Normandy: Dad and Clyde

I recently spent the weekend at my parents in Normandy in France where they are both very happily retired. Here are a couple of pictures of my Dad in his usual habitat, surveying his garden and listening to Radio 4 on the long wave. Below is one of their cats Clyde with the evidence of one of his early morning 'presents' - well it is the country after all...

Recent Publication: Building magazine

Recent Shoot: Gauthier Soho

I was recently commissioned to photograph the newly opened restaurant 'Gauthier' in Soho for Time Out magazine. The restaurant bears the name of the head chef Alexis Gauthier who ran a successful restaurant in Pimlico for many years. He was a very nice chap and very accommodating during the shoot, I always like to get shots in the kitchen showing the chefs at work - just be careful not to get in everyones way and avoid the dangers such as hot ovens and slippery floors... While I was taking the photographs Mr Gauthier suddenly took my picture and said he would use it on the restaurants facebook page, which is a new one on me. Here is the picture below showing me trying to keep it together in the hottest kitchen on one of the hottest days of the year

Recent Publication and background to shoot: Election group portrait for Property Week

This recent shoot for Property Week magazine was for a feature that expressed the views of various property professionals on the upcoming general election. The piece called for an informal group portrait of those gathered with Parliament as a backdrop.
Myself and the Art Director initially discussed shooting the group on the Albert Embankment as this offered a good view of Parliament across the river. It was also made clear to me that the gathered group would only have a maximum of 30 minutes to sit for the shoot.
I had a day in hand before the morning of the shoot so I thought it was best to do a recce of possible locations rather than arrive there cold the next day. I found three locations that would work well, each with Parliament as a backdrop (Albert Embankment, Westminster Bridge and College Green) and although it would be very tight to shoot all three in 30 mins I feel it is always best to have too many options rather than too few. Next I had to contact all the sitters to let them know the details for the shoot. Thanks to a quick screen grab and a few X's in photoshop I was able to easily let each sitter know the meeting point that morning (red X), aswell as the proposed locations for the three shoots (blue X's). I also sent this mail to the writer of the piece and the Art Director to keep them in the loop, see map below:


The meeting time for the next morning was 10.30 and (as I usually do) I arrived early just before 10.00. I always like to arrive early to a job as it gives me time to settle and focus on the task at hand - just as well that I did as the first sitter arrived at the meeting point at 10.05. Once everyone had gathered and introductions made and hands shaken (all sitters had arrived before 10.30) I was able to quickly and effectively get the shots at the three locations without fuss thanks largely to the previous days preparations. Images from the shoot can be seen below:





As the shoot had called for an informal gathering of the sitters my initial research had led me to have a look through one of my books 'Covering the 60s' showing the work of George Lois who designed the covers for Esquire magazine in the 1960's. One reference point was this cover seen below which concerns the issue of rising racial tensions in U.S inner cities in 1968. I think this cover is fantastic with a really simple yet very powerful concept behind the image - how could we show the rising heat in these areas? Shoot real life local disaffected youths in a Harlem Ice House - genius. The book includes George Lois' background story to each cover and it is reproduced below - well worth a read

Recent Portrait: Henry Trickey, London

A recent portrait commission for Building Magazine of Henry Trickey who is the Head of Development for McDonalds. The portrait was taken at McDonalds training headquarters called 'The Hamburger University' (honestly) located in East Finchley, North London.

Recent Publication: Construction Manager magazine

Recent Publication: Paris Issue - Time Out magazine

Workwear: The M65

So spending large amounts of your time taking photographs can not only be tough on you, but also tough on your clothing. For this reason I like to have a general 'work' jacket that I wear while out shooting. You need something that is versatile, practical and hard wearing. A jacket with removable lining is very useful, especially when traveling, as it means you're covered for both day and night time temperatures. For practicality what I really mean is pockets, lots of them, to carry all those vital bits of equipment while out shooting - maps, notebook, pen, business cards etc, and not forgetting the two most critical pieces of kit, number 1. Memory cards (never keep exposed memory cards in your camera bag) and in my case number 2. Tobacco.
Here is a picture of me in my faithful old jacket with my new best friend while taking photographs in Marrakech in 2008:

It was time for it to be replaced and after a bit of research I discovered that this style of jacket is based on the M65 field jacket used by the U.S military since 1965. After a bit more research I found a military retailer in the East End by the name of Silvermans who stock them and bought myself a couple (see the images at the top of the post). If you are the type of person who travels a lot and need hard wearing equipment then I can recommend a trip to Silvermans - if they don't have it, you don't need it.
The M65 is made (as you would imagine) to be very durable and I'm sure that it will stand up to the hazards of being a documentary photographer which in my experience have included: the cold, wind, rain, dust, mud, smoke, sparks, spilt drinks and 'the man' as seen below: