Alex Rotas Photography

15/10/2025

I was very touched, as well as super-honoured of course, to find I've been shortlisted as a finalist for this year's Advantages of Age awards next month at their Advantages of Age Awards 2025 ceremony in Hoxton, London. It's a wonderful event to be a part of, 100% in line with my own smaller-scale personal mission, namely chipping away and challenging the media's narrative around ageing, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be included. It really does mean a lot to me. I'm in the 'Anti-Ageist Activist' category. Big, big thanks to super-star hosts Suzanne Noble and Rose Rouse

08/09/2025

At last our film 'Younger', following four female , is live in on Amazon Prime! To our friends at Canadian Masters Athletics / Maîtres canadiens en athlétisme, thank you for your patience. Danielle Sellwood, of Find It Film, and I both hope you enjoy it and it was worth the wait!

19/08/2025

I just found this!! Honestly, it’s so unexpected. I’m a bit speechless actually (doesn’t happen often) 😀 Thank you so, so much International Masters Games Association 🙏🏼💕

14/07/2025

What does a 77 year old woman look like when she's competing in a 70.3 mile event? I mean it's only a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride followed by a distance run of 13.1 miles (yes, that's the equivalent of a half Ironman). Pretty exhausted, obviously, you're thinking.
Think again, friends!
I give you Anne Dockery at the Cotswold Classic yesterday. Take a look at her after seven and a half hours, with another lap of the run to go, and then enjoy her crossing the finish line an hour later hand-in-hand with her proud 10 year old grandson, Alex. There wasn't a dry eye amongst us as we cheered her across that line - officials, friends, fellow competitors, we were all in bits. I'm amazed I managed to get a shot of her in focus, I was crying so many tears of joy for her! Anne isn't 'just' a whom I admire, and photograph, though she is absolutely both of these. She's also a dear friend who's been training for this gruelling event over the past few months and I wouldn't have missed seeing her achieve this momentous goal for anything. Like your grandson Alex, this Alex too is so proud of your amazing achievement, dear Anne, and so very grateful too for allowing me to share your joy as you completed the course 🌻🙏💕👏

13/06/2025

This is SO exciting for us! And for those of you new to my posts and who have expressed delight and admiration for Dorothy in my last post, you can see more of her and her amazing fellow athletes in our film Younger, which is now available on Amazon Prime!

12/06/2025

I make no apologies for posting more pictures of Dorothy Fraser, 88, in action in the 100m at Yate & District Athletics Club last Sunday. Dorothy exemplifies the spirit of , training and competing throughout the year, with the support of her tight-knit 'gang' of friends and fellow athletes, through the ups and downs of later life (and that includes having a serious stroke). I wanted to show these pictures too because people outside the world of are unused to seeing men and women in their 80s and beyond giving their all in a physical event. We may be familiar with seeing the look of utter exhaustion and effort on the faces of youngsters competing in open events, but not so with the 'elderly' (I dislike that word so much - carrying, as it does, overriding connotations of frailty and infirmity!). My goodness, the uninitiated might think, is she all right, exerting herself so much and so clearly out of breath? Well, I think Dorothy's smile when she crossed the finishing line tells you that she's very much all right 😀 In fact she's exhilarated and delighted with knowing she ran a great race in a good time (28.60secs, since you ask) 👍👏🌻 Dorothy, we all salute and love you 💕

10/06/2025

I was at Yate & District Athletic Club on Sunday for their wonderfully run and understandably increasingly popular annual championships. In action here are Jane Horder, 65+, triumphant and focused as ever in the 300m and already looking forward to this distance becoming 200m when she enters the 70+ age group in two years' time, and, because I sometimes get criticised for 'ignoring the men', Christopher Pruski, winning the men's 70+ event with a throw of 29.58m; Mike Smith, 60+ heading for a powerful long jump of 4.18m in the open Welsh event; Kieran McDonnell going for a season's best of 29.21 in the men's 70+ 200m and youngster (by my standards) Craig Scott also crossing the line with a season's best of 13.72 in the men's 50+ 100m. Actually I've just realised they're all 'youngsters' by my standards and I can't decide whether that's depressing or encouraging.Let's stay with it being encouraging, I think😀👍🌻

05/06/2025

They don't use the term 'family' lightly when it comes to . The Jan Timberlake MND Classic took place at Worcester Athletics Club last night. Athletes and officials from around the country (and Ireland - that's you, Geraldine Finegan) gathered together to compete in support of their fellow and friend Jan Timberlake (aka Jan Vespa) and to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
This was surely an event that all of us who were privileged to be present will remember for the rest of our lives.
There was exciting competition, as always. Take one extraordinary moment: Geraldine Finegan was lined up for the women's 400m but there was a false start, so she nipped over to the adjacent high jump, casually cleared 1.32m, and was back at the start when the gun went off for the track race. Masters athletes don't do things by halves! However what shone through and above the actual sport was the truly palpable sense of community. Everyone was there for Jan, in admiration, in support and in love. She had her words read out to us: the disease may have robbed her of her beloved athletics, but it hasn't and can't rob her of her friends, her athletics family, and the love they all share together. This is what transcends life's sometimes cruel lottery. Clare Gratrix has already posted some really beautiful photos that capture the spirit of the evening and here are just a few more from me.

