Sunday 31 January 2010


I've spent most of today post processing all of last weeks work which has taken me about 8 hours and I'm still going!. I should be finished within the next hour then I'm going to take a hot bath and have a lovely glass of red wine.

Tomorrow I'm off to Glasgow on the train from Milton Keynes where I've got a shoot at an office building and on Tuesday I'm working in Edinburgh at a hospital. I love getting the train up to Scotland as the journey takes around 5 hours and I get some time to think and relax. For some reason Virgin Trains have stopped the direct service from Milton Keynes to Glasgow so I need to change at Crewe but it's still miles better than flying or driving.

I've attached a picture from the shoot at Land Security HQ in London on Friday. I photographed the room where they keep the models of all their new buildings. Each model is worth a fortune so I was very careful with the tripod!.

Saturday 30 January 2010


After a long day on Wednesday where I photographed the new Manchester hospital building then watched Man Utd beat Man City I then drove home and didn't get back until 3am!. The M6 was packed even at 2am due to miles and miles of roadworks and a diversion off into Wolverhampton where the workman had closed off the entire road. I wouldn't mind but you never seem to see anyone doing anything - just loads of machinery and thousands of traffic cones!!!.

Thursday was spent in the studio and culminated in a shoot with two more of the ladies from the adult TV channel. I think we've nearly photographed all of the girls from the channel now and it's been great fun although the novelty has worn off now to be honest!.

I had a very busy Friday beginning with a shoot in London that came in at short notice for a client that had just supplied some new LED light fittings to a building next to Charing Cross Station. Then I had an afternoon shoot in Milton Keynes at one of my client's offices where I photographed some new products which were too big to take down to the studio.

Today I've spent most of the day post processing all of last weeks work with a break in the middle of the day where I played an indoor cricket match. It will be a late night tonight as I need to catch up because next week is really busy now too.

I've attached a picture from the Arcilor Mittal steelworks in Wolverhampton.


Wednesday 27 January 2010


I'm writing today's entry from my mate Leigh's house in just outside Knutsford after we spent the day together photographing the new Manchester Joint Hospitals project. The shoot went very well and the staff were brilliant and we even got access to an operating theatre (thankfully no one was in it!) which is very unusual. The pictures will be used in a new brochure for the company that made all the lighting throughout the hospital.
After the shoot we popped in to a great camera dealer called PFD (Pro Film and Digital) owned by a guy called Howard. This is a proper camera shop with loads on new and used stock and fridges full of film in all formats - a real goldmine. I managed to get away without buying anything (Melanie will be pleased!) and popped in to return the scrims I bought for my Redhead lights as they didn't fit properly.
Tonight Leigh is taking me to Old Trafford for the Carling Cup semi final second leg against Manchester City. Being an Arsenal fan I'll feel a bit like a fish out of water but at least I'll remember to support the team in red.
I'm travelling back home tomorrow and I'll be heading straight in to the studio to do some product shots and to prepare for the model shoot I'm doing for the adult TV channel tomorrow night.
I've attached a picture from yesterday's shoot at the guitar shop in Southampton.

Tuesday 26 January 2010


The job this morning at the Crown Plaza hotel in Crawley (near Gatwick airport) went really well. The brief was to photograph one of the new club bedrooms and I must admit I was very impressed with the design and quality of the room. The main room was big and light and airy and the bathroom was also quite big and there was a TV built into the tiled wall at the end of the bath - perfect.

I then drove round the M25 and up the M40 and stopped at the big hotel in Stokenchurch for a bit of lunch. My day is generally planned around where to eat and also how many cups of tea I can get during any given trip.

I'm now at the steel factory at Wolverhampton waiting for it to get dark!. I got here half an hour early at 2.30pm only to find the highbay lights don't come on until it's dark outside due to the extensive roof skylights!. My brief is to photograph the industrial lighting in context of the factory so the lights do need to be on.

