Moving on swiftly...

Or not so is the case judging by how ive managed to neglet this blogging melarky. I dont know why but I just never seem to get round to writing updates. My hat goes off to those guys who are constantly sitting behind a pc adding to their blogs on a daily basis, I just couldnt do it.

So where do I start, well its now 2010, happy new year I guess... *bit late*....

Whats been going on, well im sure like me most of you will have had a few months of hell enduring snow, snow snow and now rain and more cold weather, I wonder if the summer ever will arrive? January was appauling so decided to put the cameras away for most of it and enjoy a small break in the sun...

Back to reality and the cold weather meant back into the swing of things, the usual music work spending hour upon hour in dark and loud clubs (it may sound like a moan but i do love it deep down) and not enough of a dry period to play with some new toys. The end of 2009 saw me decide to break out a bit more and invest in some portable lighting, a few phone calls later saw me join the elinchrom ranger owners club. What can I say but what a fantastic piece of kit (most of the time), and Robert White who I purchased from have fantastic customer service and I would recommend them to anyone. Sadly the Ownership hasnt been 100% with one unit having to go back due to an intermittent power fault, which the replacement unit has also started to have :( So im sure that may have to go back soon if i can live without 1 unit for a while again.

So back onto the actual melarky of taking photos, I think thats what the cameras meant for rather than just gathering dust in the corner looking a bit sorry for itself through january. When the weather has been ok I have started to do some more automotive photography and moving into the world of location based portrature, something thats allways interested me as I dont know why but i just feel that we see so many photos from a studio I dont really want to be doing the 'white back ground' look for a while to come. Cars well theyve allways been close to my heart and it was nice when a couple of lads I knew let me play with their cars for a days shooting (the white clio/yellow honda).

Hopefully the weather may begin to improve so I can start to combine the passion of cars and photography more this year, jf its not the rain but the wind thats getting on my nerves. Anyone who has had to put a light high up into the air to get the effect you want will know how nerve racking it can be seeing it sway about in the wind even with some big weight on the bottom of the stand.

So back to the start and blogging, it aint easy eh! Hopefully I might not take so long between an update next time though.

Crikey.......

Yes thats a fantastic title, that was my reaction when I realised how long ago id posted and what ive been up to. Albeit in a brief post. Things have just been quite manic on a photography/personal level as ive also started training again and so hammering my body on a track/in a gym again on a daily basis. Also been sorting out some designs for the new logo/website I am getting done.. so watch this space.

Firstly I august was yes of course sw4/get loaded in the park, and as predicted it was suitably rocking. A brief story for the weekend could be... Wake up, bus, shoot all day, bus back off to the afterparty, shoot again, nearly drop camera off balcony, bed, wake late, run for bus, bus, shoot all day, nearly get fried by a 1billion w light rig on stage, end... home start processing and finally find my bed again...... Wicked fun but the body did feel it for a few days!

Ok back to normality, for a few weeks at the gallery (if you can call such a mad night out normal?).... Where I found a new angle and non flash shot to go for which I quite like...


October falls and we start the month off with a clothing launch for 48hrs. A new fresh brand with some nice designs and well made clothes, being a tall bugger at 6ft 6 often clothes seem to fit me like a stick in a crisp packet and it was nice to try on some of the bits and have something which fits!!

So fastforward a few more weeks and weekends of shooting and here we are in october where I had the pleasure of shooting a new night in london. Something with a twist midweek, its held in the rather spectacular venue of the penthouse in liecester square, a small but well styled and warm venue with a fantastic view of the city from the 6th floor. The event itself was the sugar dolls night, a spin off from a number of shot girls you may have seen throughout the city at varioous events.... Upon arrival being greeted by girls dressed in lavish outfits with fantastic headgear and a pink carpet I knew it would be considerably different to the usual nights I seem to shoot at... Well i wasnt mistaken, the event consisted of the usual music, and drink for the punters but they also had a great 'show' as to put it, with breakdancing going on midway through the night, girls dancing on the bar etc etc..... So thumbs up from me and a venture I wish all the best to in the future, its nice seeing things a bit different in the capital.

