I wont be putting up the bunting just yet, it’s probably a very long long-list, but nevertheless, still a nice email to receive. Photography can sometimes be a lonely pursuit; travelling, editing and despite working closely with clients, the actual shooting is all done solo, so it’s nice to receive some recognition from your peers, however small it may be. Fingers crossed, on to the short-list..
Some recent work included visiting the good folks at Imperial Stone , visiting their warehouse and showroom near Dunstable. As well as giving some advice on photographing inventory, see some more of the pics I took for them on their website. As well as marvelling at the incredible simplicity and physics at work in their lifting clamp,
the real star of the show has to be their stone, marble & quartz slabs:
Incredible beauty forged by nature, the semi opaque Quartzite is just asking to be backlit, for a stunning high end interior. See more on their Instagram. When my lottery win comes in, I’m looking forward to picking out a few labs to surface my new kitchen!
January is always a quiet month for conferences & corporate events, so took the opportunity to escape the cold & seemingly eternal grey of a London winter for a weeks surfing in Morocco. A a few more pics on my Instagram.
Still, January bought an interesting array of work which included photographing a city law firm’s annual (and postponed!) summer party at Sea Containers, which sported some fine views of the Thames and City of London;
..to an Interfaith debate at Grays Inn Central Hall;
.. and into Feb’, a National Film & Television School event hosted by Channel 4 on attracting young talent and increasing diversity in the British Film Industry.
With the days now getting longer, and the occasional glimpse of the sun, onwards into Spring!
Last week was the week that was.. WorldTravelMarket2024 at the ExCel Centre in East London.
👣 ~ 30+ km walked (it’s BIG!)
📷 📷 ~ 3.6k+ frames captured
🌍🌍🌍 ~ 184 countries represented
☕️☕️☕️☕️ ~ lots of coffee!
There’s some really impressive exhibition spaces , especially in the Middle East section, with meeting rooms to rival some board rooms I’ve been in. But surely the best vibes (and definitely the best cocktails) were at the Antigua & Barbuda stand where I was delighted to provide photo coverage. Something new was VR goggles for virtual tours of the Island’s destinations, and Miss Caribbean UK Shakyrah Davis, who’s of Antigua & Barbudan heritage welcoming delegates to the stand, as well as the evergreen Sir Viv Richards (72 not out) being interviews by the BBC
And here’s some images from Egypt..
Onwards to Xmas Party Season!
Hoping this finds you hungry. Strategically posting just before lunchtime.
Let’s talk food - a subject close to my heart. More specifically, stomach. Which still turns a little at the memories of the (usually fried) offerings served by the big chain hotels at the fringe meetings and receptions I used to cover every year at all the party political conferences. Mass catering, for the masses; and some of the masses sometimes seemed to be there just to feast at that somewhat unappealing trough. Good luck to the conference marching on that.
Fortunately, the corporates and organisations I work for now either bring in bespoke caterers, or have an in house kitchen with a similar high level of beautifully presented and exceedingly tasty canapés and light bites, and it’s often included in the brief as an element of the event to capture.
Though it’s on the fly, run and gun photography rather than a styled food shoot, I do sometimes have to finesse an arrangement for the best shot. If I touch the food, seems silly not to then eat it. Here’s a selection, from savoury to sweet, to whet your appetite. From charcuterie cones to Wonka cakes, via salt fish stews, bhajis, bbq prawns and more.
Get in touch if you’ve got an event with food that looks this good that you’d like me to photograph. I’ll only eat the bits I have to touch.
Enjoy your lunch, I will 🐷 .
(sound up for some of my dreamy guitar playing, intro’ excerpt from ‘Upupa’ , © Sam Friedrich / Joni Backman).
Events don’t get much bigger than Glastonbury; some 210,000 people over a weekend in late June. While I wasn’t working as a Photographer, of course I’m snapping away, and having finally downloaded this summer’s iPhone pics, thought I’d share a few of Glastonbury by night..
The site is the size of a small town..
And with nearly 3500 artists, performers and DJ’s playing stages and tents, big and small,
.. and with increased capacity, it’s fair to say Glastonbury is busier than ever. Too busy in the South East corner..
.. here’s an excellent article exploring that.
Arcadia moved from a spider to a dragonfly, and the visuals continued to deliver..
..something for everybody at Glastonbury 😊
A few weeks back, I photographed the great Misan Harriman at ID8, an evening of curated speakers who believe in (and work for) a vision for a better tomorrow.
Photographing a photographer: always nervy (if you know, you know).
Arriving at the venue, to find no directional light to speak of to illuminate the speakers on stage, coupled with bright slide projections for a background: double nervy. I didn’t know how I was going to make it work.
But venues, and their lighting, aren’t always perfect. This was about as far from it as you get and it’s the event photographer’s job to troubleshoot, anticipate as to best angles, camera settings and everything else to make the images captured work, and deliver. Under the circumstances, I hope Misan would agree, I did.