Industrial photography is great fun especially in places like this where there are huge machines rumbling around and big sheets of steel being cut and hammered into shape.

Once I'm finished here I'm off to Manchester ready for tomorrow's shoot at a new hospital up there.

The new blog rating shown on the right looks good and I've been rated at 7.3 out of 10!. If you get a minute please click on the rate this blog button - thanks!.

I've just retouched another shot of Kimberley on the laptop and I've attached it to today's blog.


Monday 25 January 2010


Today I've been down in Southampton and Portsmouth working for another of my regular clients that manufacture spotlights and track lighting systems. The pictures I'm taking for them are for their new catalogue and website.

The first project was a guitar shop in Southampton and although the interior was quite small the pictures look good because of the colour and shape of the guitars and amps on display. In fact there were two separate shops - one for electric guitars and one for acoustic - next door but one to each other as part of the same company. Every time I go into a shop like this I want an electric guitar but my bass guitar has ended up as a prop in my studio and I'm sure a six string version would go the same way.

The second job was at the County Court in Portsmouth and this was a lot more challenging as is it basically a plain 1980's interior with very sparse finish and I wasn't allowed to get anyone in the pictures.

I'm doing a shoot tomorrow in Crawley so I'm writing this entry in my hotel room at the Premier Travel Inn Crawley (no expense spent!) but I've got a TV and a kettle so I'm happy.

Tomorrow afternoon I've got a shoot at a steel factory in Wolverhampton then I'm away up to Manchester for the shoot on Wednesday.

I've got a moral dilemma to handle on Wednesday night as my client in Manchester (and mate too) is taking me to Old Trafford for the Carling Cup second leg match against Manchester City. As an ardent Arsenal fan I've always wanted United to lose but I'm going to have to do some top level acting as I'll be sitting in the Stretford End and don't want to be mistaken for a City fan!.

I'm in the studio on Thursday and Friday which will be great - especially as I've got some more work on Thursday night for the adult TV channel. If you can't enjoy your work then you shouldn't do it - that's my point of view anyway!.

I've attached a picture I took of Kimberley a couple of weeks ago which I've converted to a Polaroid style direct print colour profile in DXO.




Sunday 24 January 2010


Yesterday was a great fun day (and day off) as our friends Colette and Jeremy came to visit from London (Colette's picture appeared in the blog a few weeks ago following a studio shoot we did for fun). After an evening out we sat down and watched the classic 1960's film Blowup which was loosely based upon the life of David Bailey in his 60's heyday. It's a really cool film and it launched the career of many fashion photographers but it is a very odd plot. If you like arty films that are beautifully directed but don't care too much about the storyline then I'd recommend this highly. I've watched it a few times but I'm still not sure what it's about!. But then the late David Hemmings who starred in the film claimed that he never knew what it was about either so what hope have I got !.

I've worked for most of the day today catching up on the post processing work for the Orchard Theatre and St John's School in Marlborough that I shot last week. My trusty and talented assistant Kirsty took care of a job for me on Thursday night - an event in Covent Garden in London for one of my best clients as I was out in Birmingham with Melanie on a prior engagement. She did a great job but I still needed to post process the RAW pictures so I did that today as well. I guess those three jobs have taken me around 7 hours to process which is about normal. That's why digital photography is far more complicated than people think if you want to do it properly and get the best possible results.

Next week is now officially manic (which is great news as I like to be busy!!). I'm in Southampton and Portsmouth tomorrow, then Crawley on Tuesday morning followed by a shoot in Wolverhampton at a steel factory on Tuesday late afternoon. Then I'm up to Manchester for a two day trip photographing a new hospital.

I've then got Thursday evening and Friday in the studio doing some more shots for the adult TV channel guys and a portrait shoot too.

I've got to give both the cameras a bloody good clean up as there is a lot of dust and crap on the sensors which makes for more post processing work. The new 5D Mk2 is supposed to self clean the sensor but to be honest it doesn't seem to make any difference. It's a tricky job to clean the sensors safely but as work is really flying at the moment I need to make the effort.