28/04/2025

OK I'm starting to feel 'enough already!' with the selfies and it's time to get back to photographing other people now. And I've got two events lined up in June, about which more soon. So there will be an easing up of these all-about-me posts.
For the moment, however, just because so many of you have been so wonderfully encouraging about my foray into , not to mention my pesky Parkinson's diagnosis, here's an update on the event I swam in yesterday which was the Gloucester Masters Open Meet. Yay, I got two more Silver medals. I've got to confess I'm enough of a newbie to still get a kick out of the actual medals🙄😀Can you believe that people actually 'donate' their medals as they have so many of them?! NOT ME!! But what thrilled me even more (well, as much) was that I knocked almost 4 seconds off my 100m freestyle time from the first event I did at Millfield in February. I swam it in 1:45.71 (in February my time was 1:49.25). I'm over the moon about that because it shows - who knew? - that training really does get results! Also it looks like I can continue to get better even at 75 (and, for the time being at least, with Parkinson's).
Just to put my results into masters swimming context however, Gold went to Janet Wood, an amazing swimmer who also beat me at Millfield, in a time of 1:30.44 and the GB record for our age group is 1:18.59. Both are times I find hard to get my head round.
My 50m was a bit of a 'mare. I dived in and my goggles instantly filled up with water, aaaagh. I'm not sure what I did wrong. I either was careless when I put them on or I raised my head as I entered the water. Possibly both. Nightmare because I couldn't see a thing and totally misjudged the wall for the turn, which is not my strongest point at the best of times. I think I must have lost two or even three seconds in the process of trying to find it😩 I still finished in the same time as my race at Millfield, 46.59 which means when I was actually swimming rather than faffing around at the turn, I must have been a bit faster than I was two months ago (hanging on to the positives here, folks). Ugh though. Gotta sort that out for next time.
But it was a great day and so much fun to be part of an event where a was actually broken. That was Jo Corben in the W55+ age group, who smashed the 200m backstroke in a time of 2:24.83 to make a new world record. She did that in the morning, and then went on to make a new in the 100m backstroke in the afternoon, in a time of 1:07.87! Absolutely awesome achievements and my goodness, her backstroke is truly beautiful to watch.
That's the thing about . You can be a rookie like me, working on your own Personal Bests and at the same time be rubbing shoulders with the giants, who are making new national, international and world records. Sport eh? Whatever your age, it just has so much to give 💕

21/04/2025

Dear friends, I have been blown away by your messages in response to my post about my Parkinson's diagnosis. I have read every single one of them, in fact I've read them several times now, and I've printed them all out too so I can draw on them if I hit a not-so-good day. I feel touched, uplifted, supported and so very grateful to be part of such an incredibly loving community. Thank you 🙏💕💐
Every single one of your messages was spot-on in tone for me. I really appreciate the time and thought you put into your generous and sensitive responses. Lots of great advice too. I was touched to hear your individual stories and so moved to think that although this is social media, which has such a bad press, our community felt safe enough for all of us, me absolutely included, to share from the heart.
My 9 year old granddaughter was with me over the weekend and so I had our colouring pens very much to hand today to write you a big, heart-felt personal THANK YOU. That's a thank you to all of you: friends I've met in RL and friends I've not actually met but who I feel so close to because of these, and other, messages we've shared in the past. Thank you so, so much for being alongside me ❤️

16/04/2025

Some great news! It’s been slow in coming but at last our film YOUNGER is starting to be available on streaming 😀

*EXCITING NEWS*

Younger - Looking Forward To Getting Older, is now available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and YouTube Movies. So if you need an hour of uplifting and heartwarming viewing that smashes stereotypes of aging through the power of sport, then this is for you. Suitable for all ages!
(And if you're feeling 'old', then let 86 year old Dot change your mindset - do it!)
Links in bio 👍

14/04/2025

When I wrote that piece in the New Year about 'community' and all the life lessons I've learned from photographing over the past few years, little did I know how soon I'd have to draw on them. Last month I was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
Yes, gulp, well it was a bit of a shock. I say that despite having had a mild tremor in my right arm since last summer and I went to get myself checked out because of my concerns I might have it. Nonetheless being told that yes, I did, still hit me like the proverbial bus.
So here I am a couple of days ago with some of my Bristol Nordic Walking friends who have really scooped me up over the past 4 weeks since I learned and become my own personal Parkeys Support Group. I got diagnosed on a Friday and my group meets on Saturdays, so the next day I turned up and just poured out my news. To say that they were wonderful, and are still, is an understatement to a massive degree. I've observed the power of community amongst my masters athletes friends, as you know, and seen how they support each other through the ups and downs of life and particularly the illnesses and misfortunes that hit all of us as we get older. And now here I am, needing and drawing on this absolutely magical power myself.
One of you (that's you, Philip Chappell, and my heartfelt thanks for this) responded to a recent post of mine saying that what we're all doing in our broader community, is "not letting the ageing process get the better of us (as far as life's lottery allows)" and I thought at the time what a true observation this was. So much so in fact, that I printed it out and have it in front of me on my notice board now. Turns out it's exactly the mantra I need: 'life's lottery' does indeed chuck stuff at us and our job is to do our best to navigate ways round and through the thicket. But we can't do it alone. I'm keeping up my training, which has become more important to me than ever (aiming for the 50m fly now!) but above all what I'm grateful for is the support of my community: I absolutely couldn't do this without you, dear pals.
And btw Parkinson's affects everyone differently, I'm learning. It's eminently treatable, I'm in the very early stages and bizarrely I'm fitter than I've been for years, thanks to my swimming training. I'm on the drugs, which are better than ever these days, and they're already kicking in. There are a lot of worse things to be diagnosed with. But I did want to share why I've been a bit quiet on the social media front of late. Not just that. I feel you're a part of 'my' community too, so I also wanted to reach out to you. Thanks for being there, friends.