NYPD Blue ... well, sort of :o)

Group shots are notoriously dreaded by photographers for a number of reasons ... lighting and getting everyone in the shot to look 'good' all at once to name a few. However, group shots will always be asked for, so I try to make them a little more interesting rather than the traditional line up, cos let's face it ... they can be about as dull as dishwater.


DVD covers, TV magazines, Movies and the like are great resources for 'inspiration' and that's sort of where I got the idea for this shot ... an old photo of the crew of NYPD Blue, taken by Michael Grecco, ontop of a building looking out across the New York skyline. Now admittedly New York this isn't but the top floor of Car Park 1a at London's Heathrow Airport was the best we could manage :o)

Thanks to the 'Safer Airports Team' at Heathrow and to Lee Piper (Management BAA Security) for dealing with all the 'red tape' (permit). At the time of writing, I understand Lee now has another bout of the flu, which I take full responsibility for, for making her stand outside for so long during the shoot ... it's the least I could do.

Enjoy ;o)

Family Portrait

Well the weather this week has certainly had an impact on planned photo shoots, but hey I guess it should be expected living in the UK ... but that being said, there's always the indoors :o)


Here's a few shots from a family portrait shoot this week (Gill Hawley with her daughters, Eleanor & Anna) ... all taken in their living room using a couple of Nikon SB800 speedlights and a collapsible backdrop. For some time I've been planning a photo shoot with Eleanor and Anna, but the weather has been against us so we got together this week to get some shots of them all together as a 'dry run'.



More to come from this week, but right now it's "way too early o'clock" and I gotta run ... :o)

The week ahead ...

With a number of shoots planned during the coming week I'll be posting a few images up here for you to see, but in the meantime I thought I'd leave this one with you. The expression on Johnny's face, I have to be honest was 'out of the box' ... moody he isn't ... shattered from working full time, coaching an International Rower and having just finished training he is :o)

Cheers Johnny (you moody b&$%£r! ... only kidding :o)

Portrait Shoot in sunny (???) Windsor :o)

A few days back I met up with very dear friends of mine Graham McCutcheon and Tracy-Ann Moore, who are both management for Air New Zealand. I've been meaning to meet up with Tracey-Ann for a photo shoot for some time now so we arranged to meet at Graham's home in Windsor. After a couple of cups of tea and the conversation had plummeted to it's usual depths we ventured out into Graham's neighbour's garden. Now, I say garden ... but if you call roughly 85 acres which includes woodland, a lake, a boat house, and some Llamas amongst other things a garden, then I need to put a few more hours in :o)



We were real lucky with the weather for about half an hour but then out of no-where the wind picked up, the skies turned grey and the temperature plummeted. Now I have made a promise to myself not to mention the cold after hearing that friends of mine Alan & Sharron Carragher in Canada were experiencing temperatures of -31 degrees, so ... I'll not say anymore about it ... for now anyway :o)


After just over one hour taking photos of Tracey-Ann with Graham doing a sterling job supporting my lighting, we called it a day and hastily headed indoors for a hot cup of tea, followed by a glass of wine and some of Graham's home made banana cake which was too good to have just one slice, or two ... or should I say three???? :o)


As well as posting a few of the shots taken during the time we were out , I've also added a music video/slideshow where you can take a look at some of the others. (Just click the image below to play)

Enjoy :o)

Muscle & Fitness Magazine - February 2009

With over 7,600,000 readers worldwide, Muscle & Fitness Magazine is the most popular fitness/training magazine on the shelves ... so, as you can imagine I'm feeling pretty good about having a six page article in the February 2009 edition containing photographs that I took a couple of months back.


You'll remember from a previous blog entry that the photographs were of Sean O'Reilly who has returned to Bodybuilding Competition at the age of 50 following a 20 year break. Back in the late 80's Sean was regularly seen in the Bodybuilding magazines filling up the newsagents shelves and was known as the 'New Sensation' because of the quality of his physique and his incredible knowledge of training and diet. Sean returning to competition has caused quite a stir ... so much so that he now has his own monthly article in Muscle & Fitness Magazine and the photographs will be taken by yours truly.


If you'd like to take a look at the full article that's on sale now, I've uploaded a PDF which you can download here.

Enjoy :o)

Stay out of the woods !!!