Life just gets a bit crazy at times

Been a few weeks since I decided to sit down and write about what ive done and where Ive been, Ive been ill, had a birthday and shot a few more of the usual djs.

Its coming up to a very busy weekend for me, with it being the weekend of SW4 and get loaded in the park, but onto those in a min.

Instead of just shooting for the gallery @ ministry of sound, ive also been in for the saturday sessions. Something i dont usually do, but ive had some wicked fun. First up was Joachim Garrauds album launch on toolroom knights label, and it was something id never have expected. Joachim to me had been under the radar, I didnt know just how big he is and what he has done (co producing some of David Guettas massive hits etc..) but also how cool he is as a live show. Some djs are different, some mix, some use a laptop, some play the keyboards live etc... but I didnt expect to see someone standing on a beer crate infront of the crowd playing his keytar! Wow is all i can say and it was bloody fantastic to watch!

Following on from that for the saturday it was another big night from accross the pond with Roger sanchez playing a 7 hour set for his release yourself nights, Roger is a reall top guy and was a pleasure to shoot, albeit if i was quite tired that day.

So thats the clubbing side of things covered for the last few weeks.

Ive also done another new bit of work for a friend of mine who is designing a website and lots of other things for a pub (the red lion) in wingham near canterbury, brief was to go and shoot the cathedral for something different, which i did from a rather strange angle but it should work quite well with the design of the site. I think everyone thought a 6ft 6 lad lying on his back under neath the main building was loosing his marbles for a few mins :D. Once this was done it was back to the pub for the food, we needed some pics of it for the site aswell as a few other bits and pieces (luckily got to enjoy the lovely bit of duck after id finished shooting it). I tell you what alot of respect to the guys who shoot food, I struggled with it, anyone who knows me well will know how I like to eat, so having fantastic food sitting infront of me is hard not to just dive into!

This week I got back out again to shooting some cars, I live near brands hatch and a few mates were out (although sadly late in the day when it was A dark and B raining) not much fun but still it was nice to get to use my siggy 300 2.8 with the 1D a bit more how I want to. It allways amazes me that at every track day I do myself that the photos there are what I would describe as dull. Well by dull i mean parked, the emphasis seems to be more on making sure every photo they take is sharp to sell even if theres no motion to it, for me I dont want pics of my car looking like ive driven onto the track stopped put the handbrake on so i can smile for the camera, so dont understand how these guys make money doing it :S

So thats that part again of work done, and been busy to see alot of my work being used from the last year, first up is the press pics i shot for MIKE/push which are being used on the site and as part of the campaign for the top 100djs poll, plus a few flyers for another group and loads and loads of printed stuff from where i was shooting last years Sw4 and get loaded in the park festivals. Im awaiting to have a press pack from the organisers as they have said its been alot of work tracking it all down but should be nice to see just how wide spread last years pics went. Which is why I am glad to be back, this time with more gear and shooting both days + the afterparty aswell as still shooting the gallery on friday so, 4 events in a weekend will be slightly crazy!

Still hopefully next week ill have some nice bits to add to this, with no horror stories.

So how do we evolve

This question is something that has been discussed with a few mates recently (and ive thought about more after a long weekend shooting for the gallery and then toolroom knights). Times are changing, just look at how life is now compaired to in the 1950s, heck look at the differences now to the 1990s. Technology changes, things improve, prices change as do fashions. So why shouldnt photography? Well I mean why shouldnt a photographer, our gear is constantly changing with the technology around us, we now are the digital era, with hours spent on computers with photos rather than alone in a dark room. Ok so im a newbie in that sence, I wasnt part of the 35mm area although when I look through it, its pretty cool! Photographers were photographers not graphic designers.

