Hi Everyone
Just a quick note to say I stupidly signed up for Google Adwords which places ad's onto a blog to see if it worked. It placed ad's for other photographers and a male dating agency on my blog so I've rapidly turned it off!.
Just to let you know I won't be monetising my blog again any time soon.
Thanks
Dave

Last week flew by helped along by the number of shoots I managed to squeeze in.
On Monday I was lucky to photograph the beautiful Angel Building in Islington (London) which was a really enjoyable shoot. I knew as soon as I saw the interior that I was going to enjoy the afternoon as I love modern minimalist architecture (sorry Prince Charles!). The interior had lots of bare unpainted concrete surfaces which I just love and the marketing suite on the top floor was fitted out with beautiful furniture and was totally clutter free. I could quite easily live on that top floor - it would make a superb super apartment and the views over London from the outside paved area were just stunning. I've attached a couple of shots to today's blog.
On Tuesday I photographed the launch of a very clever new lighting system that has been fitted into the science labs at Epsom and Ewell school by Philips Lighting. I have been back to the school a number of times during the year to photograph "before and after" shots and now the classrooms are in full use. The lighting has four settings which change the colour temperature and brightness of the lighting to keep the pupils alert through-out the day. The lighting can be set to a bright cool light for high energy through to dimmed down warm light for relaxation and wind down. Philips fitted the lighting system free of charge as part of their School Vision lighting program!.
Wednesday saw me lifted up in a hoist outside a company HQ in Aylesbury to enable me to get a shot of the front of the building including the solar panels on the roof. I hand-held my 24mm Tilt and Shift lens to get a nice perspective on the picture without getting the converging vertical lines caused by tilting the camera downwards. I then headed off to Oxford for another meeting about a new project so a busy day once again.
I drove up to Liverpool on Thursday for a dusk and night shoot of the new Unison HQ building which has been beautifully lit with some colour change LED lighting. It was bloody freezing but well worth it as I got some lovely shots with car headlight trails in the foreground as per the client's brief. Dusk shoots are always manic as you have to hang around for ages for the light level to drop and the lovely deep blue sky to appear (some photographers call this the golden hour - half an hour either side of dusk) but I always find that you actually get around 45 minutes of perfect light so it becomes a mad dash around the building in order to get in all the angles needed to give a rounded set of pictures.
I had a night in a Travel Lodge in Sheffield that evening (basic but very clean and the bar stocked good red wine!) then I had a shoot at Marks and Spencer Sheffield on Friday.
All in all a good week - I just need to post shoot process all the pictures now - probably another three days work(unfortunately we don't invoice for this!!).
This week is a bit quieter with a shoot in London tomorrow and a meeting with my PR lady Maureen. Then some product photography on Wednesday and so far that's it. At least I'll have a chance to catch up with the post shoot work.

Hi Everyone - sorry about the long delay again in posting but Manflu turned out to be a full on proper Flu bug and I've been layed up for a few days. I tried to work through it but the tiredness got the better or me so I ended up on the sofa watching daytime TV - a good incentive to get better if ever there was one!.

The last job I did before succumbing to the bug was a large shoot up in Manchester where I spent three days working with my mate Katie (marketing exec) from Kinnarps - one of my best clients!. We were shooting both stills and video of new furniture being installed in a large new primary school and then moved across the road to a recently completed school with kids in situ. This is becoming an increasingly common way of working for me where we shoot both still and video although it does add to the stress level as I find it hard to change from video mode to stills mode (in terms of the technique). I've also got the added challenge of recording sound when we do interviews etc which is far more difficult than you'd imagine. I'm getting the hang of working in this way and my EOS 5DMK2 camera shoots beautiful video as well as stills so the kit is working perfectly. I think I'm going to invest in a purpose made HD video camera though for the interviews as I think the sound would be easier to set up and record. The 5D MK2 camera only has a mini jack input for a microphone as I think sound recording is an afterthought - maybe Canon will improve this on the Mk3!.

This week I've been back with a bang - I feel better than I have for months and I think the rest has done me good. Yesterday I did a quick shoot in Stevenage for BUPA then had a meeting with a new client to discuss some ideas for their new company brochure. After that I caught the train to London and photographed the new Angel building in Islington. This is a stunning piece of architecture and I will post some pictures in the next blog entry.

Tonight I'm photographing an event in Epsom and tomorrow I've got a small shoot in Ayelsbury followed by a meeting in Oxford. Then to complete a busy week I have an external night shoot in Liverpool on Thursday and a shoot at Marks and Spencer in Sheffield on Friday - so all in all a pretty good week.

Next week is shaping up to be busy too so November will have been a good month - now I just need to worry about getting some work for December and making sure we can pay the VAT bill that's about to arrive.

I've attached a picture from a shoot in Derby early last week which was a commission for a lighting manufacturer. I love the linear recessed strip lighting in the walls and ceiling.

Another big gap in the blog (12 days since the last entry!) as I've been really busy and I've been doing a lot of travelling. Add to that an ongoing bout of "Man Flu" and you can see why I've been a bit light on blog entries.

Last week I was lucky to be commissioned once again by the guys at All Star Lanes who own the trendy boutique bowling alleys in London. I photographed the Brick Lane venue when it opened but they've had a refurb and I was called in last week to photograph the updated interior. I've attached a picture below from the American style diner. The food is fab and after the shoot Adam (the owner) fixed me up with an 8oz cheeseburger and chips - totally fab!.

That evening I also photographed a Go Karting event for a good mate at the Go Kart centre in Tottenham so that was a pretty busy day.

Last Friday I did my monthly radio phone in show on BBC Three Counties Radio with Lorna Milton. We had loads of texts and messages asking questions and the hour flew by.

This week I had a shoot in Aylesbury on Monday where I took a mixture of product and other PR shots for a new website for a lighting company. Then I was up in Leeds yesterday for a shoot and a client meeting and today I had some more product photography at a company HQ in Welwyn Garden City. I've got another product shoot tomorrow in Milton Keynes and I'm doing three small jobs in the Midlands on Friday.

The next couple of weeks are flat out too with a mixture of video and stills work so long may it continue!!!.

Although everything has been so tight this year financially I had to order a new car a couple of months ago as we lease our cars through the company and change them every couple of years. The one I've got now was delivered 3 months late and the same thing has happened again now!. I ordered a VW Passat (because it was a good deal) around two months ago and was assured that it would arrive in time as my Volvo goes back at the end of November. I popped in to see if it had arrived at the dealer earlier this week and was told it hasn't even been made yet!. Thanks for letting me know (not) and it's going to be at least another three months before it shows up. VW don't care that I've now got to borrow a car until they decide to deliver my new one - they even tried to charge me more for a lower spec one they had in stock!. Why are car manufacturers such twats?. In a deep recession where we are all having to fight so hard to survive you would expect all companies to be keen to keep customers happy. If I treated my clients like this I'd go bust.

I've got another truly great photographer to recommend to you - this time a lady photographer called Sheila Metzner. She shoots beautiful fashion and portraiture with a very cinematic lighting style and many of her shots are very grainy because they were taken with fast film. Here's the link to her website - http://www.sheilametzner.com/

Here's another shot from All Star Lanes :-