Well this was a trip down memory lane – in more than one sense of the phrase… I last saw Ed Sheeran play live at a realtively small venue – the O2 Academy in Bournemouth. Back then, 4 years ago, he was still playing as a “new act” in many ways and had a growing base of loyal fans who sang along to every song with perfect timing. Also, “back then”, I was shooting a few […]
“The City that Never Sleeps”, “Gotham City”, “The Big Apple”, “Empire City”, “The City of Dreams”, “New Amsterdam”, “The Melting Pot” – to everyone that visits or lives in this incredible city, the place leaves a lasting memory that means something different. One thing that is common to all who visit or wake up in this amazing place is the sheer sense of wonder as you look out over the skyline – and that’s what […]
Well, we’re definitely heading into the “awards season”, and what better news to receive today than the email that came in informing me that I’d made the shortlist for The Societies’ Photographer of the Year 2014 award – Europe’s largest association for the serious photographer. Against some of the worlds most renowned photographers, my image of Huvafen Fushi‘s Spa Jetty – “Overwater” – will compete for the award of Travel Photographer of the Year and The Societies’ overall Photographer […]
For those that remember, I switched to Phase One’s iQ280 / 645DF+ medium format system last year, and have never looked back. The image quality is simply stunning, and I can honestly say it is the best camera system I’ve ever used. Since then, a few more technological advances have been made by Phase One, most recently including the introduction of their 1.3x crop 50 megapixel CMOS iQ250 digital back. One thing digital Medium Format […]
Normally when I photograph “talent”, it’s part of a modelling shoot or specific commercial imagery. To the industry, the term “talent” has certain preconceptions attached to it, but is a generally accepted term for the star of the show. So why would a hotel group insist on employing “talents” instead of staff? At the W Hotel Singapore – Sentosa Cove, it’s blindingly obvious : These guys really are the star of the show each and every day! In […]
I remember writing this blog post in 2010 as if it were only yesterday. It was about the relaunch of my website after upgrading from an Adobe Flash based system to a more device-friendly one that met a lot more standards on the Internet. Well, 4 years fly by and since then a lot has changed. HTML5 is now prolific, as are the demands of 3G/4G connections and devices instead of desktop, broadband, viewers. More importantly, however, […]
It’s been a long time in the planning, but we’ve finally managed to pull together an itinerary that allows me to take 6-8 people “out on the road” for a journey across some of the most distinctive and impressive landscape views available in the USA. I’ll be offering an Asia workshop later in the year too, but for now it’s all about California with my “Going from Hot to Gold” photography workshop in May 2015! […]
There’s something really nice about arriving back in England for a few days to find some of your work, in print, waiting for you at home. This year the Royal Photographic Society has produced its 157th International Print Exhibition, featuring my image of Shanghai’s Nanpu Bridge – “Over The Rainbow” and both the RPS Journal as well as the Print Exhibition Catalogue were sat waiting for me to read when I got back from Shanghai. As the longest standing exhibition […]
I was asked last week, as part of a written interview, if I’d ever had to get out of my “comfort zone” in order to get the shot I wanted – the answer, of course, was “yes”, and many times over. The next question was, funnily enough, about how I approach a brand new city in terms of locations and what to shoot. So, what better than a live demonstration as answers to both questions […]
Hong Kong. The city where East truly meets West, and what an amazing recipe it has for a burst of culture and style. “Reach” – print available to buy now As a result of living in Shanghai, Hong Kong becomes easily accessible and such a Mecca for photography it simply can’t be ignored (and the tax free purchases can’t be sniffed at either 😉 ). Having spent some decent amounts of time in the city, […]
I still find it strange how much I rely on my friends around the world to let me know when images I’ve shot have made it out into the wild. Although the use of images is obviously something we negotiate all the time, exactly when and where they will turn up is quite often a mystery, and the past month or two has been no exception. Take my shot of the Hollywood sign, for example. […]
“Pink Emerald” – print available to buy now As someone who’s snowboarded around Lake Tahoe since 2001, it can be really infuriating when you know there’s an awesome view of the lake that you’ve tried to capture but not quite managed to get the right combination of weather, timing and camera gear to be in the same place at the same time. This time, with a 3 day stay booked in, I was hoping that […]
