I'm back in the office today and I must admit that although I love Christmas I will be glad to get back to normal next week!.

My Brother in Law and family came over for Christmas which was great and we all had a top time. To celebrate the fact that we were all together again we did a shoot in the studio the day after Boxing Day and the pictures have come out really well. I've just finished processing them and I'll add some of them over the next few days.

David (my brother in law) is now the chief exec of a rock radio station over in Dublin so we took a few PR shots whilst he was over. I've posted my favourite picture in today's blog entry.

I was chuffed to have been given a Roger Hicks photography book for Christmas on advanced product photography techniques. Anyone wanting to buy photographic books on lighting etc should look no further than Roger's books. He's written loads of them over the years and I've now got four of them and they are all really useful.

Anyway I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a great time tonight!.

I spent this morning retouching the family shots from the studio session last Saturday and I'm pleased with the results. I supplied the guys that came to the studio with 40 pictures of them and their little boy and I hope they like the finished pictures.

Then I processed a couple of quick product shots I did for a mate that has a small lighting company and that is me up to date and ready for Christmas!.

Tomorrow is a day off and then I'm off until 4th Jan unless an urgent job comes in.

I'm going to be doing some family pictures in the studio over the holiday as well as some still life work for the studio web site and that should keep me out of trouble and from getting bored.

I'd like to wish everyone reading this a Happy Christmas and thanks for following my blog throughout 2009!.

Here's another picture of the very pretty Amy.

I had most of today off to look after my little boy Harry but I've just managed to retouch all the pictures I selected from yesterday's shoot with Amy.

Melanie sent out all our Christmas email cards to our customers today so that's it now until after Christmas. Tomorrow I'm going to process the shots from the studio session on Saturday then it's a case of tidying up the office and giving the studio a good clean.

I love Christmas so much but it is a bad time of year in terms of commercial work as December brings Christmas decorations everywhere so I can't shoot many interiors and January means loads of sale signs everywhere so retail jobs are out right through until the end of January.

Thankfully we've got 8 or 9 jobs already in the diary for January which is a good start and all the signs are that next year will be a good one all round. Can anyone believe next year is 2010!.

I've attached another of the pictures of Amy from yesterday and I'm about to update the studio website with some of them too.

I'm sitting in my studio typing this entry with every modelling light, Tungsten light and electric fan I own turned on as it's bloody freezing!. I have a new model coming in later today (hence the global warming enhancing power consumption) for her first portfolio shoot and I'm looking forward to it as usual. Her name is Amy and she's blonde and very pretty so I've got high hopes for the pictures.




I ventured up to the City Centre this morning (Central Milton Keynes) and it was packed..I guessed it would be but had vague hopes that a Monday would be quieter. It wasn't. I'm very glad to be back at work and would rather be here in my studio than anywhere near shops and Christmas shoppers bless them.




Tomorrow's job at Aston University has been postponed until 7th Jan because the furniture hasn't been delivered on time which is a shame but I'd rather find out now then when I arrive on site. That means I can do some admin in the morning and make some Christmas calls to my customers in the afternoon.




The product photography I did of the new LED street light went down very well with my client which is great news. Their lorry has just collected the sample from my studio which has saved me from trying to squeeze into my car!. Street lights never look very big when you see them on top of a pole somewhere but trust me when you meet one face to face at ground level they're huge!.

I'm now back home in the office and the shoot with Amy went very well. We tried lots of lighting effects and Amy had three outfit changes which was great. I thought she was pretty and would look good on camera and now I know she does!. I've attached one of tonight's pictures to this blog entry.

I didn't get the chance to write an entry for Friday because we had our staff Christmas party at Le Manoir - Raymond Blanc's restaurant nr Thame. We only go once a year (luckily as it isn't cheap!) but we don't take much time off during the year so it's our treat (for anyone reading this that doesn't know me I work with my wife Melanie). The food and service was fab as always and although the portions are small you do feel really full at the end. Melanie had a few too many glasses of port after lunch and was a bit worse for wear but being married there obviously wasn't any snogging and no one photocopied their arse!.
I did a shoot at the studio on Saturday with our friends Paula and Jason and their little boy Harrison which was great fun. We did lots of shots on the lit white backdrop and I think we will get 15-20 good shots from the 2 hour session.
The studio roof leaked again right onto a flash head. I hope it works when it dries out but if it doesn't I'll have to bill the business centre as it's the third time I've reported this leak.
The topless shot I took of SJ on Thursday appeared in today's Sunday Sport and I popped into the news agent to check it out. The picture printed really well and looked great but they didn't credit me which is annoying and I didn't have the nerve to actually buy the paper. It's such a crap publication and I can't believe anyone actually bothers to read it.
I've got a studio shoot with a new model tomorrow in the studio. Then on Tuesday I've got a shoot at Aston University for a building contractor. I think the rest of the week will be quiet as we build up to Christmas.
I've attached another of my favourite pictures from the shoot with Zoe from last week.

What an interesting day it turned out to be today. Firstly I had a meeting with Tesco TV about creating a video advert to be played on the big TV screens in Tesco Kingston promoting the studio. I'm not sure it's worth the money they're asking but I'll think it over tonight and make a decision in the morning.
Then I had a customer pop by the studio with some products for me to photograph which I did while he waited and whilst I was doing the product photography I had a call from another client confirming the Orchard Theatre shoot in London for Monday next week. That's great news as I love working in London and have missed being there the past couple of weeks.
Then the interesting bit. In the business park where my studio is based there is an adult TV channel (they also have some Pyschic channles too!) and the owner asked me if I'd do him an urgent favour and photograph one of their ladies for this week's edition of the Sunday Sport. I agreed and the lovely lady arrived in my studio at 6pm for her shoot with nothing but some very skimpy swim suits. My trusty assistant Kirsty (a top girl and all round super star) was on hand to help me and we duly took the required pictures for the paper. Sometimes being a photographer is a really tough job and shooting a pretty lady in a swim suit (minus the top half!!!!) is a tough ask but we got through it.
It's our staff Christmas lunch tomorrow (that's me and Melanie basically) and we're off to Le Manior to sample Raymond Blanc's cuisine.
I've posted another picture of the lovely Zoe from last week's shoot.

I've just looked at the clock and it's nearly 1am. I made the usual mistake of popping in the office on the way to bed at 11.00pm and now I've ended up retouching the final few pictures of Zoe from our shoot last week.

