Cave dwelling antics

Nick honing his axe throwing skills

Morning fry-up

Well last weekend I decided to escape London and take up the very kind offer by my friend Nick Weston to spend the night in a cave. Nick was the chap who recently spent 6 months living in a treehouse in the woods - a cave should be a doddle we thought. Little did we know we'd be up against ghostly wild dogs and big old false widow spiders - nice! You can read about our escapades in full over on Nick's blog here

Mamiya 7 vs Canon 5D mkII

One for all you camera geeks out there...
Top photo: Mamiya 7 (Kodak 400NC film) with 80mm f/4
Bottom photo: Canon 5D mkII with 50mm f/1.4 (1/400 @ f/5.6)

Recent Tearsheet: Chris Blackham

A recent portrait I did of Chris Blackham, veteran Insurance Broker in the City.

Portrait: Elham Al-Qasimi

I was very fortunate the other day to get the chance to photograph Elham Al-Qasimi, a young lady from Dubai who hopes to be the first Arab woman to reach the North Pole. She sets off on the expedition in the next few days and you can find out more about that on her website. Being that her main sponsor is Landrover they very kindly lent us one of their cars for the day and also an expert off road driving instructor who not only ferried us round all day but was able to position the car in or sorts of fancy positions for us without once complaining. My friend and fellow photographer Anthony Wallace helped out on the day which was much appreciated because we were up against wind rain and mud. Here's a few behind the scenes snaps I took.

Impossible Project: My first shot on the new film

Well I've been waiting a long time for the reinvention of polaroid film. Having got a fabulous SX70 last year but hardly any film to put through it I was keen to see what the Impossible Project was going to have to offer. Well this is it - their new 'black and white' PX100 silvershade film. So far I've only taken two shots with it but I'm hardly leaping for joy, 'silvershade' it is not, 'sepia-hit-and-miss' it is. I really hope that when the release the colour version later this year it's not going to be so flakey. On the other hand the packaging is superb and the collectable darkslides with their random quotes was a nice touch if a tad kitsch especially when they say banal things like 'do a handstand moonwalk'. sigh.

Portrait: Erikson

Snaps - a weekend in Bath

New peepers - LASIK

So it's been a bit quiet here on the blog, that's because 7 days ago I went in to have laser surgery done on my eyes in attempt to correct the short sightedness (myopia) I've had since a young age. To say I thought long and hard about the operation would be only half the truth. When the technology started to be used in the mainstream about 10 years ago, I was interested and keen to have it done, however I felt the need to wait it out and too see what improvements would be made in the surgery. Fast forward to early 2010 and I end up having two conversations within a matter of weeks with people that lead very active lives and had recently had the operation themselves. A few weeks later I'd booked myself in.

Going on the logic that the surgery is only as good as the surgeon I booked in with one of the UK's leading eye surgeons, Professor Dan Reinstein at the London Vision Clinic. The surgery went well, and it was a painless if not a completely odd experience, and if I were to sum it up in one banal phrase it would be like entering the twilight zone. It did feel slightly like a alien abduction and was in some ways a quite out of body experience. One week on my vision is perfect. I get tired, irritable and dry eyes if I spend too long in front of the computer, which is to be expected at this stage, but by and large everything's fine.

Some people told me it was too much of gamble what with my profession relying on my vision, and I partly agree with that, but I also felt that the benefits of successful surgery were worth the risks (and cost) - of course only time will tell. I've not had any epiphany moments yet with the vision and this is partly because I've been so busy with work (no sick days for the self employed) and the recovering is still ongoing and at times uncomfortable...but I shall keep you posted.

Thanks to Professor Reinstein for the image below, and Charlie for the image above...and for the post operative care =)

Stop43 - Against the digital economy bill

Things are getting close for the Digital Economy Bill to pass through parliament and into law with the flawed section 43 still unrevised. Check out stop43.org for more info and join the viral campaign.

Documentary: Don McCullin

Don McCullin from Jacqui Morris on Vimeo.

Really interesting piece on Don McCullin. One of the first books I ever saw of photography that really made me stop in my tracks and take note was one by Don McCullin. Although the man himself is very skeptical about the affect (or lack of) that his pictures ever had, I think it's impossible to measure the amount of influence and change in thinking that his work may of caused throughout the years. Pictures will never be the entire catalyst to causing change but instead an important and powerful method of telling a story, once they've done that there's is not a whole lot more the photographer can do as a messenger. In most cases the change has to then come from public opinion and dialogue.