In it’s second year, National Album Day 2019 sponsored by BBC Sounds, will see listeners, musicians and Radio DJ’s celebrate their Love of the long play format. I took some time to speak with Steve Courtnell of Southsea's Pie & Vinyl about the majesty of listening to albums in a time of singles, streaming algorithms [...]
Really fun shoot alert! I recently had the lovely comission to photograph staff portraits for Rockbox Advertising on 35mm film. I was approached by the wonderful Studio Hoi that were in the process developing a re-brand and website for Rockbox. The creative has a really thoughtful approach which was both fresh and contemporary but with [...]
Last week, Kate Nash came to Portsmouth's Wedgewood Rooms on the last date of her UK tour. I'd recently taken delivery of a Nikon F100 and fancied it's autofocus for capturing live music on 35mm film, Kodak Portra 400 in this case rated at asa 1600. Before I went full time with photography I would [...]
Last month I had a three-day photo commission in the South West across Devon and Cornwall. I got to spend some time outside of my shoot days seeing beaches, rocks, harbours and Cornish folk going about their day. The weather just happened to be fabulous for February and I was able to walk around in [...]
Before Christmas, I was commissioned to photograph Boxer, Adam Buckner in an editorial for WW Magazine. Adam has been using Weightwatchers plans alongside a training regimen at a boxing gym to aid him in fitness and weight loss. We shot at Adam's boxing gym during the evening and had to work around ongoing training sessions. [...]
Before Christmas, I was commissioned to shoot an editorial portrait of Ultra Cyclist, Dominic Irvine for Waitrose Weekend. By day, Dominic helps blue-chip businesses optimise their performance levels. By applying his training principles to cycling Dominic has cultivated a level of fitness, training regimen and sheer will that has seen him break the tandem record [...]
Over the summer I made some documentary images in the recording studio with The Dodge Brothers, purveyors of incendiary skiffle and silent movie accompaniment. I have photographed the Dodge Brothers both live and for press many times over the last 10 years. In June, they kindly invited me to visit the studio where they were [...]
This summer we had a trip planned to visit family in the Middle East. It was the hottest and dustiest time of year to travel and I didn't really want to take a fancy camera with me. I also didn't want to spend our time there seeing the place through an LCD screen so I [...]
Following my previous post, here is the EP artwork for Dutch Criminal Record to accompany the music video for Waiting on the Weekend. We photographed the image set on a sunny summers day at a pool that was drained for cleaning. It was extremely hot and bright with the reflection from the tiling. The images [...]
In this post I'm going to talk about shooting the music video for the title track on Dutch Criminal Records EP, Waiting on the Weekend. I'd been working with the guys from Dutch Criminal Record for a while shooting stills for press and EP artwork (that's for another post) when they came to me looking to [...]
Earlier this year I was approached by Quay West Studios in Gosport, Hampshire with the proposal of shooting a music video with singer, songwriter, Tom Millichamp. I had worked with the Quay West and Tom previously, creating a set of images for press and his online content. That shoot was about a year prior and his [...]
Last month (February 26th), I went along to the Kodak Camera Club London Photowalk. The free event was announced via twitter and instagram - just turn up and shoot film with some fellow film photographers led by Kodak's head of video content, Stiv Twigg. We all congregated at the Cafe Nero on Lancaster Pl, North of Waterloo [...]
Waitrose Weekend, the free in-store paper commissioned me a few weeks ago to photograph an editorial portrait for their 'My Weekend' feature. The editorial interviews people from all over the UK about their work life and what they do at the weekend. I was sent to photograph Oli Greber, an instructor at the Land Rover BAR [...]
Last year I was commissioned by Audible to photograph Mark Kermode for a new Audible Original series, Kermode On Film. Having photographed Mark in the past we already had a working relationship so it was an exciting opportunity to work together again and was sure to be a fun shoot given Mark's excellent sense of humour [...]
Last month we took a trip, the first in three years or so! Since staying in Marrakech and driving across Morocco in 2014, we knew that exploring cities and experiencing the history, people and the personality of a place were important factors for a long overdue getaway. Struggling to decide on where to head we [...]
