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You must be very proud...

Oh, is it Wednesday afternoon already? It must be time for a caption competition.

(Use the comments function. Keep it clean. Picture shows Prince of Wales presenting OP Herrick medals to 9 Regiment, Army Air Corps, veterans from Afghanistan.)

Behind the lens: shooting India

Today is day two of The Times's three-part study of modern India. David Aaronovitch explains that the future of the country will be decided in the fields, not in the astonishing modernisation of its cities. You can read yesterday's article here.

Peter Nicholls photographed the trip and, for the weblog, gives us the story behind one of his favourite images from the assignment. A picture gallery of his work is here:

"Well, it was 'kid in a candy shop' time for me again, photographically speaking, that is. On arriving in India to do a series of features on this amazing, eclectic nation, the instant hit of vivid colour, hustle and bustle had my photographic juices flowing, eyes darting and camera poised -- and that was just the taxi ride in from the airport to downtown Mumbai.

Behind the lens: shooting the Red Arrows

Richard Mills, Times photographer, tells the story of his recent flight with the Red Arrows:

"The earth definitely moved for me, and get this: it was a team of blokes that did it. I have just returned from an assignment photographing the Red Arrows in Cyprus, and I have seen the Earth upside down, to my left, my right and head on, approaching it sometimes at 400mph.

"This has was one of those assignments were you are spoilt for choice: whether on the ground or in the air these resplendent aircraft in pillar-box red with quintessential aerodynamic curves just ooze the sort of appeal that would make Jeremy Clarkson salivate. Kick in the Cypriot sunshine, which appears at 6:30am and retires a good twelve hours later and my working life just doesn't get much better.

"The first three days are spent working on the ground. My favourite picture came on day two, shot from the "piano keys", the runway threshold. A single jet was practising which meant at some stage it would be coming straight down the runway at about 200 feet. I got clearance from air traffic control to stand on the runway, and the hawk came straight at me, flying too high to get a good head-on picture, but I was after something different. It shot straight up above me, and I had to make sure I kept the "keys" in the bottom of the frame to get the picture I wanted.

No good days at the CSH

On the news log, we bring you pictures and the stories behind them. Here, Richard Mills, a Times photograher recently on assignment in Iraq, describes a recent visit to a Baghdad Combat Support Hospital (CSH) and six-year-old Azir Humadi, pictured above:

"I noticed Tina, an attractive 33-year-old nurse and a Captain in the US army, with her short, modern, well-cut hair when I arrived at the Combat Support Hospital (CSH) in Baghdad's Green Zone. We first spoke after she had helped six-year-old Azir Humadi, discharge phlegm through the tracheotomy aperture in her throat.