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!.

I've had the maddest few days ever!. The last post I blogged was on Thursday during my two day photo shoot in Plymouth with top fashion photographer Eliot Siegel. Since then I've been so busy. I spent Friday with Eliot and we did a shoot with two more models - a really cool guy called Harry and a great girl called Naomi. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of these guys as soon as I get them processed.

I had Saturday off which was great and gave me a chance to switch off from photography and clear my mind after such an intense few days.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to the NEC to photograph an exhibition stand a some bespoke rooms for one of my lighting clients and that was a good day as I had a good chat with Nina my client and took some good clean shots of the exhibition space.

Today I've spent literally hours in front of my PC processing the St Albans Post Office shoot and the pictures from The Hilton Hotel Reading and from Holiday Inn Express HQ. On top of that I've been installing all the software we need on Melanie's new PC. This has been a bloody nightmare as some of the software is a few years old and won't work with Windows Vista. It's going to cost us a fair few quid for new versions of Outlook and Adobe Acrobat writer as well as another version of Photoshop!.

The picture I've posted today is another shot of Sabeen from Thursday's shoot.

I've spent today photographing a beautiful model called Sabeen in a studio in Plymouth. I'm down here working with top fashion photographer Eliot Siegel and I'll post some pictures tomorrow once I've run them through Light Room.
It's great to work as part of a team and we had two assistants and a stylist here too so the studio was a busy place.
In between shooting Sacha I managed to process a couple of the pictures from yesterdays shoot at the HQ of the holiday Inn Express to meet a deadline for my client.
95% of my work is taken on my 5D Mk2 and I pulled my original 5D out of the bag today to shoot in parallel with the Mk2 and I noticed the shutter button was sticking so I fear she may be on the verge of needing to be replaced. I must have taken over 100,000 pictures with that camera and until now she'd never missed a beat.
Tomorrow we've got a guy and a girl to work with so I'm looking forward to another busy day.

I spent this morning post processing the pictures from Saturdays shoot at SOAS Russell Square then sent the final few pictures to our graphic designer for a new brochure we've done.
Then I had a quick dash to the studio to collect some flash heads for today's shoot at the HQ of Holiday Inns in Denham. After photographing a room set there I headed off to Reading to photograph the reception area in the Hilton Hotel.
I'm now on the train from Reading to Plymouth to spend two days working with a top fashion photographer called Eliot Siegel.
The bloody car park at Reading station is costing me over £60 from now until Friday - what a con!.
I'm doing a fashion shoot tomorrow so will post some pictures tomorrow night.

Another long day today!. I had an 8.30 am shoot in St Albans at the newly refurbished Post Office (they weren't on strike!!) which went very well. I then came back home and post processed the product shoot from yesterday of the lighting control panel which came out well considering the difficult lighting situation. Then I zoomed over to Milton Keynes to collect my car from the Volvo dealer after she'd been repaired (the clutch master cylinder went whatever that is!). Following a brief late lunch / tea at Marks and Spencer's coffee shop at Kingston in Milton Keynes I then had a studio shoot at 7pm with two of my good friends Glen and Maxine.

I finished that at 9.30pm and now I'm trying to finish off the post processing from Saturday's shoot in London at the SOAS college in Russell Square.

I had some good feedback re the 02 store in Newcastle today from Nina at JCC lighting - one of my best customers - so I've posted one of the pictures here in the blog.

Tomorrow is pretty busy as I've got two small shoots at hotels in London and Reading, then I'm off to Plymouth for some studio work with Eliot Siegel, a photographer who has worked with Vogue and many other fashion magazines and designers.

This morning I photographed a lighting control system control panel and a high tech racking system at one of my best customers HQ in Milton Keynes. I had to use the available artificial light which was difficult to control as there was quite a lot of glare on the glossy paint finish of the panel.

