 minute break in play and both players returned to court seemingly different characters. Federer’s mistakes vanished, Murray rattled by his own missed chances, huffed and puffed during each rally.

He was no longer the composed practitioner of the first set. Picture wise, this made life easier – Murray reacted, chased balls all over the court, slipping sliding and cursing along the way. Storywise, for the British Press the great tale was ebbing away. But for Reuters this was of no consequence – internationally, a seventh success for Federer would be a great story regardless. And thus it proved to be.

Murray’s fantastic start ran out of steam. Federer seized the third set and romped towards another famous Slam story closing out the fourth set with another break of Murray’s serve. So the great British success was not to be. The partisan crowd was left partially disappointed, but all were appreciative of Roger’s sublime skill and longevity at the top and returning to number one in the world. Murray cried in court during his post-match TV interview, in turn gaining, not losing, fans by publicly displaying his emotions. My view of this was blocked, I was unable to shoot Murray’s partner Kim, also in tears, and we were not permitted to turn around and shoot the members of the Royal Box reacting, but Federer’s match celebration was unblocked and his interaction with Murray at trophy presentation time was fine – so I didn’t lose too much sleep over missed pictures on Sunday night – this time!

Murray claimed in his post-match press conference he would return stronger and vowed to aim for Olympic gold in a month’s time at Wimbledon. But so did another player say his next (and only unclaimed major trophy) target would be Olympic men’s tennis gold: Roger Federer. Be warned, Mr Murray!

The United Kingdom, London in particular, is cranking up the momentum with just over two months to go until the 2012 Summer Olympics begin. In the last few months myriads of sporting, political and business photocalls have taken place around the gleaming and glittering new venues in east London with many test events being held therein.

The last time London hosted the Olympics was in 1948, three years after the Second World War and because of that global conflict, it was the first Olympics in 12 years, since Berlin in 1936. The competition was labelled the Austerity Games, because of the post-war rationing and the economic climate of the time. With the 2012 Games also set against a backdrop of global financial and economic crisis, comparisons with the previous time London played host are easy to make.

In 2012, over nine billion pounds sterling (approximately US$13billion) has so far been channeled into building brand new stadia, with a whole new Olympic Park complex in east London. But in 1948, only existing venues and facilities were used, nor was there an athletes village. The total cost of the games then was £760 000 (approx £131 million, $210 million, in 2012). In 1948, British athletes had to buy their own kit and make their own way to events by public transport. Some of the venues used in 1948 are still in existence, so I thought it would make an interesting journey to track down and photograph them nearly 65 years later…

SLIDESHOW: LONDON 1948

(View a slideshow of images here)

Last night the great Behemoth that is the Harry Potter franchise machine rolled into town for the world premiere of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2″: the eighth and final film installment from JK Rowling’s phenomenally successful book series about the adventures of a boy wizard.

A swathe of central London seemed to be shut down for the launch. Thousands of young fans had camped out for up to five days in Trafalgar Square waiting to glimpse their screen idols, and a red carpet measuring some 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) – reputedly the longest in the world – underlining the scale of this publicity spectacular. Despite having shot more film premieres than eaten bags of popcorn at the cinema, I still have to admit to being wowed by the scale and choreography of this event.

The three leading cast members have become instantly recognizable faces and multi-millionaires but remain, they say, “like siblings” since being selected as unknown child actors for the first film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” some ten years ago.

But undoubtedly, after photographing the comings and goings of the premieres and junkets from “The Goblet of Fire” to the “Deathly Hallows – Part 2,” it’s Emma Watson who plays Hermione, (rather than Rupert Grint or even Daniel Radcliffe) who in front of crowds, interviewers, television cameras and us photographers has consistently carried a presence, and a certain “star quality” that has pervaded ever since the first Potter all that time ago…

I was one of the Reuters photographers assigned to an official spot and ringside view: outside of Westminster Abbey as the happy couple emerged immediately after the actual ceremony. Light cloud gave good even light and an unfettered view meant after months of team preparation and logistical headaches, me and my colleagues/rivals in our spot got the right frames transmitted in speedy time for that part of the day and the Palace got the images of record they wanted.

Job done.

36 hours earlier, after 10 hours perched precariously high up on a set of steps shooting between narrow iron railings, in the fading light on a handheld 500mm lens with 2 x converter, through two side windows of a couple of police vans positioned to prevent news media getting a picture, I took the second frame of William, Kate and best man Prince Harry. They were 200 meters away, walking into a discreet back entrance to Westminster Abbey to conduct a last minute rehearsal of the wedding ceremony.

Which picture was the most rewarding? Which picture the most important? Which picture stronger?

