Ukbride

Highlight: Have joined the Uk's number one chatroom for brides as an approved supplier, and marked the momentous occasion by producing 50 limited editions postcards.

Lowlight: My lovely work of art is probably destined to be folded, torn and dumped in the bin.
Fill in: The postcards are made from quality recycled paper so no trees will die in vain for this brazen piece of aggressive marketing.

Yes this is the start of my brazen, aggressive marketing campaign so all brides in a 50 mile radius will be on my radarIf you would like to receive one of these postcards with a personal message from yours truly about your up and coming big day get in touch!




...and if you have not sorted out your wedding photographer for this year yet I still have dates free in the diary. Do not leave it to uncle Bob. Even if your budget is tight, beautiful photography is not something your should skimp on. You do not have to book an expensive photographer for the whole day to get memorable images that will last a lifetime.

Tech Spec: Used Photoshop to blur background and give impression of the moped moving. The cards were done through Vistaprint who have a template you can download to Photoshop which is very easy to use.

St George's Day

Highlight: The weather was fantastic and I was out all day in Trafalgar Square to record the Mayor's St. George's Day festival.

Lowlight: Had just come back from holiday night before at 1am in morning. Thought I was starting at 12 only to find an email asking me to come in at 10am instead. Neither my cameras or myself were fully charged.
Fill in: Still in holiday mode I wore my sandals and feet were killing me by the end of the day.

I shoot many of the Mayor's cultural festivals in Trafalgar Square and St. George's Day is always a dodgy one as the weather is deceptive. Sun cream, water and cover all kagouls are a must, as is a good rucksack and good shoes.

The brief is to capture the atmosphere of the day and each of the acts on the stage, plus backstage shots of the artists with the VIPS if possible. Shots must show the best features of Trafalgar Square and be suitable for use full page in a magazine or as a thumbnail on the internet. Even with just a dozen shots of each act and the general images of the day the number of images soon mounts up. I usually get an assistant to bring up a laptop later in the afternoon to download and process some key images to send straight to the Mayor's cultural team so they have images for the London website and local papers.

The shot I dread most is getting up on the stage and taking the crowd. The compere introduces me and gets the crowd to cheer. It's usually later in the day when I look particularly sweaty and ragged.


Alfie Boe who headlined. (A thunder storm broke as he came on stage. Thank god for my coverall transparent kagoul. I may look like a jelly fish in it but at least I am dry). The lovely Newton Faulkner (The mist is produced by a machine and is not a quirk of the English weather).


The fabulous Jamie West and the lovely Andrew Howe bring a bit of festival Summer cheer to the Square with their laid back, cheeky performances. My fashion tip for the season is top hats. You heard it here first...

For more on Jame West visit: www.jamiewest.net



Two sticks of rock by the Olympic count down clock and the dreaded crowd shots. (Note the drastic change in weather!)



Backstage with The Theory of 6 degrees (look out for these guys). World in Motion drummers get the crowd going. The Students of Royal Academy of Music enjoy the weather.

For more on Theory of 6 Degrees visit: www.t6d.co.uk

click here for review

click here for GLA Gallery


For editorial enquiries please contact the Mayor's Press Office.

Esperanza Espalding

Highlight: Chance to broaden my musical horizons by photographing this jazz singer who beat Justin Beiber to a Grammy award

Lowlight: Yes. The light was low and the high brow audience not amused by our constant clicking.
Fill in: The songs were very long. Our alloted three songs, no flash lasted over 40 minutes. The seats at the Barbican are very low and we have to keep out of the way so after half on hour of crawling round with a 70-200mm F2.8 swinging from my neck, my knees decided to give Bob Crow a call.

Shooting at the Barbican is always a challenge not least trying to find the best way into the place and then finding the place to pick up your photopasses.

Then you have to find out the various places you are allowed to stand/sit/kneel or in this case - crawl. I was shooting for The Guardian so was praying the light would not be too red as this looks awful in newsprint.

Esperanza's set was extremely quiet so even breathing was extremely exasperating to the highly sensitive and well tuned audience. I tried to time my shots to coincide with the noisier parts of the set and hoped the noise of my rumbling stomach was not as loud as it seemed to me. (I never eat before shoots - a hang over from the days when I was just too nervous before a shoot to keep anything down)





click here for Guardian review


For editorial enquiries please contact: Redferns Music Photo Library/Getty Images

Japan Benefit Concert

Highlight: Just a couple of weeks after working with Beady Eye, here we were again under totally different circumstances.

Lowlight: Being backstage at Brixton Academy for 6 hours whilst the sun shone outside.
Fill in: It was to be a long haul day - trying to get all the participating bands backstage and all the performances.

So just weeks after shooting Beady Eye for the Japanese press, here we were again. The brief was to get every act backstage and performing which meant 8 hours of hanging around and not all the bands were playing ball. Still the other crews were cool and the Japanese PR got in some great take away to keep the troops going. I was not sure what access we were getting and the PR was not sure what photos they wanted and no one was sure who was going to give permission to be photographed and the promotors were not sure what was going to be allowed to be published. So I brought everything - three lights, flashes, zooms, reflectors and stands and dragged it up and down stairs and along corridors, but in the end only used one camera and one lens.

The concert lighting was better than at the Troxy though.