'Cougar' promo shots

Brian the sea swimmer

This is an old one taken back in August 2006. I had returned from the war in the Middle East (God that sounds dramatic!) and spent a bit of time at home on the coast in Dorset, it meant I could spend time roaming the often deserted beaches, which is great when you have a lot on your mind. Anyway I photographed this chap really early one morning as he went in for is ritual dawn swim.

A quick break and back home to the coast...

A few snapshots from home, dedicated to my bro 'stuck' out in New Zealand.

Spanish ambassador at Kings

Here's one of the outakes from the spanish amabassador doing a talk last week at Kings.

Anthony Gormley

One of Anthony Gormley sculptures on the roof of a Kings building. I was meant to have a portrait shoot with the man himself but his PR cancelled at the last minute, so instead I focused away from his statue and got a bit of London instead.

I'm now on Flickr...

Yea I finally got with the programme and got onto Flickr . You can find me under the name greg_focus52. Anyway here's two from the other night when I photographed the American band Cougar on the last night of their UK tour. These were both shot on my new /old 35mm f/2. The top one was shot backstage, and the bottom one was them trying to find the way to France...

Maximo Park at The Astoria

There's more to come from this set including backstage with the band Cougar who supported Maximo Park, and who were playing their last tour date in the UK before heading back to the US. I will also be posting the promo shoot I did for them soon once I've got through a back log of editing.

Matt Cassel: The Picture Balata Project

I got an email from a friend of mine from Chicago the other day apologising for sending one of my photos to a local paper without first asking my permission. As a fellow photographer he understands what it’s like to have people take for granted the use of your pictures, but usually I don’t have a major problem if people contact me beforehand. In this instance, having read the article that he sent through, I certainly didn’t have a problem, in fact I was left feeling rather inadequate in the face of the amazing work he’s been doing. Matt has been, for the past few years now, working with Palestinian kids mainly from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, and teaching them how best to document their lives with the aid of cameras so that others may see their daily life through their eyes. This hasn’t been an easy task, and if you read the article you’ll realise how much effort and self sacrifice he has made so that others half way round the world from him may be given the chance of a better life. So in a way I’m glad they could use a snap I’d taken of him at work in Balata. If you get the chance check out the article and check out the project.

New Toy: Canon 35mm f/2

Well had quite a busy day today. Had to pop into Surrey to meet some clients about a wedding that's coming up, was amazed by the scenery and location and am now looking forward to shooting it. Then had to pop back into London for a PR job that was pretty tricky with the lighting and location. Shooting a lecture on the fullframe 5D means I don't have the adavantage of zoom that the 20D gave, so my 85 prime is no longer the daddy it used to be....might have to start saving for a 70-200mm. eek. Anyway in the meantime I picked up a new toy first thing in the morning (well second hand new toy). Although the canon 35mm f/2 is old, small and unimpressive looking, it could very well be my new favourite lens. All the above were taken on it throughout the day and in between places and jobs.

Band promo

Just as I was lamenting about how little work I had this week an old friend phoned up in a bit of a panic because she needed urgent press shots of a new band that was being formed. I say 'lamenting', but in truth I was actually quite content to stay in bed because I had some kind of fever/man flu. But when the work comes...you gotta take it. So this was done the next day, with my only brief being that they wanted it to look 'Hacketty'...hmmm. Anyway I'd arranged the night before to shoot in my local, having spoken to the deputy manager and arranged a time, but when we went round there at 10 in the morning no one was around to open up for us...mightly peeved we were forced to use another pub...just wasn't the same though. Anyway the band management were happy and it's nice to be doing this kinda work again so all's good in the end.

Testing a 5D

I'm looking to buy a 5D so I've playing around with a friends - I'm pretty set on it, seems a bit slow compared to my 20D (fps and chimping time) but obviously much better than it in so many other ways. This is the full frame with a 15mm lens on it. It's hard to see but you could pretty much stand under an object, like a tree, and still get it in the frame! Plus the colours on the 5D are immense. This was shot on Hampstead Heath, in the pic is David Azia, a friend and very good snapper.

Kings College Student Union

Ah...my old student union. brings back memories, I even won an award for service to it or something along those lines (back when I worked for the student rag). These are the new sabbatical officers for 2007, all of whom I know anyway from my old student days (well it wasn't THAT long ago)

Recent PR work