I spent the day today in the studio photographing some more products with the help of Kirsty my No 1 assistant, right hand lady and general all round good egg!.

We did have a slow start to the day as we had to pop out and buy another heather for the studio as global warming hasn't penetrated the confines of my studio and it was bloody freezing. Then we had some late breakfast in Dad's cafe at MK TWO Business Centre where my studio is located. When we did get going we got loads done and took some really cool product shots on white and black backgrounds.

Tomorrow (well today now I guess!) I'm post processing all the product shots which will take a good few hours.

It was a good day for new work today with a new commission to photograph the Apollo Theatre in London and also I took a studio booking for a couple who are coming in after Christmas for some portraits.

I've attached another shot of Zoe from last week - one that I've just post processed.

I did my monthly photography phone in show on BBC Three Counties Radio today as part of Lorna Milton's afternoon show and I must admit that I really enjoyed it - even more than usual. We had some good questions from the listeners to answer and I had a good chat with some of the other presenters before I went on air. The show is available to listen to on BBC iPlayer and there's a link to it on my studio web site (just in case you can't sleep!!).

I'm back in the studio tomorrow photographing some products for one of my regular customers and I've also got a meeting with a TV production company based in the same business park as my studio regarding some ideas I've got for a viral marketing campaign that I'd like to try. More on this tomorrow!.

As usual December is a quieter month on the architectural and interiors side of the business as no one wants pictures with Christmas decorations in them. I have already got some bookings in the diary for January though which is great news. Every year I remind myself to relax in December as it's the only chance I get to take some time off. It's also a good time for me to think about marketing the business and to come up with a new business plan for the year ahead.

The studio is getting busier though so it looks like our advertising is paying off. I've got a lot of product work pencilled in for January and I've got some bookings next week for family portraits.

I'm also doing quite a bit of personal project work in the studio with models like Zoe and hopefully we'll be doing another studio shoot together next week.

I've posted a picture of Zoe from last week's shoot taken on location near Little Horwood utilising available light late in the afternoon.

I spent the day post processing yesterdays two projects - Alders Farm office development and Smallbones of Devizes, and I'm very pleased with the finished pictures. The post processing took me most of the day as I needed to carefully colour balance each picture as my client supplied the interior lighting to both projects and therefore we didn't want any colour casts etc.

Then at 4pm I photographed a brand new street light for one of my best clients which they've installed in their car park. That was tricky as I had to use the portable flash system to help reduce the apparent brightness of the light against the dusk sky.

I then had to take a different light complete with lamp post back to my studio ready for Monday morning. This sounds easy enough but it took three of us to squeeze the fitting plus it's 6 ft pole carefully into my Volvo V50. Volvo's are great but it's a real pain in the bum getting the seats flat in the back (unfortunately these days the back seats don't get used for much!!) but after removing a baby seat, dog guard (bugger I just realised how middle class that makes me sound - which I'm really not!!) and the retractable boot cover we did it.

I then drove through Bletchley with a large street light resting on my hand above the gear stick trying to keep in second gear whenever possible.

The light is now safely in my studio and I'm looking forward to photographing it on Monday.

I'm on BBC 3 Counties Radio on Monday afternoon at 2.30pm doing my monthly photography phone in so give me a call if you get a minute.

I've attached a picture from the Smallbones of Devizes shoot that I took yesterday.

After a fun week working in the studio it was good to get back out on the road again and I was lucky to photograph two really smart projects today. The first shoot was at 9.00am in Beaconsfield at the very smart Smallbones of Devizes kitchen showroom. This was a lovely showroom to photograph and the whole place just oozed quality. Ramond Blanc is doing a cookery demo there tonight so that gives you an idea as to how smart the place is!.
Then I photographed an office housed in a refurbished barn in Wheatley near Oxford. This was very smart too and made for some good interior photography.
With the old Canon EOS 5D I used to spend a lot of time with the custom white balance feature making sure I got an accurate colour profile for each shoot. This is done by either using an Expodisc which gives a gray image when fitted in front of the lens to enable the camera to produce a clean neutral white balance or by taking a picture of a white or grey surface in the space and using this to create a custom white balance. The new 5D MK2 though has such a good auto white balance that I often leave the camera to sort out the colour cast. If the interior is purely lit with Fluorescent or is a mix of light sources I still use the custom feature and use the Expodisc but if there's a fair amount of daylight with some Fluorescent or Tungsten lighting auto works pretty well.
With any digital camera you should always shoot in RAW mode anyway as this means the white balance can be altered post shoot.
A new job came in to day from one of our best clients to shoot a product in the studio so hopefully they can deliver it tomorrow and I can crack on and get that done.
Next week I've got my radio show on BBC Three Counties on Monday and hopefully I'll have the go ahead to shoot the Orchard Theatre in London on Tuesday. Then were waiting to schedule in the leisure centre project in Warrington so if that happens that will make for a good week.
I've attached a picture of Zoe from Tuesdays shoot - she'd just so much fun to photograph!.

I had another busy day in the studio today which was great fun and productive too!.

Luckily Zoe agreed to come back in again today for another few hours and we ran through quite a varied routine of flash lighting set ups and outfit changes. We started with some close up's of Zoe's legs in some fashion tights and leggings for a test I'm doing for a hosiery label based in London. It's tough work but someone has to do it!. I'm sure Zoe won't mind me saying that she's got the most beautiful legs so she's perfect for the job of showing off legwear!.

Then we did some black and white portraits with very hard direct lighting followed by some lovely shots of Zoe in a flowery dress using a large octagonal softbox. We then tried some shots with a graduated grey backdrop and finished off with some "rock chick" style shots against the white breeze block walls using ring flash. We also popped out into the corridor and did some shots against the steel shutter doors and also against some orange packing crates!.

If I was running a modelling agency I'd sign Zoe up right away as she's so versatile and looks fab in a whole range of clothes from rock chick to formal evening wear.

Then I took a portrait of a lady who is setting up a skin care company and needed a picture for her new website. This was pretty straightforward and I used the large Octobox on a boom to give some gentle butterfly lighting with a silver reflector on a stand to give some fill.

I'm off to Beaconsfield tomorrow for a 9am shoot at a new office development then I've got a kitchen design showroom to photograph in the afternoon near Oxford.

