G8 revisited...again

This is an old one from G8 2005, taken at a rally on the outskirts of Gleneagles, where the meeting of world leaders was taking place.

The night I became a 'pap'

These shots were from an event put on by the English National Ballet. Lots of celebrities attended and my job for the night was to be the official papparazzi...which meant competeing with all the actual papparazzi. Was my first attempt at it and I immediately realized that I needed a battery back for my flash! From the top: Justin Hawkins (former frontman of 'The Darkness'), and Michael Burke and Raggi Omar both well established news reporters.

Sunday Times Xmas party

This one is just up to prove that I did in fact meet John Swain (far right, author of River of Time, the non-fiction book on which the film The Killing Fields is based on). Wow-legend. Couldn't get over it-he must have thought I was an absolute wacko.

Dr J Waxman

One of the pictures I took for a Sunday Times Magazine piece on prostate cancer, in the end for this particular subject they only needed a head shot. Dr Jonathon Waxman is a leading authority in the area of prostate cancer having spent 30 years studying it.

Heather

Quick portrait with window light, 1/60 s at f/1.8 on an 85mm lens, ISO 200 + photoshop

Milton Keynes and the Times Magazine

Was off in Milton Keynes the other day on another shoot for the Times Magazine, a simple portrait for an article they're doing on Christmas cards. Also as today is Sunday so my stuff was in the Sunday Times Magazine-yay! It was wierd because when I came back from the Middle East I set myself a target to get the stuff published-not only that but to do it whilst I was still 21. I failed miserably, and looking back I can see my stuff didn't have a strong enough narrative and the pictures could have been better in places, they lacked emotion maybe. But then these commissions came along and I got published with the Times Magazine but I set a new goal of getting in the Sunday Times Magazine (don't ask me why). I was close so close, I shot the picture a week before my birthday but of course thay've actually been published after I turned 22 so I missed my rather pointless goal by a whisker! nevermind, I guess it's a good start.
Anyway Milton Keynes is wierd-especially when you come out of the train station, it feels like some futurist slightly fascist city that could have easily have been designed by Albert Speer. I'm sure the rest of it's nice though!

Diplo Party

The Diplo party was the other week held at the Spits gallery in Shoreditch, and it turned out to be a very successful night. It was a bit wierd because they had a black and white slideshow of my images from the Israel/hezbollah war being projected onto the wall. Seeing them displayed up there made me feel quite strange, it all seemed so long ago and million miles away from that place on that night. It was also wierd to gain random compliments on the work from complete strangers many of who couldn't believe that the young whipper snapper standing in front them had taken the images! Still it was really good night and good to see lots of people there that I hadn't seen for awhile.
This weekend sees me getting published with The Sunday Times Magazine, whilst today I had two more shoots for the Times Magazine. It all seemed to go well which was a relief. It's always tough to get the shots done quickly and efficiently when working on your own and having to set up lighting, work out compositions etc and keep up a conversation with the subject. I'll probably post some the shots up here once published. More updates coming to the website soon.
Oh and one more thing... I've been checking out statistics for the website and have found that I have some regular visitors dropping by from the Isle of Man of all places...I'm intrigued and slightly bemused! But anyway good stuff, keep it coming.

Miranda plucking her Ukulele

There I was on my way to meet some friends in the rain on friday night, when I notice a crowd gathering I turn round to see some curtains in shop window draw apart and this plucky young girl start strumming away on her ukulele. It was bizarre to say the least. The crowd were tansfixed and stop caring about the wet and cold as their spirits were rapidly lifted by this girl's witty and adorable songs. Well worth checking her out on myspace if you get a chance, if your lazy just click here.

Oxjam gig

Don't tend to do that much gig stuff these days, but this was for a PR company and I provided the shots to Oxjam for free because it made me feel good about myself!

The Maccabees - Soho

Went to support my very good friend, Ells, the ohter day as he's currently drummer for the band The Maccabees. Not that he needed supporting NME are raving about these boys and they're about to head off on a European tour so it looks like he'll be in for a good time. This was a gig they did at Sister Ray Records in Soho to a group of dedicated fans.

Portrait - glamour!

This was a friend of mine not taking her portait session seriously and going for some cheesey glamour shots.

Manufactured housing

view from a friends' flat, London. Its funny how we create such ordered habitats but as individuals we lead such chaotic lives.