Then I went to the studio and finally got around to taking a self portrait on my 5x4 view camera and the film is being processed overnight by my mate Melvyn at Great Brickhill. There aren't may people left that will process 5x4 sheet film and he's a top bloke to boot!.

I've attached another couple of shots from Friday's shoot with Rhian as I really like them. I've converted one to black and white in the DXO software that I use but next time we will shoot some black and white film via the 6x9 back on my view camera. We're also going to do some location shots in an industrial environment and I'll shoot some film on my Canon T90 when we finally get this arranged.

I bought some arse kicking speakers with a sub woofer for the laptop at the studio and it sounds pretty good. The guys next door occasionally bang on the wall during 9-5 hours so I kept it well down but in the evenings and at weekends I will ramp it up - especially when doing a fashion shoot.

I've got to be in St Albans for 8am tomorrow for a shoot in the Post Office there - hopefully they won't be on strike!! - so need to get an early night if possible. I won't though I guess as I never do!.

Yesterday was a really mad day and I didn't even get time to write a blog entry. I spent the morning post processing the 02 Newcastle job then spent the early afternoon tidying up the studio and testing all my kit. At 4pm Rhian came along for another shoot and bought a make up artist with her and we spent 4 hours shooting in the studio and in a stretch limo that a guy based at MK:TWO has just bought. He let us use the car for a shoot which worked really well and I've attached on of the pictures to today's entry.

Today I was in London for a 9.30am shoot at a college in Russell Sq for a building contractor - they've just fitted out the college and wanted some interior shots for their website.

My car let me down yesterday when the clutch cable snapped. It's only a few months old so I called out Volvo Assistance and they basically said they couldn't fix it at the road side so they bought be home and I left my motor in MK. I had to meet them there at 4pm today when they towed me to the Volvo dealer in MK. It was hassle but the AA guy was brilliant and it won't cost me anything as the car's under warranty.

Tomorrow is definitely a day off!.

I had a small job in London today photographing an exhibition stand in the Building Centre on Store Street (just off Tottenham Court Road) and as it was a lovely day I'd thought I'd try out my new digital point and shoot camera around London. It's a Panasonic G1 and I'm really impressed with the results!. It's only a small camera and the lens is interchangeable and the great news is that it can take may different makes of lens via adaptors. I've just ordered a Canon FD adaptor for it so I can use my classic FD lenses again at last.

The snaps shot of the shown in today's blog were all taken in Jpeg mode on the G1 - if I'd shot them in RAW the quality would have been even better.

I popped in to the Camera Cafe (Aperture Photographic) at lunch time and spent a really pleasant hour chatting to three other photographers. It's always good to talk to fellow pro's and these guys were all in different fields of photography. One made a living by taking street portraits of people without their knowing then he approaches them and sells them a print!. He must have some front as people can get very tetchy when you photograph in public places.

I've now attached a link to my newly created Flickr album so please take a look and let me know what you think.

After a long day yesterday you'd have thought Melanie would have given me a bit of a lie in and encouraged me to take it easy. No chance!. I've been up since 7am working through the post processing for the Bury St Edmunds job which is a real toughie as it's all HDR (High Dynamic Range) work as I need to make sure the light fittings in the ceiling are clearly visible and not all burned out.

I've posted one of the solar panel group shots from last week's studio session. OK they may not look like art but these things are huge (6ft x 4ft) very heavy and very reflective. Keeping the things upright and making sure you can't see the whole studio reflected in the glass took some doing. The best news is the client is happy and I'm happy because it took me ages and now I've finished the job.

When I get the Bury St Edmunds job done it's on to the O2 store from yesterday's trip to Newcastle.

I left home pretty early this morning - around 6.45am as I have been up in Newcastle today shooting the interior of a new 02 mobile phone store. I caught the 7.30am train to Euston then walked to Kings Cross where I caught the 9.00am to Newcastle!. I'm writing this blog entry from the Starbucks opposite Newcastle station whilst I kill a bit of time before my 6.10pm train home.