I was hoping to photograph the Orchard Theatre in London on Friday but I haven't had the go ahead yet as the glazing company fitting the new windows is running behind schedule.

I've attached a picture of Zoe from yesterday - I love this shot!.

Today was great fun. Zoe came to the studio for her second shoot and we started off in good old English fashion by having a cup of Tea and talking though some ideas. We then headed out onto location with the Bowens Travel Pak and a single Bowens 500 W/s head. We started off at the disused railway station at Swanbourne, then moved on to Winslow where we climbed down a very muddy slope to shoot some pictures under the old railway bridge against the graffitied walls. After that we went to College Wood near Nash for some shots in the trees then finished up at a derelict barn near Mursley!. The time flew past and even though it was wet and cold Zoe didn't complain once - what a star!.

We then headed back into the studio for some fashion shots with a 5 head Tungsten set up then some more simple shots with two flash heads.

I picked up a small commission to photograph someone for their web site today which I'm going to shoot tomorrow in the studio - it all adds up!.

I've attached a picture of Zoe from today's shoot.

Our email server went down today which was a real pain and it only came back on again at around 7pm. This seems to happen every few weeks and causes us a lot of pain as all our work tends to come in via email. I spent the morning continually checking the bloody email to see if had come on again and also finished off a few loose ends of processing work.

This afternoon the cafe at the business centre where my studio is based put on a communal Christmas party and we all had a chance to show the other companies in the centre what we do. I took along a couple of portfolio's and some cards and took a few pictures of the event. I was pleased that quite a few people where keen to book some studio sessions so it turned out to be a couple of hours well spent.

Then I went in to the studio to set up the lighting for tomorrow's shoot with Zoe. I'm really looking forward to photographing her tomorrow and we're planning to do a few different styles of shot in the studio (different lighting and backdrops) and also some location work too weather permitting. I'm hoping to get at least one more day with Zoe before Christmas as I think January is going to be very busy. I've already got a few days pencilled in for January so I need to make the most of the time before Christmas for personal work.

I never used to appreciate how important it is to do personal projects and always thought that photographers that banged on about it where daft but since I've had the studio I've changed my mind. It's just so refreshing to go into a shoot and be able to try anything you like in terms of lighting and poses etc without the pressure of pleasing a client. I feel this frees up my creativity no end and I actually learn so much by trying out some quite wacky ideas.

Speaking of wacky pictures I'm being seriously inspired at the moment by a book by Storm Thorgerson who designed and photographed almost all of Pink Floyd's album covers. His vision and creativity are truly inspiring and the text that describes each album cover is really informative and well written. The book is called Mind Over Matter - The Images of Pink Floyd. I'd recommend it to anyone into Floyd or photography! (or in my case both!).

I'm off to charge my batteries now (and the camera's) so it just leaves me to post a picture of the lovely Zoe from our previous shoot.

Well that's another week gone and it seems like yesterday that I was putting up the Sasco year planner back in January. I've got three jobs in the diary for next week with another one pencilled in then I think it's going to be a quiet run in to Christmas. I love this time of year and really love Christmas so I'm going to make the most of the break - especially as I've only taken 6 days off all year!.

I didn't get to the studio in the end as I spent today finishing off the Central Beds job from Wednesday and then did some backing up of other projects I finished this week. I'm now finally bang up to date and looking forward to the weekend.

Next week's jobs are a designer kitchen store in Oxfordshire, an office in Beaconsfield and The Orchard Theatre in London. I'm also doing another shoot with Zoe on Tuesday in the studio and out on location and I'm really looking forward to that - she's such a lovely model to work with.

I want to re-visit the railway line location and I'm hoping to find a couple of other industrial locations too.

The Flickr photo stream in the blog has stopped working and looking on the Internet it seems to be happening to all Blogger.com blogs which is a shame. I hope the guys at Blogger can come up with a solution as that is a really important feature for a photographers blog!.

I've attached another picture of our friend Colette from Melanie's girlie night in the studio as I was looking through the RAW files again and thought this shot looked good in the faded colour profile from Lightroom. I've boosted the contrast a little in Photoshop and really like the result.

Thanks to a productive day in the office I'm almost up to date and have issued the pictures for the solar panel product and the Tower 42 project - great news!.

Tonight I'm off to London for a party in Covent Garden at the Orchid bar. I've been invited by one of my customers which is really kind of them. Hopefully there will be lots of architects there so plenty of potential new customers.

Tomorrow I'm finishing off the Central Beds job from yesterday then I'm off to the studio to shoot some more still life work for Arcangel (the image library).

Next week we've got a couple of interior jobs to shoot - one designer kitchen store in Oxfordshire and an office in Beaconsfield. I'm also waiting for the go ahead to photograph the Orchard Theatre in London which should be a nice job.

I've attached a picture from the interior shoot at Tower 42 featuring my top assistant Kirsty.

This morning's job at Leighton Buzzard went very well and luckily it didn't rain and it wasn't freezing cold!. The brief was to capture a race from a bus stop on the far side of Leighton Buzzard with 6 competitors. One was walking, one in a taxi, one on the bus and three on bicycles. This is all part of the "Get On Track" campaign being run by Central Beds Council to encourage commuters to the railway station to use alternative ways of getting to the station other than their cars.

I also photographed the guys from Central Beds handing out leaflets and promotional coffee thermos mugs to commuters coming through the station and the whole event went really well thanks to Emma the Press Officer for Central Beds.

The upshot was that the cyclists won followed by the taxi, then the bus and finally the walker.

I've attached a picture of the winning team of cyclists who look pretty pleased with themselves as they arrived at the station.

After the morning's work I went back to the studio and did some top level poncing about for about an hour (always good to do!) then back to the office to process some of the pictures from this morning as Emma needed some urgently for a press release.

Tomorrow I'm in London for a party in the evening. One of my best clients has invited me along and I'm looking forward to a night out.

I've left Friday open at the moment to catch up on the post shoot processing from this week so hopefully come the weekend I'll be relaxed, calm and up to date.

Well the solar panel photography went well this morning despite the fact that my studio roof had leaked and there was a pool of water right in the middle of the floor!. After a quick clean up and some precise bucket placement we went ahead with the shoot and once I'd set up all the black paper rolls to kill the reflections in the glass panel the pictures didn't take long to take.

