'A Voyage Round My Father' and other people...

I was called in a short notice this week to The New Vic Theatre to photograph the dress rehearsal of the recently-late John Mortimer's 'A Voyage Round My Father'.

Great set. A big green 'O' around and on which all the action takes place. And a very interesting adaptation which was performed well by a sterling cast of actors.

At the weekend I also met up with a lovely couple from Cambridge - Katie and Nigel - who were looking for a photographer for their wedding in September. The day is taking place at Somerford Hall and looking at their website - http://www.somerfordhall.co.uk/ - I think it will be really lovely and photographic. Oh, they phoned on Sunday, and after seeing some other photographers, they chose me: sorry to brag but it's nice to be picked. They liked my 'modern approach' and 'reportage' style - plus they thought my storybook albums worked really well to tell the whole story of the day.

More photos next weekend from a couple of model shoots...

Photoblogs

A Model and a Dancer

Two very ncie jobs this week to get back into the swing of things.

A very pleasant, enjoyable and creative shoot with a model from Derbyshire (Ruthy). We took the photographs at a studio in Long Eaton - Phoenix Studios - which we came to the conclusion was mainly used in the 'Galmour' market.

We shifted the living room set around to make it as simple as possible and funnily enough didn't get around to using the hayloft set...

Second job was shooting Anton DuBeke's new show at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 'Cheek to Cheek'.

I had shot a similar show last year but backed by the larger Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, this time it was still a quite impressive 40 piece swing band.

The show was fine and pleasant - nothing more - but It was a bit of a shock to be told I only had 10 minutes shooting time from a high vantage point behind the dancers - this wasn't mentioned before. But you have just to adapt to these circumstances. I think the press Office at the Symphony Hall couldn't be bothered accomodating a photographer for a show that wasn't thier own - but that might just be my own paranoia. I think I got the shots I was looking for anyway.

Till next time...

New Year, New Start

As this is the first entry of 2009 I should do the usual thing and try to set out some goals for the coming year - and then look back in 12 months and see what I haven't achieved, I had a very relaxing family Christmas and New Year and now want to come back to my photography with renewed vigour and goals.

Thinking about what I enjoy doing here is my top three ambitions for 2009:

1. Increase the amount of portraiture I shoot - I love capturing people and to get a natural, recognisable portrait is really thrilling.
2. Shoot more live theatre - I love it and think I understand it.
3. Do some personal work - I tend to shoot assignments and neglect personal projects, which is a shame as the personal work always feeds into the professional work in a positive way.

There that's hopefully three ambitions that I achieve through this year. I'll continue to shoot weddings (when asked), dance and editorial but here are three more things that I want to shoot professionally but haven't:

1. Live bands
2. Fashion
3. Architecture

There I've said it. Let's see how many of that list I can do in the next year.
All the best and a Happy New Year.