Another night, another load of balls

Another student ball done by flesharchitects. I knew it was going to be a bad night when I tunred up at the hotel in Mayfair to find it swarming with police , with bobbies on every floor. The reason? It was hotel the Ex-KGB spy had stayed in just before being assissinated. Great I thought as I mentally slapped myself for getting my NBC suit. I also however managed to forget the keys to my flat. And also had hired probably the worst studio lights in London; their dodgey connection caused them to flash about once every 3 seconds causing fits of epilepsy left right and centre. The event itself was amazing with chocolate fountains, sheesha rooms, comedians, cartoonists, gladiator dueling (the big inflatable kind) a 3 course meal and a ice sculpture of a giant tooth which unfortunately as it melted came to look more and more phallic, a bit dodgey considering it was also a kind of fountain. The photo is of your truely avec some random who wanted a picture..probably so she knew who to come after when she saw what the terrible lights had done to her photo.

Angel McKenzie

More from the boxer shoot-varying styles-when there's no pressure/editorial/PR input I like to shoot a bunch of different stuff to help me see what I like and don't like and in doing so slowly develop my own style. Well...thats the theory anway.

Calibration - its all about different viewpoints

Decided to calibrate my screen the other day. My reaction after I completed it? Damn. Yep that's right images I'd edited to my own taste were in fact far lighter than I wanted them to be (as is the case with a large majority of the pictures on my website). And I thought it was just everyone elses's screens that were wrong...


Before:
After:

Just before the rain came...

A view of London in the path of angry looking rain cloud. Taken from my pent house apartment...I wish. Actually it was Guys Tower, not mine.

Get in the ring...

This was a candid shot I took during a photo shoot with the female boxer Angel McKenzie in south London last Friday. More to follow from the actual shoot.

Dark studio

Who's who at a wedding

A good friend of mine spotted this article in Front magazine and decided I need cheering up so posted it through to me. It's sad, but somewhat true!

New slideshow

The website has had a bit of an overhaul, with the reportage section having a face-lift to make way for shiny new slideshows such as the one above. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Farringdon...where else?!

Well there I was tearing down a street trying to find an exhibition that I was already late for and I saw this through a window. I find it very hard sometimes to get my camera and snap picks like this - but this one just couldn't be missed it was so odd! The guy sat behind the desk didn't come out as well as I would have liked but I'm pretty sure he was aware of the sign behind him. Anyway the exhibition was good, saw Simon Wheatley from Magnum (who actually remembered my name!) and we shared little stories from the paris riots like the kind of seasoned photogrpaher I'm clearly not. Also met Martin Parr's assistant and basically drank and much free booze as I could manage. As one does at these things.

Beaten up by a thug called 'photoshop'

A disturbing insight into the wonders of Photoshop-this beating took about 5 mins.

Before

After

Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station the iconic building on the south side of the Thames was open to the public for the last time last week before it undergoes a massive overhaul and is turned into apartments and a shopping complex...or a swanky winebar. Anyway I went along to get some shots, wish I'd given myself more time because by the time I got there it was a bit too dark to get interior shots, which would have been cool, this place would be a dream location for a big budget shoot.
Anyway sorry for the lack of updates recently been really busy doing work at the Sunday Times Magazine picture desk. There'll be more from this series to come at some point.

Giorgio Locatelli, 'Celebrity' Chef

These were soem shots of Giorgio Locatelli, the Italian 'celebrity' chef shot at his restaurant Locanda Locatelli in Mayfair. I was actually doing the piece for The Times Magazine, so they should be in print with the saturday paper in a few weeks. It was quite a rushed job, only had 20 mins after having waited an hour, but in that timne I was treated very well with plenty of free gin and tonics and very fancy biscuits, I felt a bit like that kid in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when he gets his turkish delights i.e. slightly lost and a bit out of my depth! Anyway the magazine were really pleased with them so thats the main thing.

Fashion!

This was a part of a fashion shoot I did for a friend the other day-there was supposed to be a slight 1950's look to the whole thing. Click on the image to see a larger version.

A passport portrait

Publicity shots - BeGood DJs

This was a quick publicity shot I did for the BeGood DJ's Ryan Taylor and John Spacey. It was shot on the top of an 8 million pound boat just before another of their awesome boat parties on the Thames began.

Portraits

KCLSU Freshers Ball

These are a few of the nicer shots from the KCLSU Freshers Ball which I worked with my good friend Naresh Verlander. The set up was all very last minute as we were told it needed doing only an hour so before the event, but in the end it worked out well and turned out to be pretty good fun for all parties involved.

Random amusing shot

Maybe I have a wierd sense of humour but there was something I found so amusing about this photo, the girl is clearly trying to be affectionate and it isn't as a bad as it looks in anyway, but in the split second of the shutter tripping I seemed to have caught what looks like some maniac throttling a little kid.

PR work for Kings College London

New slideshow - The Railway People