I then headed back to the office and had another problem to resolve in the form of the video clips I shot at the Natural History Museum. The client wants to play the clips before I get them all edited and in order to do this the raw video footage needs to be rendered. I don't know much about editing video and Kirsten my video expert is snowed under this week so I did some research and found a free program called MPEG Streamclip that basically takes the raw footage and converts it to either Mpeg 4 or AVI. Result!!. And it's free and easy to use. So if anyone reading this shoots video clips on their Canon EOS 5D MK2 like mine and need to render the clips into a more usable format then MPEG Streamclip is your baby!.

After converting the video clips I felt really pleased with myself (smug bastard!) and headed out to walk the dogs to celebrate.

The job tomorrow at Leighton Buzzard for Beds CC has been brought forward to a 7.00am start so I need an early night tonight as I felt pretty tired today. I love reportage photography and I'm looking forward to tomorrow - it should be good fun.

I've attached another picture of Zoe to today's blog as I think she's a real star!.

Today's shoot at Tower 42 in London was a bit of a tough one as I had to try to make a large open plan empty office look "in use" but I only had a few pieces of furniture to play with and one model. I think after a lot of work we got the shots needed so it's just a case of post processing all the RAW files and the job should be fine. The actual building is really impressive and the views from the 24th floor were stunning - I could even see the mighty Emirates stadium!.

My trusty assistant and model for today was my friend Kirsty. She is a really helpful person to have around and not only helps with the technical parts of the shoot and appears in some of the pictures but she also actually gets me to places on one piece!. I nearly always lose my travel card when we work in London and she usually looks after it for me now (although today I managed to look after it all by myself). Kirsty also saves me from getting the wrong tube which I've been known to do which is a real time saver!. Kirsty when I'm a millionaire photographer I promise to take you on full time!!!.

I'm working in the studio tomorrow photographing another big 6ft x 4ft solar panel which are a challenge to capture because they are very reflective and generally very large. Then I'm going to shoot some still life pictures for Arcangel (the European agency I sometimes work with) of some rusty padlocks etc for possible use on paperback crime book covers.

On Wednesday I'm working for Beds CC at Leighton Buzzard station photographing an initiative they are putting in place to encourage commuters to cycle, walk or get a bus instead of driving to the station.

I'm back in London on Thursday for a client's party - I've been invited along as a guest which will be great fun.

I've attached one of the photographs from last weeks shoot at Saxon Court in Milton Keynes which shows the super new car park lighting in use. I love the deep blue dusk sky!.

I've spent this morning working through the "before and after" pictures of Saxon Gate in Milton Keynes that I took for the company that supplied the new car park lights. I should have this finished by tonight and that's me up to date again except for Zoe's pictures from the studio shoot we did on Wednesday. I'm struggling to edit them down as there are so many good shots of her and I need to get the final edit down to around 30 pictures.

Next week is starting to get busy with a shoot at Tower 42 (used to be called the Natwest Tower) in London pencilled in for Monday and a shoot for Beds CC Press Office booked for Wednesday. I'm doing some still life shots in the studio on Tuesday for a European stock agency called Arcangel who supply pictures for the front covers of paperback books etc. and one of my best clients has invited me to their Christmas party in London on Thursday night so already things are looking busy which is great news.

I'm attaching another picture of Zoe today from our shoot on Wednesday. This one was shot on the leather sofa in the corner of the studio with a black velvet cloth draped behind it. I used one 800W Tungsten Redhead light with barn doors and a diffuser.

I've got two shoots planned for today and they're both in Milton Keynes which is great. In fact I've had a pretty easy time in the past couple of weeks in terms of travelling as most of my recent work has either been in the studio or in London and I do feel much better for not driving so many miles.

I'm photographing the refurbed exterior of Saxon Court in Central Milton Keynes this morning for a company who have supplied some really smart new external lights in the car park. I'm back there again late afternoon to photograph the car park at dusk to show the lighting to it's best effect.

Then I've got an evening shoot in the studio with Rhian who comes in every month or so for a shoot. Tonight I'm mainly going to shoot film instead of digital and I'm going to use Tungsten lighting rather than flash to try to get a retro feel to the pictures. Once I've had then developed and scanned I'll post some in the blog.

I've been looking through Zoe's pictures from yesterday and I'm really pleased with them. I need to get my version of Lightroom working again (I need to register it as the trial period is over!!) and once I do that I will edit the pictures properly.

I posted a picture of Zoe last night and here's another one!.

I had a great fun day in the studio today working with a lovely model called Zoe and her friend Ellie. It was our first shoot together and Zoe is such a natural model that the whole day was very easy. We did some full length shots on a lit white backdrop where I used 2 studio flash heads bouncing off reflectors at each edge of the studio to illuminate the white background and a beauty dish as the main light. Then we went out to the old disused railway station at Swanbourne where I used a studio flash head working on a Travel Pak (battery) to overpower the daylight and give a dusk look to the pictures even though we took them at around 2pm.

Then we went back into the studio for the rest of the afternoon and did some shots against the metal doors using an 800W Tungsten Redhead light with barn doors and also some moody shots on the black leather sofa against a black velvet cloth on the wall.

We also did some head and shoulder beauty shots with the large octagonal softbox as the main light and a reflector (ably held in place by Ellie) to fill any slight shadows.

I'm really pleased with the pictures and I've just processed a few through DXO as I'm keen to get them all done asap.

I've attached one from the old railway line today and will attach some more over the next few days.

I spent today working on some Google marketing bits and bobs. It was supposed to be a day off to recover from my cold but I couldn't help popping in to the office and tinkering with the PC!. I've signed up to Google Adwords for both websites so It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it. I've only gone for the minimum £30 per month for each site and I don't really know what I'm doing but what the heck let's try it anyway.

I also tweaked the studio website splash page again and there's now a couple of guys on there - Melanie pointed out that the previous design was very female orientated!.

I've got a shoot in the studio tomorrow with a new model called Zoe and I'm really excited about it. It's always exciting working with someone new and we're hoping to do both studio and location shots weather permitting. I'm going to get to the studio bright and early to make sure everything is tidy and ready to go.

I've got a shoot with Rhian - one of my regular models on Thursday and again we're hoping to shoot some location work too. I'm also going to shoot some pictures on the 5x4 view camera on Thursday and maybe some tomorrow too.