I've just registered the blog with a site called Blogged and some time soon there will be an official blog rating in the tool bar on the right hand side. I'm not sure what rating I'll get but it will be interesting to find out. If it's crap I'll delete the entire thing!!.

I've attached an interior shot from the cafe at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford. The client is one of my regulars and they like to see blurred movement in the shots. To say that Dartford is a bit rough would be like saying Piers Morgan is a bit of a twat - a tremendous understatement!.





Friday 22 January 2010


Had a pretty busy day today starting with a trip to a printer called Captivate for Ever (cheesy name but great printers!) that do canvas prints for me who are based at Silverstone race circuit. The quality of their canvas prints is top notch and I'd highly recommend them.

Then I went over the the studio for an hour or so and did some post processing work before heading down to Dartford to photograph the newly refurbished Orchard Theatre.

It's a rough old town to be honest and there were some pretty scary looking people hovering around in the theatre but the staff were very friendly and the shoot went well.

I took an enquiry from an actress for some PR head shots today via email which was exciting and I hope she comes into the studio for the shoot. Head shots are great fun particularly with someone who can act and put lots of expression into the pictures.

Next week is now fully booked and February is filling up too so things are almost back to normal.

I've attached a picture from the recent studio shoot with Kimberley.

Wednesday 20 January 2010


I'm writing this entry on my Blackberry which is pretty tricky as the keys are so tiny - I feel a bit like Gulliver using someones typewriter in Lillput!.
Anyway the shoot went really well in Marlborough today despite some pretty heavy snow on the way there. The job was a new school and I can't help thinking that kids have so much these days. It was a state school but they had recording studios and rooms full of the latest Macs and PC's etc etc.
I like to use two cameras for these big. Interior shoots - one on a tripod with my shift lens and one hand held with a zoom lens for detail shots. Katie my client is great and always pulls my camera trolley along and she also has a great eye for a picture.
I've got another shoot now for the same client tomorrow night in London but my assistant Kirsty is going to shoot that for me as I'm going to be up in Birmingham.
I'm in the studio all day Friday and I've got another shoot on Friday evening with the TV station in Milton Keynes so that will be a busy day.
I'm relived to be well and truly back in the saddle again and things are definitely picking up nicely so here's to a great 2010 and the end of the recession!.

I've attached a picture of Amy from last week.

Tuesday 19 January 2010


I missed my blog entry yesterday because I had a pretty busy day then drank a bit too much red wine at a party last night - unlike me to be honest as I don't drink much.

I spent the first half of yesterday in the studio having a good tidy up and sorting out some broken kit - basically doing the odd jobs I've been meaning to do for ages. I then popped out to see Dan at Calumet Milton Keynes where I bought some 6ft x 4ft reflector and diffuser panels suitable for both studio and location work.

In the afternoon I had a concept meeting with one of my clients where we discussed the theme for some upcoming product photography that I'm really excited about doing.

The evening was very pleasant too. I play in a brass band and it was our annual Christmas dinner (OK a bit late but who cares!). We went to a great old pub in Stony Stratford called the Crown and had a full Christmas dinner and a few glasses of red wine!.

After a slow start today I've post processed all the pictures from my shoot with the beautiful Amy last week (I say she's beautiful even though she says I remind her of her uncle who's old too apparently!! - I'm only 39 but she's a mere 21!) and I'm well pleased with the results.

Tonight I've got another shoot for the adult TV channel in Milton Keynes where I'm doing some glamour photography (not nude or rude though!) of another couple of their lady presenters.

Tomorrow I'm working in Wiltshire doing an interiors shoot for a furniture company - another one of my best clients.

Todays picture is from the shoot with Amy from last week.


Friday 15 January 2010


It's a case of best laid plans of mice and men again - I didn't get to the studio to start filming my viral ad but will definitely get there on Monday and make a start.