Last month I was commissioned by Barcroft Media to photograph and direct a piece about 26-year-old, Amputee Male Model - Jack Eyers from Bournemouth. Jack is also a personal trainer and ambassador for the charity, Models Of Diversity. Growing up Jack was diagnosed with proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD), a congenital condition which meant his right leg [...]
Last month I had a call from Kim Glover Entertainment, famous for overseeing the early careers of Ant & Dec, B*Witched and New Kids On The Block as well as being instrumental in the development of Aretha Franklin and David Essex. This photographic enquiry was to shoot promotional images for The X Factor's Sam Lavery who [...]
Over the last two years I have been working commercial interior photography for Thomas Sanderson, Europe's largest manufacturer of conservatory blinds, window blinds and shutters as well as commercial installations. Handcrafted in the UK, Thomas Sanderson window coverings have a heritage in Britain going back 25 years, starting life as a family run business having evolved [...]
I recently invested in a beautiful Nikon F3/T from Japan Camera Hunter. I love manual 35mm cameras and have enjoyed a few of them, most recently my Nikon FM and before that the Nikkormat FTN. I really want to be shooting more 35mm and so what better than the legendary F3 in titanium. For those [...]
It's officially Summer, nearly the weekend and today sees the release of Robert Austen's debut EP - Fallen Leaves. I've known Rob for quite a few years now going back to when he was the drummer in Portsmouth based band, Light Effect. Since the band parted ways, Rob has gone on to drum and sing [...]
For the last few months I've been working alongside the very talented Guy Gyngell who has been developing and producing Jennifer Owens - The Young History EP. Guy is a songwriter and producer and also heads up the fledgling label, Annexe Records. He has an uncanny, intuitive ability to hear the route on which to [...]
In this post I go behind the scenes with Fraser Churchill. At the end of March I photographed singer/songwriter Fraser Churchill in London. He was in need of some urgent promo material to take with him on a trip to the US. Two weeks later he flew out to Nashville, Tennessee to write songs on Music [...]
Mark Kermode, Live in 3D is a monthly event held at BFI Southbank in London where Mark screens clips and engages audiences in lively debate around films past and present. I had recently been contacted by Mark's agent looking for an image to use for the projected backdrop at the events. I provided a number [...]
It's the first weekend of 2016 and I've been going through some of my negatives from the last year. I paused on a few frames of songwriter, Lee Broderick. These weren't from a shoot we had arranged but were captured in a stolen moment while working on another project together. It would have been great to [...]
At the end of last month news circulated that Dutch artist, Anton Corbijn, would no longer pursue photography professionally, reserving it only as a hobby. Corbijn carved out a 40 year career shooting iconic images for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bjork, Morrissey, U2, Nirvana, Nick Cave and Depeche Mode. Shooting almost exclusively on black [...]
A little while back I picked up a near mint condition Nikon FM, the legendary small 35mm camera from Nikon that started the design philosophy that led to the FM2, FE, FE2, FA and FM3A. This production of cameras spanned 29 years. Since using the FM it has encouraged me to carry a simple 35mm [...]
Helen Dixon and Christie Gardner are the singing, strumming, harmonising duo, Lilo's Wall from Winchester in Hampshire. This week saw the pre-order release of their long awaited debut EP 'Rowan'. The wonderful four track offering is a lyrical adventure through the bright and breezy 'All My Life', with harmonies sweet as sugar and a country [...]
In the new BBC Music tv spot, Ethan Johns conducts the BBC Music Orchestra. He also the produced the star studded version of the Beach Boys 'God Only Knows' which soundtracks the advert. The promotional film was made to mark the launch of BBC Music and it's impressive schedule of programmes celebrating the talent, diversity [...]
Earlier in the year I posted about how I had shot the cover photograph for Mark Kermode's forthcoming book, 'Hatchet Job'. Well the jacket design was recently completed by the talented designers at the books publisher Picador, the Pan Macmillan imprint. Here is the finished cover along with some supporting images from the jacket. If [...]