One of my other model friends Rebecca (I photographed her on a couple of occasions in September) has entered Britain's Top Model so best of luck to you Rebecca. I've attached a picture from our last shoot that I've just picked out from the RAW images and it's one I didn't process at the time. Richard Avedon was one of the best photographers of all time and he introduced movement into fashion photography so this shot is influenced by his work.

I came down with the dreaded "Man Flu" over the weekend and I'm still suffering today. As usual Melanie is totally unsympathetic and obviously doesn't realise that my cold is much more severe than the one she's got at the moment!!!.

I processed the pictures from the Royal Garden Hotel today and also revised the splash page (the welcome page) of the studio website to make it look a bit more friendly and also to reflect the fact that I do product photography and family portraits too. It's always difficult to know how to pitch a web site with such a varied client base but the great thing about the studio website is that it's very easy to change the content.

I gained another new commission today to photograph some of the floors at Tower 42 in London (formerly the Natwest Tower). I need to hire a model for this shoot so I will be chasing up a few regular ladies (models!!) to see if one can make it over the next couple of weeks. I just need someone to look like a genuine office worker in a smart business suit so nothing too risque.

I'm hoping to photograph the newly refurbished exterior lighting at Saxon Gate in Milton Keynes tomorrow weather permitting. Can we actually have any more rain - surely there can't be much more of it left.

I've attached a picture of Melanie in today's blog taken at our girls night in the studio a few weeks ago. I've finally finished off all the pictures and we're posting the CD's out to Melanie's friends today.

Today was supposed to be a day off (only my 6th this year!) but I ended up popping in to the studio and playing with my 5x4 view camera for a while (well it could have been worse - what did you think I was going to say!).

I did a few odd jobs and finished off a bit of post processing too but overall it was a pretty relaxing day.

I'm going to shoot some black and white film on my Canon F1 over the weekend and next week I've got a couple of models coming into the studio and I'm going to shoot some fashion work on the big 5x4 view camera. This is a very big camera with the old fashioned looking bellows in it and you load in one sheet of film at a time instead of a roll of film. Each negative (or slide) is 5x4 inches so you get a lovely postcard sized negative to scan or print from. It's a lovely way to work and much much slower than shooting digitally but the quality is superb and it keeps my hand in at using a light meter properly. I do use a meter anyway in the studio with digital capture but it's easy to see if you've made a mistake by looking and the histogram on the back on the camera. With 5x4 film cameras if you've made a mistake it costs you money and all the set up time is wasted so it focuses the mind!.

I've attached a studio shot of Ani from our recent girls night.

I've had a bit of a mixed day today. My first shoot in London was at South Thames College in Wandsworth where I was commissioned to photograph an illuminated reception desk which looked really great in the shots taken for my brief. Unfortunately some guys from BT had been in to do some work a few days ago and they disconnected all the wiring inside the desk so none of the lighting was working. I'll have to go back in a week or so once it's been repaired.

The second job was at The Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington High Street. This is a superb hotel and the room I photographed looked great so that job went very well. The New Zealand All Blacks rugby team are staying there ahead of the game against England at the weekend and a few of their players were wondering around in the reception area so it was just as well that Melanie didn't come with me - I would never have pulled her away!.

I made the mistake of getting the bus back towards Euston from Kensington and it took ages - just getting along Oxford Street took almost 30 minutes. It was basically one long bus jam. None of the buses were full so why not have fewer buses and less congestion?.

I had planned to be in the studio tomorrow working with Rhian - one of my regular models - but she's come down with something so we've postponed until next week. That means I've got a day off so I'm going to pop over to the studio for a tidy up then I'm going to go for a really long walk and unwind.

I've attached a picture of Collete from the girl's night at the studio.

I feel great!. I've had a very productive day working in the office and I've caught up with all my post processing work (even the girlie night we did last month which I've been putting off until I had some time to work through all the pictures).

I'm back in London tomorrow though with 2 photo shoots lined up - one at a shop in Tooting and one at a hotel in Central London and this time I'm going to try to keep up with the post processing so it doesn't mount up too much.

The shoot at the Natural History Museum last night went very well. This time I was shooting some HD video clips of the colour change LED lighting (I shot the still pictures last month) and I will get my video editor colleague to render the footage tomorrow ready to send off to the client for editing. My Canon 5D MK2 is an incredible camera and the HD video it produces is really good quality. The great thing about a pro spec digital SLR that also shoots video is the fact that I can use all my pro spec lenses to create the video clips and also the flexibility of having only one camera to do both jobs. Although I don't claim to be a video buff the camera is very easy to use in video mode and I tend to use it for "moving stills" in that I put the camera on a tripod and set up a good architectural angle for a shot then instead of taking a still image I shoot a video clip but I don't pan the camera around at all.

The last video clip I shot was for Philips Lighting and the link to view it on YouTube is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVwV5Io3VhA

I've posted a picture from the shoot at The Clifton Club that I took last Saturday. The chandeliers were tricky to photograph because of the brightness of the lamps but I used a long exposure of 2 seconds and turned the chandeliers off just after the shutter opened.

I worked until 12.30pm last night (OK that should read 12.30am I guess but you know what I mean) and finished off the processing for the Kath Kidson store I photographed last week in Portobello Road and I updated the studio website with some new pictures.

It's now 11.30am and I've finished the Clifton Club shoot from Saturday as well as a few other smaller jobs and I feel great for catching up with my processing!!!.

I had some lovely feedback from my client about the pictures I took at Westfield last week (thanks Jo!!) and I've attached a shot of the Yo Sushi bar at Westfield to today's blog.

I'm off to walk the dogs now then I'm off to London to shoot the video clips of the Natural History Museum featuring the new colour change LED lighting.

I'm hoping to spend a quiet day at the studio tomorrow but every time I plan a quiet day something happens so fingers crossed for tomorrow.

The day was spent catching up today and I do feel much better for getting some serious post processing work done. Anyone that reads this blog regularly will see a theme occurring here - I shoot lots of jobs then get behind with the processing and then get stressed out over catching up!!. It's a catch 22 that most photographers have (those that take the job seriously that is!) as a job can be lost in the post processing if it's not done properly. I don't do massive amounts of Photoshop work but it's the RAW processing that's so vital. Digital cameras have made some aspects of photography easier but in other ways they have made more work. In the olden days of film I would shoot mainly slide (transparency) film and for sure the photography would take longer but then all the processing was down the the lab - now it's all down to me!. With black and white film the tweaks I make in Photoshop to brightness and contrast etc would all have been done in the darkroom so again although the technology is new the methods used are based on the darkroom and in the old days if a print was important enough you would pay a professional printer to do it for you.