I've just tried to take a snap of myself - never a pretty sight - on the web cam on my notebook computer. It's a bit grainy but it tells a story I guess.

The 02 store was tricky to photograph as it was very long and narrow and was packed with people the whole time I was there. The store itself looked great and it's for one of my favourite customers so I felt under a bit of extra pressure as I wanted to make Nina really liked the shots. - if she does I'll post one on the blog in the next few days.

Work is still coming in at the moment which is great news. I'm now back in London on Thursday for a small shoot at the Building Centre in Tottenham Court Rd followed by a quick shoot at the Landmark Hotel on Marylebone Road then I'm in Reading on Friday shooting a hotel.

I'm also supposed to be doing another studio shoot on Friday with one of my regular models Rhian. She's just bought a Lara Croft outfit and wants to do a fashion shoot in it. We're also looking to do some location work but can't get time to get things together at the moment.

I did my slot on BBC Radio Three Counties yesterday and they called me up an hour ago and have asked me to do a telephone interview at 5.45pm regarding some crappy wedding photographer who's in the news today for supplying a whole wedding shoot of people with their heads cut off. There are some real cowboys around these days thanks to the advent of cheap digital SLR's.

It's rained all day here today - I hope it has back home too as my garden is like a desert!!!.

I'm on the Beeb again today. It's my monthly appearance on Lorna Milton's afternoon show on BBC Three Counties Radio as the photography expert (don't laugh!). We get calls from the listeners about all things photography which keeps me on my toes as I don't get any warning about what they're going to ask!. The callers are put through live on air and just ask whatever they like. It's great fun to do although I don't get paid a bean to do it. I'm on from 2.30pm so tune in a give me a call!.
Here's the link :-http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/articles/2008/04/25/afternoon_show_feature.shtml
You can also hear it on the BBC iPlayer website if you really want to!.
I bought another new camera at the weekend - this time a Panasonic G1. It's a mini digital SLR that I'm going to use for family snaps etc as well as test shots for possible locations. It is a really useful little camera as you can buy adaptors for it to use other types of lenses such as Leica and Canon FD lenses on the camera. I've still got some lovely old Canon FD lenses in the cupboard so after all these years I'll be able to use them again.

Well it's been a long tiring week with lots of driving - I've been to Macclesfield, Tonbridge and Bury St Edmunds - and I've taken a lot of pictures but it's been good fun too.
I still haven't had time to take a new self portrait for the web site and will try again tomorrow.
Our Visa machine arrived from Barclays today so I can now take credit cards for studio work and other work like print sales. This should prove useful but it costs over £60 per month just to lease the thing!.
I'm playing in our annual Seclow Brass concert tomorrow night at Stantonbury Theatre. All the money raised goes to Willen Hospice which is great and we've got some guest singers coming along. I'm going to take some backstage shots so will post a couple over the weekend.

I didn't get to the studio today after all so the self portrait will have to wait!. Instead I spent all day working on a large job from Monday - the one up in Macclesfield. Because it was an interiors job where the light fittings had to show clearly and the colour rendering was critical it took me a long time to process and retouch.

I'm just working on the products from earlier this week right now and I also need to get things moving on last night's shoot at a BP garage in Tonbridge.

I lost an hour earlier as one of my Jack Russell terriers (Honey the mad one) ran away over the fields while I was walking them and it took me 45 minutes or so to find her. I was very worried I'd lost her but eventually she came trotting back as if nothing had happened. In the meantime I'd been literally inside a huge bramble hedge and cut my arms to shreds (well almost!) trying to find her.

I've attached a snap shot from a recce I did in Winslow last weekend where I was looking for rough and industrial areas to shoot a model called Rhian. I ended up under the railway bridge just after the Great Horwood turn and found all these graffitied walls. Whilst I was poking around the largest spider I've seen for ages fell on my head and slid down my arm. Luckily I really like spiders!.