Many people said : “you’ll love the street photography opportunities in Shanghai” and from looking around the galleries here, I was always certain they were right. The challenge is, as someone who’s never really gotten into that genre, it’s tough to know what makes a good street photo or not. Walking around Xintiandi in downtown Shanghai, you’d be forgiven for thinking the opportunities for any good form of street photography would be limited to shooting […]
“The Racetrack” – Print available to buy now In 2011, I managed to capture another shot of Devil’s Golf Course in Death Valley. Having visited many times before, each time being stunned by the scenery this National Park has to offer (along with the 120 degree heat some days!), it dawned on me that there was one area that I’d never quite managed to reach : The Racetrack Playa. The place still remains as mysterious […]
A couple of months ago, we were in San Diego watching the solar eclipse by accident and I started seeing images of a massive rock formation crop up across the Internet as photographers had flocked to “Horseshoe Bend” in Arizona to capture it as it happened. Sadly, clouds obscured a lot of the images they posted, but it did make me want to go there to shoot (after all, it faces almost due west, perfect […]
Ashamed as I am to say it, given the amount of time I spend in and around Dorset, I’ve never once photographed Corfe Castle. It’s just down the road, and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of photographers have captured it already, but for some reason, I’ve just never gone. So, with the sunrise now starting at a reasonable hour in the middle of winter, I decided to give it a try. The only problem […]
Shooting a couple in a way that looks genuinely intimate can sometimes be a challenge. Those in a relationship can, at times, get “giggly” during the photo shoot and two models who are effectively strangers can be a little hit-and-miss, depending on their acting abilities. That said, it does present an opportunity to deliver photographs with a lot more story and emotion than solo shots often can and every now and then I get a […]
The latest in the 2011-12 series of underwear adverts for Lick is just about coming out of Photoshop, but this month, there’s a little bit more time to make some adjustments. So, we’re back to the shoot we did with Nathan a few months ago – this time for the “fashion/style” edition of Attitude that’s coming up. Keeping it simple (and not quite so obvious as the previous jockstrap campaign) the current proposal is to […]
This is Laura Catton, an established 21 year old glamour model from Hertfordshire, looking for some new images for publication. Laura hit the limelight some time back, after she exposed 2009 Big Brother housemate Kris Donnelly’s plan to falsify stories in the press, making him look more (ahem) “successful” than he was in reality when it came to the ladies. With that all done and dusted, it’s time to refresh her look with several publications such […]
It’s that time again, when Lick underwear‘s new range has arrived and so it’s out with the old and in with the new – starting with a new launch advert in the September edition of Attitude for their new lines: Last year’s successful campaign in Attitude mag made a lot of use of one model in particular – so it was time for the guys at Lick to find some new models to shoot the […]
Every now and then I get an email from a model asking to shoot a “couples series”. A lot of the time, things just don’t work out – there are way too many things to go wrong last-minute but sometimes (just sometimes) things come together to make it work. Enter: Mark Sharman & Jemma Perry, two London models. A couple of weeks back, with some spare studio time and some rather last-minute arrangements, Mark and […]
This is Andy Neate. For 2011, he’s joined Tom Chilton at Aon/Ford in the British Touring Car Championship, having overcome an absolutely horrendous injury in 2008. Back then, he nearly ended up paralysed from the neck down, having sustained pretty much what Christopher Reeve had to deal with only this was at 150mph. When Andy contacted me for a shoot, I honestly had no idea about the background to this incredible guy – but there […]
Yesterday, Chuck and I headed to Joshua Tree National Park just before sunset to see if the light would play nice and allow me to capture some cool colours against all the rocks and landscapes in the park. Although we got there a little later than planned, I got to use my ND filter for the first time since the summer, and the sky didn’t disappoint… First off, where is it? Well – here’s a […]
Some time ago, I shot Adam Court (“AJ”) nude at the studio in London. With a range of images (some of which are found in my portfolio), I had to work out how they could be presented. Initially, as single-shots, they worked on their own and images such as this were really distinctive… However, this still left me with a *lot* of images we’d shot on the floor, trying to capture nude movement, but in […]