Tomorrow I'm back at the Natural History Museum to shoot a few video clips (my digital SLR shoots HD video too) as an extra to the work I did a couple of months ago to show the new colour changing LED lighting in full swing. I'm looking forward to this as it's a bit different to shooting stills and I like the creative freedom of the moving image.

I've attached one of the pictures from Liberty in today's blog. The store looks great and I'm really pleased with the pictures.

I drove down to Bristol this morning in some terrible weather. The M4 was really bad from Swindon onwards and the rain was driving down and the wind was pretty much at gale force!. Once I got to Bristol the job went very well. I photographed a couple of very ornate rooms at The Clifton Club - a members only club in the posh part of Bristol (it has got one honestly).

The rooms featured some brass chandeliers with bare candle light bulbs which always pose a challenge and today I used my favourite technique of using a long exposure (around 2 seconds) and turning the lights off part way through the exposure to keep the brightness of the bulbs in check. I'll post a picture in the blog next week once I've processed them.

I've just looked through the girls night pictures and this time I've processed one of Maxine which I really like.

Wow I've felt tired today!. It's been a long week and I've still got tomorrow's shoot in Bristol to go yet but it's great to be busy so I'm not complaining!!.

Today's shoot at Liberty went very well. The store has been refurbished on three levels with new spotlighting and accent lighting and the displays looked great. My client was with me and we had a very hectic schedule to meet as we started at 8.00am and had to be out before the store opened at 10.ooam which was a real push.

After the liberty shoot I went over to Portobello Road to photograph the Kath Kidson store which is very colourful but quite small so this was a challenge and I ended up shooting the whole job hand held as the tripod was too big and cumbersome for the tight space.

My knee is still sore from the shoot at Tabio in Westfield earlier in the week where I banged it on a shelf. On my way into the tube to go to Portobello Rd the bloody automatic barriers shut onto my case which then hit my knee in exactly the same place that I banged it at Tabio. That really hurt - I really don't like those barriers!.

Anyway I'm having an early night for once and hopefully will feel more alive tomorrow.

I've posted a picture from the girls night at the studio - this time it's of Nikki.

I managed to get the Aldi Bedworth pictures finished today which has just about kept my head above water with the post shoot processing workload. I'm back in town tonight as I'm staying over in London ready for a 7.30am start at Liberty (the department store).
I always feel under so much pressure when I get a backlog of work to post process and because I've done so may smaller jobs this week things have mounted up. I'm going to try to keep next week clear until I've caught right back up but if any urgent jobs come up I'll do them as I never let any clients down.
I've been working through the shots of Melanie's friends from our girls night in the studio and I've posted a picture of Paula in today's blog.

I had a busy day today working in Westfield Shopping Centre in London. Firstly I photographed the Yo-Sushi restaurant then the Tabio boutique and finally the Donna Ida designer clothes shop. I managed to crack my knee on a shelf in Tabio whilst getting up off the floor after taking a shot from low down and ended up doing the ministry of funny walks for the rest of the day. In fact it's still sore now - who said photography was a safe profession!.

Yo Sushi and Tabio went really well but Donna Ida was a very tricky shoot as the internal space is pretty tight and the ceiling is high. Also the layout is quite odd with a changing area positioned in the centre of the shop effectively breaking the floor space up into odd sized bits.

Tomorrow's jobs in London have been put back until next week which will give me some time to catch up on some post processing. I've also got a job on Saturday now at The Clifton Club in Bristol which is great news.

I popped in to the studio on the way home and had a tidy up. I like to visit the studio every day if possible just to make sure it's all OK and there's the added bonus of a cup of hot chocolate from Dad's Cafe (that's the name of the cafe - it's not my Dad's cafe!!) next door!. They make great hot drinks and food and Theresa is a top lady so if you're in the Bletchley area and need some sustenance pull in to MK:TWO business centre and visit the cafe.

I haven't processed today's pictures yet or the shots from Monday so I've attached a picture from Laurens portfolio in a colour profile called Cold Tone which I really like. Once again I have to stress how much I love Lightroom by Adobe - these colour profiles are just so cool.

Today was the quiet before the storm as I spent most of the day processing the rest of Lauren's pictures from her portfolio shoot a couple of weeks ago as she came back to me this morning with her final selection of pictures from the shoot. I then finished scanning the old 1940's brochure and prepared that for printing for one of my regular clients and after all that took my dogs for a lovely walk up in Brickhill Woods just before it got dark.

Tomorrow I've got three jobs in Westfield Shopping Centre in London - two designer shops and the Yo-Sushi restaurant. I'm starting Yo Sushi at 9.00am so need to get a train from Leighton Buzzard by 7.30am latest.

Then I'm back in London on Thursday for more designer shop photography and again on Friday at Liberties Department store. That's a 7.30am start though which is very early for me.

I've designed a small ad tonight for the MK Style magazine to promote the studio so hopefully that will hit the mark and bring in a few portfolio shoots and makeovers for the weekends between now and Christmas. I love doing work with models and also portraits and makeovers but I haven't really had time to advertise locally. It's a catch 22 really - I don't want to take on too much work and the commercial side is very busy at the moment but on the other hand I love working with people in the studio and I'm still working towards my goal of working for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar before the end of next year.

I've posted a picture of Lauren from the processing work I did today.

After a great weekend it was back to work again today and I spent the morning scanning in a 1940's brochure that one of my clients has asked me to reproduce for their archive. I then finished off the family pictures I took in the studio last weekend for a mate who wanted some nice pictures to give to folks at Christmas.


Then I drove up to Bedworth to photograph the outside lighting installed at a new Aldi store by day and at night.


This proved to be a tricky job as the car park was quite small and the lights were a long way apart (good lighting but hard to photograph) and I couldn't get many really creative angles for the shots. I did try to get into some very rough looking flats opposite that had a rusty old balcony on the third floor which would have given me a good aeriel view but the doors were well locked and I couldn't find a way in. The night shots looked better and I got lots of car headlight trails to give the pictures some sense of motion.


I've been updating my Flickr page tonight so if you get a chance take a look there's loads more pictures on there now and I think the Flickr galleries show the pictures off better than the gallery on our website.