Instead I telephoned some of my clients for a quick catch up and did some research into viral video clips and podcasts on the Internet. Then I popped out to our printer in Milton Keynes with the final artwork on CD for our new flick book that I'm going to use to promote the studio to local companies.

The shoot for the TV company has been postponed until next Tuesday or Wednesday as we can't get all the girls together in one place at the same time until then. So in short I've had a pretty easy day although I'd prefer to be busy and rushing around the place.

I am more determined than ever to shoot more film this year. I've still got some 5x4 sheets of Tungsten balanced slide film ready to go in the studio and I've also got a stash of black and white 120 roll film that I'm going to use with the large format camera via a 120 back. I love my Canon digital kit but I'm being drawn back to film more and more. I think it's the fact that with digital in the studio there's always the temptation to shoot too many frames and go for quantity over quality in terms of posing the model properly and with real consideration.

I need to find a model who's happy to work for 3-4 hours and only shoot 20 odd frames rather than 300 and in these days of instant results that could prove tricky.

Before Christmas I was working a lot with old Tungsten hotlights because I like the old fashioned look I can get with these lights. It reminds me of the old Hollywood stills from films in the 50's and 60's. I did however have a near miss as one of my 800W Redheads blew it's lamp to bits and hot glass spat out all over the studio floor taking the paint off where the chips landed!!!. Luckily I was the only one in the studio at the time. Today I managed to track down some scrims for the Redheads - these are basically metal screens which fit in front of the lamp and catch any glass should the lamps blow up - another good job done.

I'm hoping to get to the studio over the weekend to play around with some still life ideas I've had but the chances of that happening are probably fairly small!.

I've attached another picture of Amy from our shoot on Wednesday.

Thursday 14 January 2010


Today's work in London photographing four Nat West Bank branches has been postponed until next week due to gaining all the relevant permission but that meant that I could spend the day in the office post processing the rest of the pictures from Cheltenham College.

We had some new work in today from another regular commercial client consisting of two small interior jobs in Portsmouth and a hotel interior in Crawley. I also had a commission in to photograph a product launch party in London in mid Feb so the good flow of new work keeps coming in!.

Tomorrow I've got a shoot in the studio for a TV channel based in Milton Keynes photographing a couple of their presenters which also came in today. It's an adult TV channel (the one I've been working with taking the pictures for the Sunday Sport) and although Melanie was pretty off about the idea initially she does seem to be loosening up about it now!. It's all good fun and I'm getting paid which is the main thing!.

I'm really keen to start filming a viral video clip that I've come up with for my Redshift Photography website and I'm going to kick that off tomorrow in the studio. I'm going to use the EOS 5D MK2 for this and the quality of the camera in HD video mode is superb. The problem I have is getting the footage edited but I have just met a video editor who's keen to work with me so hopefully that will work out well.

I've attached another picture of Kimberley from our shoot last weekend.





Wednesday 13 January 2010


I felt a lot better today and I'm pleased to report that my cold has almost gone - hooray!.

The shoot with Amy went very well at the studio this morning and I tried to come up with three new looks based upon some lighting techniques I've been toying with lately. First we did some shots on the leather sofa based loosely on a Rankin picture from his book Beauty. For anyone new to photography Rankin is the new David Bailey and is very much the in-vogue photographer at the moment. I really like his work and his new book Beauty is well worth buying for inspiration and also it makes a great coffee table book.

Then we moved on to some shots on the white backdrop with a flash bounced off the rear wall to give a nice even fill and a flash with a small soft box over head to add some butterfly lighting effect. I like this technique (although I don't think it's a recognised method) as I find the bounced fill flash gives a nice light and even feel to the pictures whilst the over head soft box just adds some nice soft shadow under the tip of the nose (butterfly lighting!).

We then moved on to some rock chic shots against the white breeze block wall with a flash behind Amy bouncing off the wall behind her to bring a big highlight to her blonde hair and a main light on front fitted with a beauty dish. Again this is a technique I've made up and it works for me.

