Officers' Farewell

I took the two photos attached to this post a few days ago whilst working down at Heathrow Airport. The two guys concerned are soon to be retiring after 30 years service as Police Officers and I was asked (not at gun point I hasten to add) whilst down there if I would take a photo of them both that could be presented by their team members as a momento of their time at Heathrow.

Time was limited so there wasn't the opportunity to get the necessary permit to photograph within the airport itself, so we made do in one of the car parks and I allowed myself a little creative licence by adding in the distant aeroplane.

Enjoy ;o)

Time Out ... well, sort of

Every now and then I need a little 'time out'; time when I just go for a walk, camera in hand with no real purpose and yesterday was one of those days. I met up with my buddy Vince at the usual haunt (Starbuck's, Windsor) and after downing a bath full of coffee went for a stroll.

Armed with only a little kit (camera, couple of lenses, tripod) and no plan as such we walked around taking shots of whatever took our eye.

As usual, I couldn't resist taking a portrait; this shot of Vince is a HDR image (High Dynamic Range) and is a blend of five (5) differently exposed shots combined together.


... and this shot of the Windsor from across the River Thames, I took with my iPhone.


All in all, a much needed couple of hours; very relaxing and great for clearing the mind.

* Note to self: Don't drink too much coffee before going for a walk!

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Finden.

Last Sunday saw me packing the car full of photog' gear and heading to Somerset for the wedding of Gary Finden & Louise Fursman. The ceremony & reception was being held at the delightful Hornsbury Mill; a beautiful location with it's own lake and landscaped gardens full of all manner of wild birds, peacocks, swans etc ...

A great day was had by all and thankfully the weather behaved itself, with the heavens opening almost as soon as we'd finished taking photographs outside; talk about lucky :o)

I'll post a few more images once I've had time to do some more editing but in the meantime,

Enjoy ;o)

The name's Bartlett ... Danny Bartlett

One of the shoots from this week was with male model, Danny Bartlett who you'll remember I photographed a few weeks back in a local garage to emulate a classic shot by Herb Ritts (Image below)


This time with Danny we wanted to go for a completely different look so I asked him to wear a tuxedo complete with 'Dickie Bow' and to bring along his BMW M3 which I wanted to include in some of the shots.


I had in mind quite a few different looks that I wanted to achieve so this meant bringing along quite a bit of kit ranging from Ring Flash to my Alien Bees Lighting Rig.



I'm guessing we were 'shooting' for around 2 hours making use of strobes and natural/ambient light but making sure to give ourselves plenty of breaks to take in some water cos despite it being quite late, it was still very warm.



All in all, a great evening. Big thanks to Danny for being such a great talent to work with and for being prepared to wear a tuxedo in the heat, and also a big thank you to my buddy Vince for assisting with setting up the lighting and keeping an eye out for the b&£$*&d 'clampers'.

More later ;o)




* NB ... this final images was actually taken during a lighting set up before the final front light was added but to be honest I quite like the 'edgy' feel the rim lights give on their own.

Gary Finden & Louise Fursman

Last Sunday I was yet again over in Windsor, but this time with Gary Finden & Louise Fursman who's Wedding I'm photographing on the 5th July 2009. With only 1 week to go, we got together for a Pre-Wedding / Engagement Photo Shoot and here's a sample of some of the images from our time together and that I've edited so far.

Following their wedding this coming Sunday I'll post some of the images here on the blog so be sure to check later later.

Bye for now ;o)

One location, 3 different looks.

With the wonderful weather we've been having lately I just had to get out and take some 'personal' shots. I approached my neighbours Steve & Edwina cos I thought it would be nice to take a photo of the two of them seeing as we'd taken shots of their children Phoebe & George a couple of months back. I explained the kind of shot I was looking for and after taking a few shots locally to get 'into the groove' we all headed off to West Wycombe, just near to a place called Hell Fire Caves. This is great location, high up overlooking the Chilterns and perfect for what I'd thought of doing.

For once, the flashes remained in the kit bag as I wanted to make use of the evening sunset and take some silhouette photos of Steve & Edwina (both keen bikers) and here is what we came up with:


I went a little further with some of the images to see what different editing styles would produce:



I've got a couple of shoots coming up over the next few days so I'll be sure to post some of the results here on the blog, but in the mean time,

Enjoy the weather ;o)

The 'Andy Warhol' Technique

A short while ago I was given an old photograph by a client of a Vespa Scooter and given the 'brief' ... "I don't know what I want but can you do something with this? " Initially I got to be honest I was stumped. I mean, where do you go from there? How do you interpret what the client is looking for when they don't know themselves? Potentially you could spend hours working on all sorts of edits and still be no closer to what the client (doesn't know) they want.


In situations like this you've just got to dig deeper. Who did the bike belong to? What are you looking to do with the final image? What styles of images have you seen that you like? What is the decor like of where the image is going to be displayed ... modern? old fashioned? ... the list goes on, but asking these and more can save a whole heap of time.

Eventually I discovered that the photograph had sentimental value as the moped in it had belonged to the clients father. The client wanted something 'out there' and 'retro' so my mind immediately began drifting towards the style made famous by Andy Warhol. (The images attached show the original photograph that I was given which I scanned and the two final colour versions.)


I initially created the 4 colour version but changed to the Red / B&W once the client had seen the proof and asked for the colour change as it would be more in fitting with the room that it will be displayed in once it's been put onto an 18" x 12" canvas.


So, a happy client and BIG Thankyou to a friend of mine Matt Kloskowski at the NAPP for showing the technique I used to create the final look once I'd repaired and 'cut' the moped out of the original photograph.

The Techno Guru is back from 'Down Under'

Yesterday morning I met up with my good buddy Vince Callaghan who's been away travelling in Australia for the past 4 months. I first met Vince a year ago when I was leading the first Scott Kelby PhotoWalk in Windsor when we had a blast. Lots of ideas were talked through before Vince (Mr Techno Guru) went away so now he's back we're going to be teaming up on a few photography projects and also working on some video which I'm really looking forward to.


After chatting through ideas and with both our heads buzzing, we headed off to find another coffee house but took some photos en-route. I've attached some shots of Vince, all taken using available light (the natural kind) but I'm sure you'll be seeing alot more of him here on the blog in some way or another in the near future.

More later ;o)

Restoring Priceless belongings

Before becoming a Photographer, I started out as an 'editor' of photographic images using Adobe Photoshop and still do occasionally take on a few 'editing' jobs such as restoring damaged photos, designing posters for advertising etc ...

This past couple of days I've been working on a few photographs that I was given by clients; one in particular being an old photograph that had faded, discoloured, scratches, water damage and to top it off had stuck to the glass that it had been framed behind. Just about everything that could have happened to it, had.

So, on went the relaxing, chill out music and the slippers (did I really admit to that???) ... time to get comfortable and begin cos this kind of work isn't something to be rushed.

Anyway, after spending some time removing all the water damage and so on, here's the final result:


More later with an 'Andy Warhol' style edit ;o)

Nice to see :o)

Just a quickie ... Had a nice surprise yesterday morning when I was walking through Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire after an early breakfast; spotted this van parked up displaying my photographs along the side and just had to take a quick photo with my iPhone. The van belongs to The Cape South African Deli and the photographs on the side are just some of the ones I took a few months back for their soon to be released cookery book.

More later ;o)


* iPhone Photograph