Our main Book is back after spending several months doing the rounds with creatives in London.
After a bit of a tidy up and a re edit and updated with new work it’s ready to out again tomorrow.
A high resolution PDF version can be downloaded HERE
After some careful planning I today decided to venture out towards the heart of the severe flooding on the Somerset Levels.
I headed to a spot I’ve visited many times called Burrow Mump at Burrow Bridge where the floods hit very hard.
I wanted to capture some images for a new image I have an idea for and also document the severity of this major and devastating flood.
I arrived on the only road that is currently open, parked up and navigated the muddy field at the base of the hill.
The climb up was a bit precarious and I did not look forward to the journey back down which I was sure would be predominately on my ass !
The view from the top of Burrow Mump is always impressive and although the flooding had receded a fair bit in places it was still an incredible sight especially as the storm clouds gathered yet again ovehead.
After several shots of the incredible light over the flooded fields I decided to move position to try another angle, as I bent to grab my bag the tripod complete with camera toppled down the hill smashing the £1700 lens that was attached !.
It’s been a difficult few weeks as I have previously mentioned and maybe due to this I just looked at the heap of electronics on the damp hillside packed my bag and headed home.
As my mum would have said “It Don’t Rain It Pours” she also used to say things often happened in threes but I’m hoping this time that is not the case !
Last week was the most difficult in my life with the sad passing of my mother.
As I have dealt with the things that need to be arranged I found myself needing an image of my mum that I knew we had from her wedding day from 1949.
I finally found the image I was seeking in a small and very old brown case which also contained a treasure chest of images dating back to 1917.
I decided while I had time I’d copy the aging prints most of which where in amazing condition despite their age. The images ranged from the usual family snaps of Mum,Dad,Grandad,Grandma and various other siblings to some more unusual from my dads naval days.
My Dad served on the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable during WW2 in the Mediterranean and the Pacific and spent time on R&R in Sydney.
One in particular shown here is my Dad in his uniform with a blonde lady which we believe was a girl he met and got engaged to while in Sydney.
He returned to England with intentions of returning to marry her but then met my mum.
On top of this we also discovered letters he wrote home to his mother and newspaper clippings of him which really adds to the whole story of that time in his life.
This got me thinking firstly how lucky we (myself, brother & sister) are to have this family archive of images and letters. Secondly just how important image captions are as only a few of the prints had any kind of dates or descriptions scribbled on the rear of them.
It’s a shame that the majority of children growing up will never have a dusty box or case full of prints in Grandma & Grandads loft to open up and explore as most people these days simply do not produce prints but share their images just digitally.
Maybe we all should have a box and place prints into it periodically for our children & grandchildren to enjoy when we are no longer around .
In Loving Memory
Another image from a recent trip to the Dorset coast of West Bay.
Most of my Saturday’s are made up of Football. The morning are spent with my sons games followed by (when at home) watching Yeovil Town F.C.
Occasionally however we get a football free Saturday and this weekend was one of them so we grabbed the kids and took a trip to the market at Bridport.
With Bridport being so close to West Bay & with the weather forecast predicting yet another storm approaching later in the day I decided to take my camera in the hope I could capture some interesting skies for my composite archive.
I was not disappointed the coast was being battered by high winds that was creating some amazing cloud formations and I managed to capture several images this one being one of my favorites titled “Into The Onshore”
Following on from last years very successful campaign which won Silver in The Graphis Advertising Awards I received a call back in September from Ice House Design with another exciting brief for Kings Bruton School.
After a couple of meetings and an interesting recce of Kings very old (it was founded in 1519 !) & historic school the briefs where finalised.
The required image was pretty straight forward involving capturing Kings Bruton’s sports field and Church with the beautiful hills behind with the inclusion of the famous Dovecote on it’s hill.The Dovecote does not sit quite in than spot but with a little creative license I moved it into position a mere mile or so. The main element for the image and most difficult to potentially capture was to be a Stag.I always prefer to shoot my own images when creating composites but even I thought a stock shot may have to be sourced for this one. Fortunately after some research on good old Google and conversations with several people my good mate and manager at The Monks Yard where our studio is based provided me with a contact just a few miles away.