So without going off on to much of a tanget what am I rambling on about? Well as I said life changes, so what about me as a photographer. Do I change? Some might say you get a style and you can see it stays, its ever evolving though, with new angles to be seen, new effects with the flash etc... I can look back at what I was shooting in a local club and everythings different, not just the settings, but the way I look at a shot, again even a couple of months ago you could see it was a bit different to what I shoot now. Ok maybe some of its to do with the gear im using now as opposed to then, but even so im still looking each week for something else to play with something else. I guess its why despite shooting the same venue each week for well over a year I dont seem to get bored of it, even though i know the lights, the smoke, even now which dj does what behind the decks theres allways something new to try, a little change on the setting, a different angle, flash or no flash, etc... Its just something that you can just allways keep trying to do something new with, some may work some wont, but isnt that what Evolution is about? Ok maybe im thinking a bit to literally but its allways good to sit back and see just where you have come from, and how you have changed, whether its as a person or just with the type of style you shoot with.

So on that, with every new job comes a new challenge, should we worry about it or embrace that challenge? I say embrace it and see what new cool stuff you can come up with :D

Another double header friday...

Well again for a friday it was an early start in london. I was working for lock n load events for a free gig to promote the festival they are holding on clapham common in late august (one which i covered last year and it was wicked fun!). Sadly my journey to london wasnt much fun as police had shut a few roads for problems etc.. so I was touch and go to making it on time if at all I thought at one point.

The showpiece of the event was new songstress MPHO singing for all the atendies and the gio-goi bus which came down from up north as part of the advertising campaign.

Once this was done had a few hours to kill so kicked back and enjoyed some grilled chicken and did the processing from this event and recharged everything up just so I was ready again for later on that night with the usual gallery stuff.

This friday was a big one with well over 2,000 tickets being sold in advance, as it was the offical after party for Tiestos gig in london that evening, so lots of party kids in for the wicked line up, featuring rank1, Giuseppe Ottiviani, John OO flemming and Simon Patterson with DAT soundsystem playing in the bar. It really was a cracking night, I just couldnt put the camera down! well I tell a lie i did for a while, but that was to pick up a video camera when Tim Davidson from DAT soundsystem asked if I minded doing some filming for him whilst he was on. Obviously I jumped at the opportunity as something thats equally as fun as photography and I hope to get my teeth into one day!

When the sport gives back to the people who support it.

Last weekend was as busy as ever, had a cracking night at the gallery with some great djs, lighting was awsome and just generally got some cracking stuff.

Not much sleep later I was off to Harlequins Rugby ground on behalf of the RFL. It was the second big event of theirs I had been asked to go to recently so nice to have been asked back. It was an event to thank and respect those who support the sport, well where would sport be without those people, the volunteers, parents, friends etc.. who give up countless hours each week for no financial gain just for the love of the sport, and to see young sportsmen/women grow not only in their chosen field but also as individuals in the world.

First up was the community awards, for these guys, aswell as the awards for teams and players who won a recent tournament, so congratualtions to all those who got to go away with a trophy.

Once this was over it was off to the stands to watch the game (albeit slightly late for me as I decided to go down and snap some of the pre match warm ups etc...). Sadly it wasnt the best of starts for quins going down heavily by half time. Half time being when it was phase 2 of the days work, part of the half time show. Again this was to honour those people who support the sport, it was an opportunity for the fans to give their thanks, and a nice round of applause did everyone get, and a great experience for me being able to walk onto the pitch at half time to!

So that was me done for the day, I could sit back and enjoy the second half (one which quins picked up well at) and just generally relax.

The Tour trip, stages 11/12

Well that was a good trip all in all. Long driving and random sleeping arrangments were the call for the event.

Was a bit of late min planning and packing as suddenly the night I needed to leave for the event I had an urgent request to sort a few photos for a magazine spread. We left kent at around 1am ready for a shuttle around 3ish, before a long drive down through France. Sadly the sat nav got us slightly confused and we ended up going through Paris at rush hour when we expected we should have been around the outskirts of it to avoid the mayhem. Sadly this meant about 1-2hours sat in traffic enjoying the driving habits of crazy parisians and the delights (or not so) of French radio. Im a big music lover and quite frankly I can admit hearing some songs I would normally hate was quite pleasing on the ear every 15-20mins as the rest of the music was really THAT bad!!!

