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.

Beady Eye

Highlight: A session with Beady Eye - basically Oasis with out Christmas.


Lowlight: I have 10 minutes to get a cover shot, and pictures for inside for a full feature!
Fill in: Just two days after this shoot, The Tsunami swept over Japan. I felt a bit churlish the week after sending an email with my commiserations followed by a request for a PO number....

Over the years i have done a few sessions for the Japanese Media - they are really into their indie British music so they often used pictures from NME stock. It had been a while though so I was surprised to get a call from a journalist I used to know asking whether I'd be interested in shooting Liam Gallagher's band Beady Eye for a cover story. The main shot had to be against a clean white background.




We only had ten minutes for photos to get a full feature but 2 hours to set up. There was no knowing where we would be able to shoot and I had never been to the venue before so I took everything and the kitchen sink - backdrop, location lights, speedlights, reflectors, softboxes, brollies, sunbounces. I fully anticipated having to squeeze in somewhere tiny but we ended up in the foyer with loads of room. After getting everything perfectly set up we had to take it down again as the queue had already formed outside and people were looking in. We found another private corner to shoot but the space was limited.

We finally got it together just as the band arrived. I got a minute against the white backdrop and then a couple with them sat on the bar before Liam was shaking my hand and thanking me.

Tech spec:

White shot - White paper backdrop with band about a foot in front. A rectangular 150cm x 120cm softbox directly behind me, about 6' in height and about 6' from band. A 6' x 4' sunbounce balanced on floor angled 45 degrees up at band to fill in. Camera: F8 at 125sec. Lens: 28mm-85mm F2.8.

Bar shot: Band on bar, I stood about 8' away. Using on camera flash to light band and opened up shutter to fill in the blue ambient light.

Dog Saved my life

Highlight: A job just around the corner from where I live - and one to warm the cockles of your heart....

Lowlight: It was on a Sunday morning - the only day I get a lie - in.
Fill in: A dog saves life of a pensioner when she nearly gets run over by a 4x4.

I work for a chat mag, and normally the real life stories are pretty grim, but the occasional upbeat one reaches the pages. This one was about a doggie that broke the fall of his mistress as she crossed the zebra crossing outside her home and was nearly run over by a 4x4 driver that did not stop. Aaah! It was a huge slobbery thing (the dog, not the driver) getting it too look at camera took a little while but got there eventually.

The brief with these stories is to get every detail possible from the zebra crossing to the backbrace that the victim was encased in for 6 months to her daughter and son who arrived first at the scene of the crime. It's rather like a post forensic operation after the horse has bolted or a stills version of a crime watch reconstruction. Unfortunately the victim was not well enough to re-enact the crossing of the road for a snap...


The Zebra crossing

The family

The canine hero

The backbrace


Tech spec: I usually keep lighting to a minimum as room is usually limited. One speedlight with diffuser dome, wndow light to fill.

Slambassadors Showcase

Highlight: Every year this event just gets better and better. The cream of young Britain's spoken word performance with Linzie Kwesi as guest is bound to get your neurons firing.

Lowlight: Didn't know Linzie was performing until it was too late to inform my other half who is a big fan. Yet another memorable event he has missed out on due to young Kyle!
Fill in: This event cured me of my fear of teenagers.

The Poetry Society runs an annual event for young people for spoken word performance. The imagery that comes out of the mouths of these guys is truly humbling. I hadn't been back to the Drill Hall since the early nineties, when I used to use the darkrooms as it was close to my partners offices where I used to sleep between jobs. I did a True Blood style shoot of the finalists as a personal project as well as the commissioned work of taking the performances and press shots.




Tech Spec:
Black sheet backdrop. Speedlight with diffusion dome on lefthand side about head height. Reflector on right side. Hair light from top right.