I've got a catch up day tomorrow then I've been commissioned to shoot 4 retail outlets over two days in London on Wednesday and Thursday and on Friday I'm photographing Liberty (the department store) in London on Friday. I love working in London so this is going to be a fun week.

I don't usually take family pictures but here's one from last week that I finished today.

It's been really great to have worked so close to home this week. Driving is so tiring and usually I'm up and down the Motorways all week so I do feel better for a bit of a break. Next week is back to normal again with a job in Coventry on Monday (weather permitting) and I've got some work in Cheltenham, Bristol and Plymouth to fit in.

I've got loads done today in the office and I'm pretty much up to date. I've post processed all the pictures from yesterday's job at the Land Rover dealer in Newport Pagnell and I've also changed the splash page on the studio website and updated the galleries.

Tonight I'm going to do a final edit on all the studio pictures from our "girls night" a couple of weeks ago. Because this was a bit of fun for Melanie and her friends I've left the processing until I had a break in my schedule as paid work has to come first.

Tomorrow I've got my first indoor league cricket match of the winter which I'm really looking forward to and on Sunday morning I'm playing in the band at the Stewkely remembrance service which I do every year as I think it's vital we all do a bit and remember the people who have died in service over the years.

I went though Lauren's portfolio shoot again today and picked out this shot which I ran through Lightroom and converted to the Faded Colour profile.

Yesterday was a fun day for me as I had an easy morning walking my dogs and visiting my favourite little cafe in Winslow called "Capos". They do lovely cappucino and fresh Danish Pastries which are to tempting by half.

Then I popped into the studio to collect some books and my Epson scanner as I need to scan an old 1940's brochure today for a client. From the studio I went over to Luton for my monthly radio phone-in show on photography with Lorna Milton. I don't get paid for this (not even expenses) but it's great fun to do. You can catch the broadcast on the BBC iPlayer if you really want to - look for the Lorna Milton afternoon show on BBC Three Counties Radio broadcast on 4th November.

I used the time last night to catch up on some post shoot processing and then watched the mighty Arsenal glide effortlessly into the last 16 of the Champions League.

This morning I finished off the processing for the Ropemaker Street shoot and I've attached another of the pictures from that shoot to today's blog.

I'm working in the Land rover dealership in Newport Pagnell this afternoon taking some photo's for a lamp manufacturer that have just supplied new low energy lamps to replace the existing ones. I'm hoping to catch some nice dusk and twilight shots from inside and outside so fingers crossed it doesn't pour with rain.

I've had a much more relaxing day today as I spent the morning post processing pictures from the City University shoot in London last week, then went over to the studio for a bit of a tidy up followed by a small photo shoot at Central Milton Keynes. I was commissioned to photograph before and after pictures of a car park that is about to be re-lit near Saxon Gate in the centre of Milton Keynes. These kind of jobs are great because it's local and I like to photograph areas before they're refurbished so I can go back and really make the "after" shots look impressive.

I've got a couple more jobs to post process tomorrow morning then I'm on BBC Three Counties Radio at 2.30pm for the photography "expert hour". Tomorrow we'll be discussing how to photograph fireworks (for obvious reasons) and hopefully get some callers on the telephone too.

I bought an adaptor on EBay last month that lets me fit my old Canon FD lenses to my new Panasonic G1 camera which I bought a couple of months ago for non work use. The adaptor was made in Hong Kong and I'd basically given up on it ever arriving due to post strikes etc when two of them popped through the letter box this morning!!. Not bad as I only ordered one but it's a long way to send it back so I'm keeping it!. Maybe if I get a job in Hong Kong I'll return the extra one they sent me.

I've attached a picture from yesterdays shoot in Ropemaker Street London as I really like the colours and interior details in the shot. The ceiling is made of custom built lighting panels and the entire building is very impressive.

Caught the 9.20am train to London from Leighton Buzzard today and photographed a very plush new building in Ropemaker Street just opposite the Barbican centre.

The reception area was amazing and I'll post some pictures up tomorrow once I've processed them. Because the reception area was very high - I'd guess it was around 20m high - most of the pictures were taken with my 24mm tilt and shift lens. This is basically a 24mm lens that enables me to shift the front element up to capture more of the ceiling detail without needing to tilt the camera backwards. Once you tilt a camera backwards the vertical lines of the building (ie the walls!) begin to lean inwards at the top causing the picture to look odd. In pre-digital times I'd have used my view camera but the Canon tilt and shift lenses work very well with the digital bodies so there's no need for a big heavy view camera any more.

I got home around 6pm and I've managed to catch up with a bit more post processing work and although I'm scheduled to have a shoot in Derby tomorrow I'm going to spend the day in the office to catch up properly. The Derby shoot is weather permitting anyway as it's an external job so the weather will make it a non starter anyway as it's forecast to rain.

I've attached a picture from last week's shoot at AOL London - the lights in the reception area look amazing!.

I've spent a great day with the family today and managed to avoid working until 5.30pm.

It's always good to keep up with the post processing work as much as possible and I'm nearly up to date although I'm off to London tomorrow to shoot a building in the city.

It's been a good weekend all round actually. The studio shoot went well yesterday with my friend Tim and his family and I also managed to finally take a new self portrait for the website and blog. It's no masterpiece by any means but I wanted to include my new classic camera in the shot and used a lovely soft lighting technique whereby I bounced a Bowens flash off the rear wall of the studio up into the ceiling. The light then falls very softly and looks something like daylight. It's a good technique for people like me with bags under their eyes!.

Next week's looking busy although I do have at least one day in the diary that relies upon a clear dry day so that might be a problem.

I'm on the radio again on Wednesday at 2.30pm (BBC Radio Three Counties) so tune in if you can!. You can get the show on the Internet so there's no excuse even if your living abroad!!.

I've attached the self portrait - hopefully it's better than the old one.

Back home today after two days up in Manchester shooting some room sets and products for a lighting manufacturer. I meant to add a blog in for yesterday but after a long day in Manchester I had a 4 hour drive home in heavy traffic so I was a bit whacked when I finally got in.

The two used redheads (studio lights) that I bought on the off chance turned out to be really useful for adding some fill light into the room sets. They come with barn doors fitted and these are very handy for masking off the light output and I also used some of the coloured gel to balance the artificial light from the tungsten lamps to match the daylight coming through the windows.