Anyway, once out of Paris running wasnt to bad and we steadily headed further south towards the last climb on stage 11. We had selected this point in the race as it was late on and with the slight climb we were hoping for the race to have a breakaway or two plus the peleton to be at a reasonable pace to see the riders. So along we went to get as close to the point as possible until we were stopped going further by the local police. Sadly this was at the bottom of the climb so we had a lovely 5k walk uphil to get to where we wanted to be. Once at the top a well earned beer was in order :D.

Anyway we were a few hours infront of the race so had time to kill and just sat twiddling thumbs and myself making sure that the gear was set up properly, all my memory cards were working ok etc... (allways best to be early and be ready). Anyway the race came through and there was the breakaway we wanted was there so was nice to see a couple of riders off the front of the pack attacking the climb. A few minutes later the peleton came through, hearing the roar a few hundred meters away it was apparent it was the main group with all of the key riders in the race. So it was time to get the camera ready to shoot the whole pack attacking the hill. This was fun, although quite frustrating for me as i had previously switched sides of the road in order to gain a better position for the 2 leaders, only to have Armstrong to ride on the other side of the pack so I could barely see him for the brief time he went by let alone get some pics I wanted. At least I got a few of the main group still which came out nice with some of the brits at the front of the pack and on my side of the road.

So stage 11 is gone and its the walk back to the van and the drive over to the start of stage 12. We had decided to see the riders at the start as it would hopefully mean a good atmosphere and seeing the riders prepair for the days stage. So it was grabe some food in town and find somewhere to stay for the evening. No campsites were around so we had to ditch the van in a farmers field and sleep there, the plan was to sleep in tents but in the end I slept in the back of the van to keep all of my gear inside and with me. Still it lead to a nice view the next morning as I woke up and the doors to the van were opened up.

So breakfast was there and a cold shower in the woods with some bottled water before heading into the town for the mayhem before stage 12. We arrived early, although not as early as several hundred locals it seems who were allready partying away, we wandered around for a bit trying to decide where would be best to shoot from, we decided on a location by the main carpark around the VIP area where all the team coaches were going to be. This was the plan until the Astana coach pulled up outside of the carpark no where near us, so I had to bolt it round the carpark dodging French people with 2 cameras hanging off my shoulders, whilst my freind gave chace with the rest of my gear. Thankfully I got round quickly and found a spot where we had a good view. We shot alot of the early riders as they were announced to go and sign on for the day. Things were hectic but i was getting some nice shots. Well this was untill all of the VIPs decided to come out and walk and then stand right infront of me and all of the other fans, so that suddenly made things 100% harder. As soon as the Brits came through i really wanted to be on my game and managed to get some nice stuff of Mark Cavendish (who was back in green after his stage win on 11 the previous day).

Still this wasnt as hard as it would get, as soon as Armstrong came out from warming up the atmosphere suddenly changed in an instant, it was electric and the whole area closed up, in the distance I could see a man in a t shirt waving his hands and fortunaetly could catch the top of his distinctive Livestrong helmet, so i knew where he was, yet I seemed to have the entire village in my way! Nightmare, still I was there for a photo of lance, and I wasnt going to go home without one, so i had to just keep firing off the shots trying to hope he kept staying in my line of sight and without random peoples heads getting in my view. He went passed and went to sign on, I think i had him but wasnt sure, i guess id have to wait and see once things had calmed down. Sadly when signing on the french left a bitter taste in my mouth for the trip, they had recently cheered an ex french rider who had failed drugs tests and was reported to have been heavily involved with a famous doping scandal, yet they turned to booing Armstrong, I dont know whether this is just the fact the french dont like the fact some american has come and destroyed every one of their riders on 7 occasions or if the people just were readers of the main french newspaper who seems intent on tarnishing Armstrongs reputation.

So it was the journey home, back to Britain. I had seen Armstrong, well id done more than see him, I managed to get what id come for, its not ideal but hey certainly it works for me!