Xmas '09

A few snaps from some time spent home with the folks on the south coast...

Mum and Dad cut the Christmas Goose

Up on the Purbeck hills

Charlie getting battered by the wind

Northern Ireland

Here's a few images from my brief trip to Northern Ireland last month

Polaroid SX-70: A new toy

I'm back in London after a quick break to see a good friend over in Northern Ireland. Was great to get away from things for awhile, take stock and then dive back into the fray. When I got back I had a lovely surprise waiting as birthday gift, the beautiful Polaroid SX-70 with case and original packaging...even a packet of the original film! Can't wait to get snapping with it. Really looking forward to hearing more news on the Austrian artist and business man Mr. Kaps' endevour to relaunch the film with the aptly named 'Impossible project'. He's been working with people from the original Polaroid factory floor in Amsterdam and also Ilford, who are based in Manchester, which means they'll be producing black and white and colour stocks. They were hoping to have some ready for release this month but if anyone has any news on that please leave it in the comments. For the time being I will have to make my 8 shots of original film last and resort to iphone Polaroid photography! For Polaroid based inspiration check out this site.

Portraits: Prohibition

These are some recent portraits I took following an idea I had a while back but needed to figure out how to achieve. The images were taken at a night called Prohibition that runs at various clubs across London every month or so, all the subjects were punters attending the event who were kind enough to allow me to take their picture. You can find out more about the night here

If you go down to the woods today...

Last month I was lucky enough to be invited (I say invited - I much pretty much invited myself) to stay with Nick Weston in his awesome treehouse that he built in the woods near the South Downs. Nick's blog has been on my radar for awhile and I've been following his amazing tips on foraging, wild foods and general bush craft manliness (but delivered in a very humble and down to earth manner). Anyway the jist of it is that I stayed two days with him the woods and couldn't have dreaded coming back to London more, I wish I could have stayed longer and absorbed even more bushcraft know-how. I wanted to document what he was doing buy choosing to live the way he did (he spent around six months living in the treehouse, leaving at the end of October 2009) so I took some snaps, which in these situations can be a bit of a sacrifice as you've got one part of the brain focusing on learning, paying attention and interacting and the other half on making the most of picture opportunities - it's always a bit of a juggling trick. Anyway I thoroughly recommend if you have an interest in cooking, bushcraft, wild foods or even just the great outdoors that you head over to his blog a keep an eye out for his soon to be published book. Click on the images above to see them bigger.

Me and Nick (looking like he's about to fillet me)

I'm still alive...

Apologies for the lack of action on here recently - been a bit snowed under with work and a few jobs that I can't put up here yet until they go to print - but watch this space. The shot above was from a recent light test. Coming soon - images from my time staying with this chap in his treehouse.

Snapshots: Wales

A shot of my bro and sea view from a weekend up in Wales

Recent actress headshots

Recent Tearsheet

This was from a job I had earlier this year for a US magazine. The subject in the picture couldn't be identified for safety reasons which made it a fairly challenging but interesting portrait to do. In fact I wasn't even told his name - I just had to call him Mr. X....

Recent Portrait

Recent portrait shot in a garden in London for a UK based charity campaign

Recent Tearsheet

This was from a recent feature I did for Time Out which involved photographing a crazy night called Caligula at the Bathouse in Bishopsgate. Below are a few more from that particular night and the interesting characters involved.

Recent Portraits

Linda Morey Smith, managing director of MoreySmith Ltd an interior design firm based in London

VIDEO: Behind the Scenes - photoshoot with Hollywood director Joe Wright

Behind The Scenes - Photoshoot with Hollywood Director Joe Wright from Greg Funnell on Vimeo.

This is a little behind the scenes video from a photoshoot I had a few weeks back, the results of which are in this weeks Time Out magazine. The subject was Hollywood director Joe Wright, the guy behind Atonement and the new film The soloist. We were lucky in that we had about an hour beforehand to set up - hence me trying some slightly more complicated lighting. When he came in we had about 20 minutes with him. Anyone who is a bit of a gear fetishist should appreciate the video, they might also be interested to know I was using my new Elinchrom Quadra's for the job with adapters to fit Elinchrom attachments and the odd gel attached inside the softboxes.