The actual wedding frames we all shot: outside the Abbey, the Balcony kiss and the open-top Just Wed car drive – these will get used again and again and it will be those images that are ingrained into the collective public memory.

The rehearsal ‘snatch’ frame is optically terrible (at such a distance and in bad light through two reflective glass windows), compositionally poor (all three subjects are in profile and partially obscured), and media were not wanted (hence the massive and elaborate measures to obstruct our view and evade our attention). But just on that one day, with perceived interest in the wedding preparations of the couple at fever pitch (hence Reuters decision that it WAS in the public interest to doorstep them), to my knowledge it was the only occasion that William and Kate were snapped together the week before they met at the altar.

So the personal satisfaction, perhaps relief, in getting that frame is almost as great as the wedding day pictures. Though I have to admit that Kate and William are probably more recognizable in Tracey Emins ‘kiss’ sketch on the April 30 front of the Independent newspaper than in my rehearsal frames….

It was at the picturesque university that they got to know each other in 2001 as undergraduates studying art history. They went on to share a house on the outskirts of town, and their romance blossomed.

Ten years on, and the royal pair are one of the world’s most famous couples, their every move scrutinized by the international media as preparations are made for their wedding in London’s Westminster Abbey on April 29.

Friday’s visit to mark the university’s 600th anniversary follows their first official outing as a couple on Thursday, where Middleton’s apparently nerveless appearance was lauded in the royalty-obsessed British media.

“Glamorous Kate Middleton sparkled at her first official engagement,” wrote the Mirror tabloid’s royal reporter Victoria Murphy, reflecting the media’s generally gushing tone.

PREPARATION FOR FUTURE

This week’s visits, which follow several months of relative anonymity on the Welsh island of Anglesey where the couple have been living, will go some way to preparing 29-year-old Middleton for life as a prince’s bride, and eventually queen.

On Friday she wore a red coat with black trim and belt and the prince, 28, donned a dark blue suit. Middleton’s hair was down, rather than tied back as it had been on Thursday when she also wore a feather fascinator.

William, second in line to the British throne, is patron of the 600th Anniversary Appeal which aims to raise 100 million pounds ($160 million) to secure the future of University of St Andrews and fund scholarships making it accessible to all “regardless of background or circumstance.”

The new scholarship, worth up to 70,000 pounds ($112,800), will meet the costs of tuition, accommodation and living expenses for a four-year undergraduate degree in science, the arts, medicine or divinity.

It will be presented as a wedding gift to the couple during their visit.

St Andrews enjoys a reputation for being Britain’s “top matchmaking university” — around one in 10 students meet their spouses there, officials say.

With no nightclubs, students tend to socialize at dinner parties or “society” balls, contributing to its reputation as a peculiarly upmarket seat of learning.

The 600th anniversary marks the formal charter granted by Bishop Henry Wardlaw in February 1411 and the achievement of full university status conferred by Pope Benedict XIII by Papal Bull in 1413.

The party is searching for a new leader to succeed Brown, who resigned earlier this month after an election defeat. A Conservative-Liberal Democrat alliance now governs Britain, the first coalition since World War Two.

Ed Balls, 43, Brown’s right-hand man at the Treasury before becoming education secretary, said he was standing to rebuild the support of voters who mistrusted Labour over issues like immigration and the cost of university education.

“I think it’s really important we don’t just talk to ourselves, we’ve got to go out and hear what the public say,” Balls, who is on the left of the party, said at a low-key campaign event in Nottingham in the English Midlands.

John McDonnell, 58, little known outside the party, said under his leadership Labour, founded by trade unions in 1900, would return to its roots and advance a socialist agenda.

“I believe (New Labour) lost the moral basis of the Labour Party as it was founded … the creation of a fair and just and peaceful and equal society,” McDonnell told trade union members in Brighton.

Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair, moved the traditionally working-class party to the centre in the 1990s, calling it “New Labour” and winning three elections in a row.

This month’s defeat and the new political landscape it has produced have left the party searching for a new direction.

The frontrunner in the race is the cerebral David Miliband, 44, foreign secretary under Brown. Once an adviser to Blair, he is seen as the candidate of the party’s “Blairite” or centrist wing.

His brother Ed Miliband, 40, a former energy and climate change minister, is also standing. His supporters say he is a unity candidate who would end years of tension between the so-called “Blairite” and “Brownite” wings of the party.

The field is expected to widen to five when former health minister Andy Burnham, 40, announces his candidacy on Thursday, local media reported.

Labour has given itself four months to elect a new leader. Balloting will run from August 16 to September 22 and the winner will be announced at the annual party conference on September 25.

(Writing by Tim Castle; editing by Myra MacDonald)