Mike Gage runs South West Deer And Rescue and was more than happy to help me out and I arranged to pop down to take a look around.Mike showed me the park and it’s gorgeous views across the Somerset countryside and the many species of Deer he had. He finished off by introducing me to Rubus and very large Stag with an amazing set of antlers..perfect !. 
Being October it was rutting season and Mike warned me Rubus was pretty hormonal and I was not to get out the back of his pickup truck. Unfortunately it did not stop Rubus coming over and sticking his rather huge head of pointy bits almost into my lap trying to grab food from the floor of the truck…! It became obvious pretty quickly I definitely have to wait for the randy Rubus to calm down from the rutting season before coming back to get my images.
After a few weeks I had gathered all the background material and I returned to see Mike and to capture Rubus.This time he was a fair bit calmer and I could with caution leave the safety of the pickup to get the angles I needed.The shoot went well without too many scares and I got all the material I needed within 30 minutes or so. The post production took a little longer however about 71 and a half hours longer to be precise but then the devil’s in the details and the final image had plenty.
Below is one of several adverts that are now running together with another version that did not showing more of the sports field with rugby posts and flags.
Yeah awful title but it kind of describes what is going on in this image.
Last September I got a call from an agency called Ice House Design whom I had worked with on a very successful campaign the previous year which won Silver in The Graphis Advertising Awards.
The brief was to capture images for a composite they wanted me to create which was to include a Stag as the main element.With the brief in hand I started to look at my options for capturing the animal. After several calls and networking I found Mike Gage of South West Deer Rescue Centre.
To cut a long story short the shoot was a success and I’ll post the images once the campaign goes live.
Mike was a great character and I asked if I could return at a later date to shoot him for my personal project “Life In A Somerset Landscape” and this brings us to the image below.
My plan was to shoot him and his mate Pete sat on the rear of their beaten up 4×4 truck surrounded by Deer but the truck was out of action with a broken axle.
So as often is the case in the unpredictable world of location shooting I had to think on my feet and come up with an alternative idea.
We decided that a shot of the Deer being fed their favorite Rich Tea biscuits could provide the perfect image against the beautiful South Somerset backdrop.
The River Isle overflowing it’s banks onto the Somerset Levels.
Flooded Isle
You can’t live in the UK without having heard about the village of Muchelney in South Somerset which has recently become an island after the severe floods.
I live a few miles from the village and have managed until today to resist all temptations to venture out onto the Somerset Levels with my camera.
The two problems for me are firstly that the Somerset Levels are where I learnt my craft and they even after all these years are still one of my favorite places to go and shoot.
Secondly although I’m certainly no adrenalin junkie or risk taker I’m fascinated by extreme weather much to my wife’s disapproval and this means I can’t resist getting safely close as possible to explore & capture what I find.
The floods had receded just enough that some roads are now passable so today with stormy skies still overhead I ventured to a couple of places I thought might be safe and give me some great views.
This image titled “Dry Path To Muchelney” shows the severely flooded River Isle on the right and flooded fields to the left with a elevated path bank heading towards Muchelny.
The gentleman I met walking with his dog said how in 40 years he had never seen flooding this extreme in the area.His dog seemed less bothered by he water and more interested in the wildlife as there where lots of mice and other animals on the bank seeking safety from the waters.
The rains came in again giving some wonderful skies and I decided to shoot one more image before heading home.
As I mounted a gate to reach the flood line in a field I somehow lost my footing and ended up head first with my camera luckily on top of me !
It must have looked hilarious but must admit as I sit here writing this I’m pretty bruised and not getting any sympathy from the wife !
I hope for those hit hard by the floods in Muchelney and surrounding area that the water recedes soon so that the clean up can get started.
I’ve joked before that if I never picked up a camera again I’d still have enough images in my archives to keep me busy producing new work for the next 15 years.
Fair to say some many never see the light of day but it’s strange how things happen in life and you find yourself remembering certain places, moments & images and being inspired to dig them out.
This week a comment on a previous blog post prompted me to go back into some images I shot last summer in Cadgwith Cornwall.
The reasons behind the comments are actually incredibly sad (view A Tranquil Mooring blog post) but this inspired me to spend a few hours processing and retouching this image
A-seat-on-todden-cadgwith-cornwall