Thanks to Tom Donald for assisting and doing the filming - I had two other jobs on the same day and we lost and then found again a lens between jobs (having to trek back across London in rush hour to pick it up) - so it was quite a tiring day!

Below are a few more images from the shoot

TEARSHEET: Recent Cover

15 minutes to unpack and set up in a tiny conference room, 5 minutes to shoot.

Leica M9 release imminent?

It seems that Leica are setting up to reveal their new range of cameras. In two days time on the 9th September they will have a live web cast for the unveiling of the next generation of cameras. Of course people having been pointing out that the date, 09/09/09, and the fact that m8 is probably due a replacement are strong indicators that the m9 is about to be released. Going on their previous track record whether anyone will be able to afford it is another matter...

Live Webcast on 9/9/2009 - The next Generation of Leica Cameras from leica camera on Vimeo.

Another setback in the drama of Annie Leibovitz

She's really not having a great year - along with being in debt to a tune of around $24 million, it appears she is now being sued by an Italian photographer after allegedly using his images as part of her comps for the 2009 Lavazza calender. eek.

VIDEO: Awesome Timelapse from Christoph Rehage

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

This was too good not to share.

NEW: Cuba work up online

Finally got round to putting some new Cuba work up on the website - click the image below to be taken to the page - then select 'Cuba Libre'

VIDEO: Portfolio

Greg Funnell Photography Portfolio from Greg Funnell on Vimeo.

As promised here on the blog - I've finally got round to making a short video of my current portfolio.

New business cards

Recently redesigned my business cards - so I thought I share their latest incarnation. It's all a bit American Psycho but at least I didn't gone for the bone with 'Sicilian Braille'.

Canon releases EOS 7D

Yesterday Canon unveiled the latest in it's high end digital SLR range, the Canon 7D. It's got some fantastic looking new features, including an internal speedlight transmitter, 19 point AF system, 8fps, a HD movie mode with variable frame rate to name just a few things. All in all in it has some great new features over the 5DmkII and yet is set to retail at around £1700, roughly £300 cheaper. Head over the dpreview for the full low-down.

Interesting interview with Teru Kuwayama

©Teru Kuwayama

There's an interesting interview here with the photographer and co-creator of lightstalkers, Teru Kuwayama. Being on the blog 'Gizmodo' it's a bit tech orientated, lots of attention on the gear - but there are some useful nuggets of information. If that's of interest there's another piece on preparations for covering conflict here on the lighstalkers website.

Follow me on Twitter...

Right I've finally given in and got onto Twitter (and I'm desperately hoping it won't become just another tool for procrastination...)

You can follow me by checking out my profile here

Didn't you get the memo?...

Interesting little observation - whilst here in the UK this months professional photographer magazine runs an article on how great the photography double act of Markus Klinko and Indrani are... in the US they're apparently filing for bankruptcy. whoops.

Interesting reading

The nature of the internet and especially the existence of tabs in internet browsers makes it a graveyard for time...as I tend to discover most days. Anyway needless to say I was reading an article on WTJ the other day that led to this interesting post on ripping off other photographers work. That in turn led to another interesting site whose sole purpose seems to be to spot copyright infringement of artwork - kind of like plagiarism's bounty hunters. Anyway their awesomely named site, you thought we wouldn't notice, is well worth checking out. Hopefully with the improvement of image mapping technology such as tineye, image theft will become a thing of the past. Still the second article I mentioned was on the blog of an Art Buyer called Heather Morton and it made for unsettling reading especially some of the examples given in the comments section. However the blog has definitely gone in my favourites folder, similar to APE, it's full of useful insider knowledge and opinion - invaluable in many ways to the young freelancer.

The image is an unrelated snap from a week or so ago. I don't like posts without pictures.

Today's Polaroids