If you’d like me to do deliver for you, whatever the conditions, get in touch!
Here’s a few more of my favourite shots from the rest of the event.
To Downing Street last week, for some awards ceremony photography, The Times Sternberg active life awards. The event was held at No. 11 - I’ve photograhed events at Number 10 several times before, so was curious how similar or not No 11 might be.Turns out very similar. Here’s an interiors shot if you’re interested, some nice artwork hanging as well as as an Isaac Newton first edition on display.
As well as the standard award winner pics (see link above), here’s The Times Exec’ editor Jeremy Griffin and the legend that is Baroness Ros Altmann in a more relaxed moment.
To Birmingham last week, where I had the pleasure of photographing the National Guardian’s Office ‘Freedom To Speak Up’ annual conference. The NGO was created in response to the Francis Report of 2013, which investigated the failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, quite the scandal at the time. Some very inspiring speakers and a great atmosphere, which you could feel was fostered by the culture within the organisation and what the delegates bought to the event in their roles as National Guardians ; engendering a culture of openness and ensuring NHS workers can speak up.
As well as the standard speaker shots..
I added some foreground sparkle with some strategically placed glass water bottles lit by my iPhone. At conferences & events I’m always looking to give clients the option of something a bit different.
Thanks to Harrogate Water for their diamond cut bottles! 💎 🙂
As a London based headshot and portrait photographer, It’s my job to relax the subject to capture their best look, as many people (me included!) can be nervous and tense in front of a camera. Especially when confronted with the lighting array that professional photographers often use for a uniform look. It is after all quite an unnatural situation; a bit akin to speed dating, except I have a camera! Towards the more corporate end of headshot photography, there’s usually not too much leeway for fun images; professional, relaxed and engaging is more the tone. So it was a fun day working with the staff at this large removals company where they wanted to do something a bit different.
Some of the staff were very reluctant to be photographed at all, let alone strike a pose with a prop, but we worked through that to create a fun set of staff headshot images. If you’d like professional staff headshots for your business, please get in touch and let’s discuss. You don’t have to throw papers in the air unless you want to 🙂.
To the races last Saturday, for Frankie Dettori’s swansong appearance on UK soil at Btish Champions Day at Ascot. A PR job for Great British Racing, where members of the public could re-enact his trademark flying dismount (with varying degrees of success!), though some people opted for a more sedate pose. This job had lots of potential banana skins; from high voltage flash, off camera, in the rain (more about that below), inebriated race goers (no, for the third time, you can’t sit on the horse!), plus we had to get ‘jump at your own risk’ waivers and emailed out over 170 pics to the participants, all with no hitches. About the only thing that went wrong was me breaking down on the way to Ascot - still made it on time. Phew! Here are some of my favourites from the day.
The Great British Public were a really fun bunch to work with on the day, and a surprising diversity of racegoers.
We’d already done a version of this PR activation on the Southbank, the previous week, where Dettori gave interviews and of course showed us how it’s done (photo on my homepage)
Both times, I used a studio style setup of off-camera flash using umbrellas, really helps help the pictures pop. You can’t rely on the the sun to make an appearance in the UK at any time of year, let alone October, and even then, I had limited control over orientation of the setup, and even then then, the Sun as a light source is not very controllable, so lighting it with flash was the only way to go. Predictably, we had rain both at the Southbank and at Ascot, from a fine drizzle, to passing but more than just light showers. Supermarket food roasting bags my go to for protecting the flash heads (and anyone touching them!) from the wet - heatproof, lightweight, colour neutral and cheap! With a belt and braces buggy parasol that I waterproofed for further protection over the main light. The light stands were then cable tied to the perimeter guard rail, which made this a safe and secure solution to off camera lighting in a public space. Free standing lighting, however well weighted and marked with hazard tape would have made me very nervous for the health& safety implications, and simply wasn’t an option, regardless of, add to that, the fact that as expected, there was more than a few boisterous groups well into their 3rd of 4th pint/bottle of champagne. In events photography, it’s par for the course that alcohol enters the mix for both business and private parties work, but people don’t imbibe they way some do when they’re off out out for a day at the races. Add to this they’d be jumping on a trampoline… There’s an approach you can take to ground the inebriated in what sobriety they can find within which I had to employ a few times, and it worked well enough that we didn’t have to turn anyone away, even if they ended up posing with the horse instead of flying through the air.
Very happy with how these images turned out, and after several weeks of planning, zoom calls and thinking through set up, workflow and problem solving, to finally say, farewell Frankie.
As a London based event photographer, I’ve worked at many iconic Central London venues. From museums & guild halls, to sports stadiums & concert halls, crypts (not great light!) and even afloat on the thames. But of them all, perhaps the best views are from The Shard, Aqua on the 31st floor to be exact.
