Dec
13

A Break To Create

Over the years I have learnt that It’s inevitable that I (and many others in the creative industry) will experience a creative slump now and again. This used to frustrate and even worry me at times when I wanted to create new personal work but found myself devoid of ideas.

The solution for me at least is take a break from trying too hard by either going to watch a film, listen to music or go for a walk with my camera or iPhone.The latter with my iPhone I especially find beneficial as it forces me to only to use my eye to try and create interesting images due the cameras simplicity which strips away any bells and whistles and provides a great creative workout without the technical stuff getting in the way.

It’s a week before Christmas as I publish this post and today we got the tree up with the kids then went to a local farm on the Somerset Levels to stock up on some mulled cider. Here are a few iPhone images I snapped with my new iPhone 6 Plus which is bigger better but still basic when it comes to camera buttons…thankfully !

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Nov
21

Contentment

It’s hard to believe that only a few weeks ago I was with the family sunning ourselves in 24 degrees in sunny Spain.Although a family holiday I as always took along my cameras,tripod etc and ventured out several times at dawn during the week to capture some images that represented the location as I was experiencing it. The Costa Del Sol is a lovely area of Spain with beautiful beaches and people out enjoying the warm climate either cycling or running often with their dogs in tow.The image I created below shows the beach,palm trees and one of the several lifeguard towers that occupy the beaches. The final element was to photograph the lifestyle image upon my return to the UK which completes the outdoor family lifestyle of the Costa’s.The final image shown here ended up combining 11 separate images and retains details as fine as dog hairs which is always a time consuming but hugely important element in all of the work I create.

 

Oct
15

Mimecast Advertising Campaign

Back in the summer, I had the opportunity to work once again with creative director and good friend Stuart Lowe in Central London.

I had the good fortune of working on a contract for Trader Media Group and Stuart for several years shooting exotic cars on location all over the UK.

Stuart who is now Creative Director at Mimecast a software service company specializing in email archiving amongst other things contacted me to shoot a campaign they were looking to run to help promote their Cloud storage services.

The images were all captured in a few hours at Mimecast’s offices in central London and retouched by us.

 

Life-mimecast-stuart-2

 

 

Oct
09

A Place To Remember

This week I met up with some of my family to scatter my mothers ashes and visit a place both she and I visited almost weekly to watch the wildlife and loved to spend a little time together.

The location on the Somerset Levels sits in view of the iconic Glastonbury Tor and the River called South Drain (yeah not the most romantic name !) flows across the moors helping to ease excess water during winter months.

I’ve photographed here many times over the last 25 years and to me it is iconic Somerset combining the Glastonbury Tor,river,moor and it’s wonderful wildlife.

It’s now not only a place to photograph but also a place to go to remember happy times with my Mum.

 

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20 Plus Years Previously, Note Lack Of Withy Trees On Right Bank Next To Gate Compared To Image Above

 

Oct
02

Willow Weaver

I often find that my background in retouching as well as photography is a huge benefit especially with the unpredictability of location shooting.
This week I returned yet again to Willow growers PH Coates here in Somerset to capture Willow Weaver (well that’s what I call it) Matthew Godfrey.
I was drawn to this dark but atmospheric room on my last visit a few weeks ago and asked if I could return to create the image shown here.
I knew supplementary lighting would be needed to capture Matthew but I also wanted to retain the mood of the room from the blown out glows of the single window to the dark floor covered with pieces of discarded willow.
This is where hard earned knowledge and decades of experience of capturing the best quality camera files and the solutions available in post production come in to their own.
As a result the image came together within a very short space of time in post production and more importantly retained the vision I had for the scene from the time I first saw it a few weeks before.

 

Willow Weaver, Matthew Godfrey

Sep
16

September Sunshine In Devon

A couple of weeks ago I found myself showing my work at Bray Leino (see post Beautiful Bray Leino ) down in deepest Devon.

This week I was lucky enough to be shooting for them in a couple of locations over two days in Devon and making most of the glorious September sun for a few frames.

Filleigh,Devon

 

Sep
11

Somerset Strippers

Back in April  I wrote a post titled “A Late Harvest”  where I visited local withy growers PH Coates & Sons here in Somerset and captured the late withy harvesting after the devastating winter floods.Whilst looking around on my last visit I was attracted to an area where the withy is boiled then stripped ready for weaving.

Not the most picturesque areas but I knew it would be a great backdrop to photograph the guys Dave Tottle and John Dyer going about their work of stripping the bark from the withy with the relevant machines.

The first thing I noticed on arrival was the smell of the boiled withy that some say smells like Jam but to me it reminded me of a Jalfrezi curry and quite pleasant although I’m sure if working around it all the time that might change!

I’m always pretty conscience not to get in the way or take up too much of peoples time if they are working but both Dave & John where more than accommodating and took direction very well as I composed them into the scene.

 

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Aug
25

God..The Best Lighting Cameraman ?

Back in my early years of photography I remember reading a magazine interview with Advertising Photographer Duncan Sim.

When quizzed about how he created one of his images of an American Diner shot against an incredible sunset he simply said “I think God is the best lighting cameraman”

Now I’m sure this was a tongue in cheek answer and no doubt the post production company helped both God & Sim somewhat along the way also but that statement has stuck in my mind ever since and more importantly I have found it to be very true.

Whether subconsciously  that statement moulded my way of approaching lighting or it was the lack of lighting available to me in my early years I’m unsure but these days (depending on the job and effect required) I always look to use natural light whenever possible then supplement this with flash or other light sources as required.

He may have been toying with the magazine a little but I think Sim was spot on especially when I see lighting like that in the image of my daughter below. This was shot in Cornwall while camping a few days ago with no reflector,no flash just my experience / knowledge and God given great light.

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Clarks Shoes ATL Sandals

 

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