Where's Wally?

I'm a bit humbug about the ever earlier start of Christmas festivities/marketing opportunities, in that I really believe Christmas shouldn't be mentioned until the 1st of December. Until the first door of your mouldy chocolate Woolworths advent calendar is opened, I don't want to know.
But the switching on of the Bond St Christmas lights is one of those annual jobs that mark out my year. They close off the street, pump out fake snow, and draft in loads of entertainers to create a proper festive atmosphere. It's almost enough to make me swallow my humbug for the evening.
It wasn't till I downloaded this picture from the camera that I noticed Santa and his Elf waving at me from the crowd.
Sarky git - he still hasn't brought me the Lone Ranger figure I've been asking for since I was 8!

Quick & dirty

I got a last-minute call from Maybach saying that Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis, from the TV programme Dragons’ Den, were having a meeting at the Grosvenor Hotel in London - could I pop down and do a quick profile photo of them with their cars?
As is often the case when dealing with high profile businessmen, I was warned I'd have a couple of minutes tops to do this in
(in my early days I once had to do a portrait of the head of Dixons DURING a board meeting, because he couldn't possibly spare a minute for me before or after. In my fluster, I forgot to load any film and started snapping away. I realised my mistake just as he motioned that he'd had enough of me. Mumbling something about having to change film from B&W to colour, I loaded a fresh cartridge into the empty camera and snapped 3 frames before he barked me out of the room. Luckily one frame was all they wanted, and I got away with it. Just.)
Anyway, while Theo and Peter were in their meeting I asked their drivers to put the cars into a V in front of the hotel. I knew direct flash would just reflect off the cars' bonnets and licence plates, so got my client to act as a mobile light stand, holding a remote flash up and off to my left. I metered the ambient light, setting it slightly under on my camera, and made a few test exposures for the flash.
When the boys came out to play I shot some variations on this theme, changing my angle of view and height - but, as briefed, was all done in under 2 minutes.