Lastly we did some shots of Amy smoking a ciggy against a black velvet backdrop with a main light overhead in front with a beauty dish and a flash behind to pick out her blonde hair and to edge light her black leather jacket.

After the shoot it took me 10 minutes to skid my car out of the car park and I finally headed off to my client meeting to discuss some creative ideas for some upcoming product photography.

You'd think a Volvo would be OK in the snow considering they're made in Sweden but mine is a real bugger in snow and slush and it slides all over the place even a really low speeds.

I've attached a shot of Amy from today's shoot.



Tuesday 12 January 2010




I started to come down with a cold yesterday and spent the day telling Melanie what a wimp she was being as she's had a cold for a few days and has been moaning and groaning about it 24/7 and that I had a bad cold but was laughing it off. Well the laughter stopped this morning as I woke up and felt terrible and I've got full blown man flu. I managed to get to the shoot at Cheltenham College and got the shots of the beautiful dining hall for my client but the drive home was challenging. I'm about to drink my 5th Lemsip of the day then I'm off to bed as I've got a busy day tomorrow. Firstly I'm in the studio with the lovely Amy then I've got a meeting with a client at 2pm.


I had another commission in today from one of our regular clients to shoot a school in Marlborough in Wiltshire which is in the diary for the week after next so that's great news. January is looking pretty busy now and we needed that after a quiet December.


I've attached a picture from the Cheltenham College shoot today which I've just processed through Lightroom. I usually use DXO to process the RAW images for commercial interior shoots as it automatically takes out the barrel distortion from most of my lenses but it doesn't work with the Canon 24mm tilt and shift lens that I used today. I find Lightroom gives the purest image quality from RAW files compared to any other RAW processing package I've tried.

I can honestly say that this school dining room doesn't bear any resemblance to the one we had at Winslow Secondary School back in the late 1980's!.





Monday 11 January 2010


I did a shoot in the studio yesterday afternoon with another new model - a young lady called Kimberley. She came along for a 2 hour shoot to get the basics of a portfolio together and she did really well!. It's always tough for a young model with no experience but we had a great time in the studio and her Mum was there to offer some moral support. I think she's got a great look and I hope she goes on to make a career in modelling.

Today I edited yesterday's pictures in Lightroom and also finished off some post processing from a job I shot before Christmas up in Manchester.

I had a call from a regular client about some photography at a new hospital in Manchester and that is now in the diary for late Jan. I also booked in a two day shoot in Cornwall for February of a new office development so today was a good day for new commissions.

Tomorrow I'm off to Cheltenham to photograph a college which has been recently refurbished, then on Wednesday I'm hoping to do another shoot with the lovely Amy in the morning and I've got a meeting with a very good client in the afternoon.

On Thursday I'm in London photographing some Natwest Bank branches and I'm really looking forward to getting back into town again. It will give me the chance to pop in to the amazing camera cafe (Aperture photographic) in Museum Street which is always a treat for me as they specialise in second hand cameras - particularly Leica's and Hasselblad's.

At the moment Friday is free but I'm hoping something will come up to round off a really good week.

I've uploaded a picture of Kimberley from yesterday's shoot which I've converted to Polaroid colour and faded the colour saturation back.



Friday 8 January 2010


I processed the pictures from Aston University today and sent them out to the client and also managed to update our business plan to include the new ideas I've had for video production so it's been a pretty productive day.

I had a new commission in to photograph some Natwest Bank branches in London today which I'm hoping to schedule in for next week so that's also great news.

We were hoping to get the dates through for the hotel photography up in Scotland but our email has been down all day so we've not heard anything from the client on this. Email is so vital but I think we all take it for granted and when it goes down it's a real pain. Fingers crossed we'll have the go ahead for this photography and also a hotel project in Cheltenham for the same client on Monday so we can start to schedule the month's workload.