I've got a studio shoot this afternoon with a family group then I need to find a few hours somewhere to catch up from last week.

I'm still working through the shots of Lauren from last Monday and I've attached one that I ran through Lightroom this morning and dropped into black and white.

I've been working up in Manchester today with a mate and good client Leigh - who runs a PR company called Orchard Corporate. We've spent the day photographing some room sets and products as well as visiting a really good camera dealer called 'Professional Film and Digital' and I bought two second hand hotlights called Redheads. They're basically 800W Tungsten lights and these are great for fashion and product photography as you can see the effect of the lighting all the time unlike flash.

I've attached another picture from Monday's shoot with Lauren as I think she's a star in the making.

Apart from a 45 minute walk with my dogs I've spent all day in front of my PC catching up on a whole batch of post processing. Not my favourite task but it's essential to really retouch work properly. I'm 80% up to date now which has relieved the pressure a bit but I'm working in Manchester tomorrow and Friday so I'll be coming home on Friday night with lots more post shoot processing to do.

I had a good day in terms of new work too as I've been commissioned to shoot some new external lighting at dusk in Central Milton Keynes and it's so good to be working close to home. I've also been asked to quote for the photography of 8 retail stores in London and as it's a regular client there's a good chance I'll get the work.

On Monday I photographed a model called Lauren for her first portfolio. She'd never been in a studio before and she was totally natural and full of energy and I'm sure she'll go a long way.

I've attached a picture I took of Lauren with my ringflash and I've converted the colours in Lightroom to give a cooler pale look to the colours.

I was up bright and early this morning and caught the 7.30am train to London from Leighton Buzzard. My first job was at AOL near Warren Street and I photographed some newly refurbished cafe and reception areas which looked great.

Then I went across town to City University at Northampton Square where I photographed some very smart refurbished student study areas and several meeting rooms and reception areas.

I got back to the studio for around 4pm to collect some kit for Thursday's trip to Manchester then home for 5pm.

I've been working on the Kings College pictures since 8.30pm and I've just finished retouching them which is great news. I've got quite a backlog of processing to do and if I fall too far behind I get a bit stressed so I'm working hard to keep up.

I bought another old camera in London today. I saw it in a shop window in Tottenham Court Rd and popped in and haggled hard to get a deal. It's a very clean and tidy Canon F1n from the mid seventies and I've wanted one for ages. It was up for £225 but I got them down to £185 which is a pretty good price. I'm hoping to run some black and white film through it tomorrow!.

I've posted a picture from Kings College which may not look much but was in fact a real challenge. The very bright skylight window was totally bleached out in the original shot so I took a darker shot and blended them together to get one clear shot. This is effectively HDR imaging - High Dynamic Range - where a series of exposures are taken and blended together.

The weekend was very eventful. After a really long week last week I was pretty tired on Saturday and was looking forward to catching up with some old friends but ended up working most of the day to catch up from last week. In the evening we has a bash at the studio with a few of Melanie's friends. We started at about 7pm and the ladies had a few glasses of bubbly and had their hair and makeup done. I started photographing at around 8pm and we went through until around midnight!. The vibe was great and we had a good time with lots of music and wine (not for me though!!). I got to be around 3am after tidying up and taking a while to chill out back home - then Harry my little boy started to have tummy problems (there's a bug about apparently) and I was up with him from 6am!!!. 3 hours sleep...

Sunday was a very slow day.

Today though was great fun. I had a model called Lauren come to the studio with her mum and we spent 3 hours shooting some great fashion pictures. Lauren's a natural and although it was her first time in a studio she just looked so relaxed.

I then spent the afternoon on more post processing and I'm still going now at 10.15pm.

I'm on the 7.30am train to London tomorrow and I've got two jobs to do during the day so I need some sleep tonight.

I've posted a picture from Saturday night where I put the camera on 10 second timer and got in with the ladies for a quick picture. As you can see from my worn out look this was at the end of the night!.

I writing this from my bed at home!!. I've had a mad mad week and I've pretty much ground to a halt. Yesterday I did the early morning shoot at Bath University where I photographed two cafe areas that had been newly refurbished. Then I did a quick external shot of the Nat West bank in Bath for the same client. On the way home I stopped off in Oxford and took some pictures at Trinity College - again for the same client.

This morning I worked on the pictures from Derby that I took on Tuesday and got them finished off. Then I went down to London for a shoot at Kings College...and so ended a busy week.

I'm doing a shoot of a few of Melanie's friends in the studio tomorrow night for fun - we're having a few drinks in the studio and some music which will be great.

Hopefully Sunday will be relaxing then it's all go for next week that's looking pretty full in the diary.

I've attached a picture I took a while back at a furniture showroom in Covent Garden as I walked past it today and it reminded me of the shoot!.

I'm writing this from my hotel room in Bath as I am staying here tonight ready for a 7.30am start tomorrow at Bath University. I didn't get here until 10pm so it's very much a case of doing a few jobs on the laptop then having a relatively early night.
I spent today retouching and RAW processing pictures from the past few days then went to see my mate Wendy at Costco to get some 12x8 prints done for my studio portfolio. Costco is such a great place to go as they have such a varied stock and from time to time they have some real bargains. I bought a set of make up brushes for the studio today which hopefully will come in handy for some of my models.
Work is getting very busy again now with the next few weeks starting to fill up. That's the hard thing about being a freelance photographer - when you're busy it's manic then when it goes a bit quiet you end up wishing it as busy, panicking and doing loads of marketing work so it never stops one way and another. That said I'd never want to do any other job so I guess it's worth it.

At the end of another long day. I did a couple of hours post processing this morning from 8-10 then drove up to Derby for a photo shoot of a brand new 6th form college. These can be hard work but this was a really smart college and not too big. The students were all friendly and I got lots of motion in my pictures with students moving through the shots which looks good.
I then got home around 6pm and I've been finishing off setting up a new office PC and then I've been editing loads of studio pictures and pictures from my trip to Plymouth.
I'm now hooked on Lightroom the RAW software conversion package from Adobe. I've got to buy it asap although it's over £200!.
I've attached a picture of a lovely guy I photographed on the Plymouth shoot called Harry. He's very photogenic and was a joy to work with.
I don't photograph many guys as I find it more difficult than working with women because I really appreciate all women - there's something lovely about most of them - but being a straight photographer I find it harder to look for something special in pictures of guys!.