With a brief to shoot candid and unobtrusive images, for a city law firm’s summer party, event photography can be tricky when there’s little to no natural light, and no useful ceilings to bounce flash from. Experienced event photographers know the tricks to work around this, and catch the best moments of guests enjoying the event.
… but star of the show at this event has to be the view.
London by night shines bright! More pics here.
Meet Ruby.
A French Bulldog / Staff cross, and Head of Security at Friedrich Events , my talented twin sisters events design & production company. You might find some of my pics on her site.
I dog-sit her from time to time (Ruby, not my sister), she’s too adorable not to share this pic.
I regularly photograph the occasional wedding, for friends and friends of friends. Vicky & Jay’s was a small informal affair at Marylebone Registry Office, just down the road from me at The Old Marylebone Town Hall, Marylebone Road NW1. Here’s a few pics from the day.
Congrats Vicky & Jay!
Walking through London between conference & events jobs, there’s often buildings and cityscapes I’d like to photograph, but as camera kit all packed away and an edit to finish, I mostly don’t stop. So I’ve started taking one camera + lens out on local walks, or just to the shops and back. Here’s a few taken around my immediate neighbourhood. Brutalist (and not so brutal) architecture in London WC1
The SOAS building:
The Brunswick Centre:
The Imperial Hotel, Russell Square (now under renovation!)
Nice to be photographing some outdoor events through another warm English summer. Sometimes a little too warm in London, but that didn’t stop the officers and families of the City of London Police enjoying a Family Funday in Guildhall Yard. Cadets on parade, face painting & various modes of transport, both two wheeled and four legged were among some of the activities on offer
And while lugging up to 20kgs of camera equipment to jobs in the summer heat is sometimes a bit sweaty, hats off to the City of London Police officers in their black uniforms, along with stab vest, and then all the kit they carry..
.. some anon’ pics of officers on duty to fulfil the brief -
Though it’s traditionally a fairly quiet time of year for events work, been pretty busy shooting speakers, delegates etc these last few months, but here’s something more fun 🙂 . A 4th Birthday Party with some gender reveal confetti thrown in for good measure. Love shooting private client celebrations 🥳
Happy Birthday Yohan!
A suitably festive job photographing one of Hannah Brine’s Choirs Christmas Recitals in a church in Hackney.
The beauty of many voices in harmony in a space made for that sound.. there’s magic there.
The capabilities of todays mirrorless cameras means you can capture images in low light situations which simply wouldn’t of been possible not so long ago.
The choirs are inclusive and non audition, and sounded amazing. I liked it so much I’ve joined Finsbury Park Singers for the next term. See you in 2023 Hannah
A Happy Christmas, and a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious New Year to one and all x
Feeling a little Felty? The Doctor will see you now,
Pop Up shop Felt ‘R” US in the Brunswick Centre, WC1 through to Xmas Eve, when the rozzers will come and shut it down, if a copyright infringement doesn’t first.
Amazing work by @SewYourSoul , looks (almost) good enough to eat
Busy with conference & event photography this month, here’s a few from a recent corporate event in Central London. 2nd camera shooting pick up shots so nothing from the main hall!
All over London (and Romford!) recently to photograph Police Constables nominated for bravery awards. Some fairly harrowing tales as to some of their nominations, hats off (and caps on) to them all.
Twenty years ago my good friend Alex started a man and a van removals service, so it was a pleasure to be at the opening of his new Heathrow warehouse and see his removals and storage business thriving, along with the great and the good of the industry and their local MP Ruth Cadbury. Artist Penny Linton cut the ribbon and unveiled her artwork, to bring some colour to the warehouse. Happy 20 years Alex!
After the majority of 2020-21 with work coming to a standstill for long periods, how appropriate to (finally!) update the blog with a few pics from a recent shoot of a Covid-19 mobile testing facility for Film & TV, an industry where rigorous testing protocols still apply. A whole new industry has sprung up on the back of the pandemic.
Took me a while, but now taking Instagram for a spin. All personal work, mostly iPhone, so follow me to see what I see… now available in colour :) .
With Party Conference season in full swing, and PM Theresa May due to give her headline speech in Manchester today, I’ve been digging through my archives. It’s been over 12 years since I spent an hour with her out on the general election campaign trail in her Windsor constituency (converted to mono for that retro news pic feel!). She was a lowly Shadow Secretary of State when I took these for The Times news pages, back when I did more newspaper work. Blair’s ‘New’ Labour was returned with a comfortable, albeit vastly reduced majority, for his 3rd term as PM. The result was never really in doubt, and I remember thinking at the time that May was of a generation of Tories that, by the time they next see power, would have shuffled off to the House of Lords and private sector consultancy work.. turns out what do I know?!