It's one of those months where we're verbally given lots of work but it's a case of getting all the dates firmed up. If it all comes off it will be a great start to the year which is just what we need.

I took a booking for a studio shoot today as well which we're doing this Sunday - it's a present for a friend of Melanie's daughter so I'll make sure we give her a really good portfolio of pictures!.

I've attached a shot from yesterdays shoot at Aston University. This is the newly refurbished cafe - students have it easy these days if you ask me.



Thursday 7 January 2010

I managed to get up to Birmingham today for the shoot at Aston University despite the roads being terrible and the trains from Milton Keynes running very late - I guess it's the wrong kind of ice or something!.
The shoot at the University was for one of my regular clients (a fit out contractor based in London) and it was of a newly refurbished restaurant and cafe in the university. The job looked great and I'll post a picture from the shoot in tomorrows blog entry.
Last night I did another shoot for the Sunday Sport in the studio. This time I will try to bring myself to buy a copy of it because last time I had a picture in there I went in to the newsagents but was too embarrassed to buy the paper!. At the end of the day it's a commercial studio and I'm not going to turn down paid work (unless it's something I really disagree with) so I'm going to stop being so high and mighty and get on with it. Because the shots are mainly topless I'm not going to post any of them on the blog but the model was lovely and a really nice girl too and we had a laugh doing the shoot.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to start filming my own viral video that I'm going to send out to my clients. I'll film it on my EOS 5D MK2 camera which is also my main stills camera. The HD video that the 5D MK2 can produce is stunning so the quality will be very high. I'm very excited about making short movies with the camera and I've attached the last one I produced with the 5D MK2 to today's blog.

......... Well I tried but it wouldn't play so here's a link to it on Youtube!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVwV5Io3VhA

Tuesday 5 January 2010


I had a pretty quiet day today with only a small shoot this afternoon in Milton Keynes. A guy that runs a car valeting company asked me to photograph an Audi TT that he's polished up with a view to using the pictures on a flier he's producing. I photographed the car inside and out and he took the pictures right away on CD - unusually for me I shot them in Jpeg as he needed the shots straight away.

I then had a meeting with another director for the TV company I'm tying up with to produce movie clips etc for my clients in my studio (which was bloody cold). After he went I tried out the large remote control helicopter Melanie bought me for Christmas and within 10 minutes of "flying" it in the studio I had totally knackered it. Several bits snapped off then it went dead after a series of major crashes. The last and most devastating crash happened when I flew it into my wind machine at high speed.

The studio did survive thankfully but I'll avoid remote control helicopters in there from now on.

Tomorrow I'm filming a video advert for my website in the studio which I'm going to use for viral marketing. Hopefully I can make it funny enough to get forwarded on from person to person. As soon as I get the video completed I'll post a link to it on the blog.

In the evening I've got another shoot for the Sunday Sport newspaper - this time a girl that used to be in the Army so I guess we can have some fun with that!.

Thursday's job in Birmingham has been confirmed but I guess it's now down to the snow clearing in time for me to get there.

I've posted one of my favourite shots from last year that I took at the Barbican in London and that I've entered into this year's masters cup.


Monday 4 January 2010


I'm officially back at work today and as sad as it might sound I'm delighted to be back!.


I've got a few new ideas for the business that I want to put in place in 2010 and I'm very excited about the year ahead.


To kick things off I had a meeting with a TV production company today with a view to working with them on some viral marketing ideas I have. That meeting went very well and I then popped into the studio to meet with a client re some product photography that he needs me to do. I also took a booking for a model portfolio shoot and also had an enquiry from a lady in Milton Keynes that has designed a range of leather clothing (lets leave it there shall we!!) and she wants me to photograph five or six outfits for a web site.


I'm hoping to schedule in another studio shoot with Amy this week too and I've also got a shoot at Aston University to do so all in all a pretty good start to the new year.


I've attached another picture of David from the shoot last week.