Now I don't know if the inspiration behind these images came from watching the X Files movie the other night or that I've just got a bit of a twisted side to my character (no comment) but hey, the process making them was great fun. The idea behind the shoot was to give the images an eery/chilling feel, so ... take my good friend Barry, a local woodland area, a smoke grenade, a Paintball Gun and some off camera flash ... add them together and this is the result.

Enjoy :o)

A companion who'll be greatly missed

Because of my background working in Photoshop from time to time I'll take on some editing / repair work e.g. old photographs that have faded, torn or appear completely ruined and bring them back to life. It's a process that can take quite a long time but I just love the challenge and if truth be told find it really rewarding when clients see the results and once again have their priceless photos as good as new.

The other day I was contacted by very close friends of mine, Sean Burrett & Ashley Wilce who told me that just before Christmas they'd had to make the heartbreaking decision to have one of their German Shepherd dogs, Morgan, put to sleep because of illness. Sean emailed me over a photo of Morgan that he'd found on his computer and asked what editing could be done to improve it. Naturally I just had to do it, so I've attached the results for you to see.


It's moments like this that for me go towards reinforcing the importance of photos. My advice to you is just snap away constantly because with every click you're saving a memory and one day you'll be really glad you did.

Sleep well Morgan xxx

Corporate Photography - BMI

Here's a couple of shots that I took the other day when visiting BMI Airline's Offices at Heathrow Airport before discussing their magazine photo shoot which is now planned for mid February. The gentleman in these photos is Sam McKissock, General Manager of Cabin Services for BMI - in short a thoroughly nice guy, who just happens to have quite a powerful position within a large International Company.

Brass Monkeys !!!!

Just when I thought yesterday was cold, how wrong I was. Now ... I'm told that in the summer Heathrow Airport is the hottest place in the country and in the winter it's the coldest, down to the fact that it's one big mass of concrete, and having been photographing there today I tend to believe wholeheartedly with this theory. Today, in a word was b%&*£%n freezing ... -6 apparently which for some of you in Canada is child's play I know but geez were my hands cold. In fact, the only reason I've written this blog entry is to force movement into my now brittle fingers.


Anyway, back to business ... here's a portrait photograph that I took in ... I mean, with a flash of Tayeb Degaichia ... a Community Support Officer on the 'Safer Airports Team' responsible for Terminal 1 who did a great job coping with the cold.

Enjoy :o)

ps> ... Did I mention it was cold???

Sunset at Heathrow

Working over at Heathrow Airport yesterday I couldn't resist the opportunity to take some portrait photographs on what was the brightest day of the year so far with the most incredible sunset (Okay, so it was only the 3rd January but I'm trying to think of a decent excuse here so stick with me :o)



I met up with my good friend Barry Payne, one of the armed police officers that works at the airport, and convinced him (which took about a nano second) to stand infront of the camera for me whilst I took a series of shots using a number of flashes and also making use of the incredible light in the sky.


The light was changing literally minute by minute which meant working really quickly ... not a problem for me cos it kept me warm, but for poor old Barry, a fighter to the end it was a different story. But it's not all bad ... I put a warming gel over the flashes to hide the blue skin tones appearing on Barry's face ... see, I told you I was all heart :o)

2009 ... Bring it on!!! :o)

Well that's it folks, 2008 is over and the new year is with us, and on a personal note I've got a real good feeling about 2009.


So ... what have I got to tell you? First off as I've mentioned a few times I'll be launching a completely new website very soon with new branding and a completely new blog to match. This past year has been a bit of a nightmare for me when it comes to websites as the company I went with at the beginning of the year, well ... let's just say, promised the earth but didn't deliver. Anyway, that's all in the past and this year is all about moving on and picking up pace. One thing I'm real excited about is that I'll be introducing video to the site of actual photo shoots so you can see what I do, how I do it and the end results ... oh and wait till you see what can be done with some smoke grenades :o)


Later this month the February edition of Muscle & Fitness (Europe) Magazine goes to press in which I've got a six page spread of photographs which I took documenting the return to competition, at the age of 50, of my good friend Sean O'Reilly. I'm guessing I'll have a few copies so I'll keep you posted ;o)

Also this month in addition to portrait shoots, I'll be photographing the front cover of British Midland's Airline Magazine and starting a project photographing what I'm calling 'Local Heros'.

Right, that's all for now folks ... time for a glass of wine so I'll bid you adieu (for now).