inspired improvisation

While filming with Paul Fenn last week, the hand operated crank on my track was proving problematic. an inspired moment from Paul, a quick adaptation from me with the help of some nuts and bolts I had in my tool box and we had a motorised tracking system.

Conran Design/ABF filming

They say never work with children etc so there was a certain amount of nervousness when we started filming a scene for ABF's annual report. In 1 scene we had 8 under 5's a Grand Mother, Mother and a Presenter.

The scene was a mocked up birthday party and therefore the children consumed a rather large amount of sweets and very sugary cakes during each take, needless to say this was a ticking time bomb and I think we all knew that the kids had peaked when one boy was trying to hang off my steadycam. But amazingly we got the footage. As always I had my wing man for filming Paul Fenn with me and Natalie Dinham assisting. A special mention should go to Kieron and Jamie form Conran Design who through the madness stayed cool and directed everyone.

We still have 4-5 days of filming left but I'm assured none with kids, however I have noticed that one is on a chicken farm !

Looking like a busy month ahead

Just back from a week in Greece, which was as always fantastic.

It's looking like a busy few weeks ahead, I start filming tomorrow and Friday with Conran Design for the ABF annual report. from 1/2 days filming last year we are looking at 6-8 days. I'll be using a steady cam for the first time, plenty of practising over the last couple of weeks and we tried out my skills on the casting, luckily all went well. A huge thank you to the girls at www.hireacamera.com for sorting out a Glidecam Smooth Shooter kit at very short notice As with all filming I have my right hand man Paul Fenn by my side.

I also have a couple of days for Conran Design/Ideal Standard pencelled for the middle of the month

The end of the month is currently block booked out for Identity Design and there danish client Vola. We are in the middle of pre production and I'm delighted that the production is going to be handled by Laura North ex Lombok.

It's really good news to have added her to my team.

I never quite did the 'behind the scenes story' as I said I would in my last post, but may be next time !

As always Lombok and the lovely Laura North also kept me busy, including 2 great shoots. one at Sandringham Road in Hackney and the second at Appt 25, The Lycee SE11. I realised after being in Appt 25 for over 30 minutes that I had over 15 years ago shot for Debenham's at this location which either says little for my memory or something about the longevity of my career.

I've also photographed all of this years Christmas products for Carluccio's and as always their designers have done a fantastic job.

Keeping busy

The likes of Lombok (www.lombok.co.uk) and Carluccio's (www.carluccios.com) have kept me busy in the last few weeks with some great shoots.

I'm still working on prints from Iceland, the response from the friends and clients who have seen a sneak limited preview has been fantastic, I'm very grateful for all the support.

Next week I'm hoping to post a short behind the scene story from a food shoot, working with my dream team, more to follow.

Jokulsarlon

I'm still working on, and I think I will be for a few more days a first edit of images from Iceland.

A big thank you to Natalie Dinham and Richard Leeney for helping make a selection from all the images I shot, plus their total enthusiasm for the whole Iceland project

And for all you geeks, I've been using for the first time Nik Silver Efex software for converting the files to black and white, the software which is a plug in to Photoshop appears to be fantastic, the conversion of data is very 'smooth' and I have total control over every aspect of the image, early days but I'm very pleased with it, The software had been recommended to me by many photographers, but a special mention should go to Robert Postma, a Canadian landscape photographer I meet around Jokulsarlon, Iceland several days running. Hugely talented photography and exceptionally nice guy. (It's amazing how fast you can bond with someone on a beach at 4 in the morning with the wind chill drive the mercury down to near -20c)

Iceland

Back from Iceland, amazing place.

I'm just starting to edit and work on the images I shot from an area called Jokulsarlon, which is a glacial Lagoon in south east Iceland.  The lagoon formed when the Vatanjokull glacier receded from the Atlantic Ocean and is now connected to the sea via a short channel which means the lagoon is tidal. At low tide icebergs flow out to sea, which then wash up on the nearby black lava beach. This is all very surreal, more so if you are shooting at 4:30 in the morning !