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?!

In these days of ubiquitous video content, yesterday’s front pages are a tragic reminder of the power a still image still has to influence public opinion and consequently government policy.

As well as my commissioned work, I have a small selection of images in various stock libraries. Pleased to see some of my weekend work featured in Picfair’s pic of the week. An image of skydivers from inside the plane, just before jumping into a Kenyan sunset… good times!

See all my stock images on alamy.com and a smaller selection now with picfair.com. A mixed bag of skydiving, travel, education and news images (all available to licence!).

To Margate last Friday for Dreamland, the UK’s original seaside pleasure park which re-opened to the public, for all the fun of the fair!

Round and round on the swings:

..and rockets..:

Then while Vic Reeves did a stint on the hook-a-duck stall..

I went round and round on the gallopers with his wife Nancy and their adorable twin daughters..

..then after some more round and round as well as some up and down..

Everybody went home for tea, tired but happy.

Enjoying my work covering events for The Guardian - I get to hear some really interesting discussions and debates on everything from Is free will an illusion? with Will Self and John Gray, to last night, Gilbert & George discussing their work with Hans Ulrich Obrist. Often briefed to get a portrait of the participants, given the time and locations available that’s not always easy… here’s a portrait of George Monbiot and George Marshall who discussed Climate Change recently at Kings Place, London. They were kind enough to give me enough time to take them outside (5 minutes - including travel!), so we found a side alley and we made this portrait.

Photographed a VIP preview at The Natural History Museum last week, styled by my talented and generally wonderful sister at Friedrich Events. Here’s some detail from the tables in the drinks reception area, echoing the title of exhibition; Coral Reefs. Being the Natural History Museum, maybe a dinosaur crept in too…

On a visit to see a newly built Healthcare Centre in the London Borough of Merton, Lord (Earl) Howe drops in for tea on a local service user to hear of her positive experience. Extra biscuits all round!!

A bit more competitive than a kickabout actually, at Street League’s annual 5-a-side fundraising tournament last week. 20 teams from the banks and financial organisations in Canary Wharf competed in a knockout competiton for kudos and the chance to have the trophy presented to them by surprise guest and Arsenal legend Lee Dixon. Great to meet him and hear stories from the glory days… :) High intensity work shooting all the matches, team shots and set-ups required, all under challenging sports centre lighting.

A nice commission to come back to in my hometown, - go take some pictures of London. Buildings, landmarks and abstracts. Struck by how much construction work is going on everywhere and how much the Southbank has changed. More years than I care to remember ago I used to skate down there, it was a wednesday night thing. Thankfully the skatepark has been saved. Here’s a selection from the day

Early 2014 saw me spend some time in Kenya, volunteering at The Children’s Village, an orphanage in Naivasha, North West of Nairobi. As well building a photography library, adding content to their website and facebook page, I helped out with day to day operations and spent as much time as possible with the children, whether that was taking them running (or rather they took me!), time in the library, working the shamba (vegetable patch), or just hanging out having fun. A really rewarding experience, I can’t wait to go back and see how they’re getting on as they grow up. Here’s a few pics of the children at work and play