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Had the great pleasure recently to work with an up and coming young model, Sharon Whaley.  I’ve talked for a while with her about a shoot and especially to capture the autumn colours in the fantastic forrests that abound in East Anglia.

So we decided to do the shoot in Thetford Forrest where there are lots of opportunities to capture the glorious tones and colours of the autumn leaves.  So I’m driving to Kings Lynn one day and had never noticed a small wood at the side of the main road, I stopped for a look and it was perfect.  As you’ll see in the images, just gorgeous.

A quick call to Sharon and she came over for the shoot.  Driving 5 miles instead of 50 and the discovery of a little gem on the door step.   Sharon is a great girl and definitely one to look for in the future.  Loved working with her and hopefully more shoots to come.

Hope you like these images, the majority are natural light but a couple with just a splash of off-camera flash to fill in the shadows.

I met Clare and Graham last year when Clare was bridesmaid for one of my favourite brides, Mel.  So I was really pleased when Mel bought Clare and Graham a photoshoot for her birthday.  Clare decided she’d like to have the shoot in Thetford Forest and what a great day it turned out to be, one of those days that doesn’t happen very often, finding shafts of light not made by smoke machines.

Seemed like a typical autumn Sunday morning when I set off, a little bit misty but ok.  By the time I met Clare and Graham, the sun had come out and thre mist was beginning to burn away.  As we walked through the trees, we came to a spot where there were genuine shafts of light and they were’nt going to last very much longer so I asked Clare to walk into them and you’ll see some of the results below.  As I thought, it didn’t last more than 2 or 3 minutes because of the sun but just loved what I got. Hope you all like them too…

There are few moments in anyones life you can claim to be life changing but on Saturday, 1 October at 4.33pm, that was one of those moments for me.  My beautiful daughter Lisa, gave birth to my granddaughter, Amalia May.  The arrival of Amalia May has seemed like a lifetime in waiting but of course, it’s only been 9 months but well worth the wait

Lisa’s husband James, was so supportive to Lisa and to us all who wanted to know what was happening throughout the day and how he managed to sound cool, calm and collected and to get in touch with us all to keep us informed, was definitely outstanding.

So, I was really lucky that under the latest system, as long as everything is ok with mum and baby, they’re allowed to come home once the checkovers have been completed.  My wife and I were able to see them all at 9pm that evening and I was able to get a couple of shots of little one almost straight away and her she is,  Amalia May all of 5 hours old when these were taken.

I have a feeling Amelia may become the most photographed child in the world but to be honest, I just love her to bits and want to take as many images as I can so in later life, she can look back and see how she’s changed as she’s grown up.

There’ll be lots of images posted here of Amalia May, my gorgeous granddaughter.

Always loved the idea of using light like a sculpting tool and recently had the opportunity to work with a lovely young lady which enabled me to do that, Camilla.  Definitely one of the best models I’ve worked with particularly as you’ll see in some of the shots, Camilla was hanging by her finger tips from a beam in a dirty old barn!!  All of the images use light to produce highlights and shadows with the end result a living sculpture and in some,  adding another shadow to the image which is almost a counter picture.

These images are a very small sample of a great day exploring shape and form with a wonderful subject.  Planning for future shoots with Camilla so watch this space!!

Becky and Neil were such a lot of fun to work with as you’ll see from the images below.  Becky asked me if I would do a series of shots for each of the wedding party and these are some of them.  The plan is they’ll be going into a film strip of the brides party and the Grooms party and become 2 prints that can be blown up to frame.  Simple set up really, Orbis ring flash and black background, oh and not forgetting a touch of alcohol!!!

This was great fun and definitely something I would recommend

I met Mel and Jon a couple of years ago now when Mel phoned me to see if I could do a surprise shoot as a present for then partner, Jon.  Had a great afternoon and since then have become firm friends with the lovely couple.  Needless to say, I was photographer for their wedding which was at Yaxley Hall in Suffolk and what an outstanding location.

Mel was as usual, just gorgeous and we had a great day getting some wonderful shots.  What was great about Yaxley Hall was the old buildings left in the grounds which we were able to use.  As we were in the overgrown woods and light wasn’t at it’s best, a touch of off-camera flash did the trick.  Good old Pocket Wizards, worked every time!!!

Had a great day though and hope you enjoy…

Meeting new people is always great especially when they have quite a big effect on your thoughts and possible future work.  I’ve always wanted to do a project on the art of dancing but never done much about it.  A few weeks ago, I was up with my good friend John Denton (Denton Photography) at a shoot where we were practicing using Elinchrom Quadra’s.  I met a young lady who had come along to model and that’s how I met Sarah.  Initially we were just doing fashion type images but we were talking away and I mentioned about my idea for my project on dancers and dancing.

Sarah told me that she is going to university in September to study dance and that changed our whole day.  Bearing in mind that we’d not planned anything for this, we spent most of the day with Sarah leaping around in fields and a barn and these are some of the results.  Had an absolute whale of a time and didn’t want to stop really. 

Our plan now is for me to work with Sarah and realise my dream of a project so over the next year or so, I’ll be following the progress of Sarah in her studies and hope you’ll like the results.  I’d like to think I’ll have a book published of the results but who knows.  Hope you like this little snapshot of a great afternoon…

Hi everyone, this is a follow on from the shoot a couple of weeks ago where I was working with a great model, Bebe Backhouse.  Bebe wanted to add some images to her portfolio with a “rag doll” look.  Make up artist Natalie Greenwell, did a fantastic job and here are the results. 

Pics were taken against a Lastolite Hi Lite background using speedlites and main light from the Orbis ring flash attached to a speedlite.

I was very lucky at the weekend to be on a shoot at a gorgeous house in London right on the edge of the Thames.  Even came with a yacht moored at the bottom of the garden.  Plan was for 4 models 4 photographers and an outstanding mua to have a weekend of photography to shoot lots of different styles, from nude to funky to fashion and whatever anyone wanted to try.  The house and grounds were perfect although I did spend a lot of time outside with Bebe trying lots of differnt styles.

Great thing for me was to get my hands on a set of Quadra’s and I can definitely confirm they are great.  The weather was extremely hot and sunny so they came into there own there and easily overpowered the sun.

Models were, Bebe Backhouse, Abbie Beautiment, Sophia Day and Sadie McCullagh.  Makeup and styling was looked after by Natalie Greenwell.

Back in May on a very sunny warm day, I had the privilege to be photographer for the wedding of Kate and Adam.  Was a long day for me as the wedding was in the beautiful village of Bletsoe not far from Bedford so being there at 10 meant an early start.  What a fantastic day though, there’s nothing better than photographing 2 lovely people who are definitely very much in love…

Kate and Adam met in Australia and it was really nice to see so many of Adams family and friends who had travelled half way round the world to be there.  What was also great was that all of the men wore kilts in honour of the families scottish connection and definitely added to the fun element of the wedding!!

Here are a few shots from the day…