At last, a selection of my stills from 'Spine'...

There were a lot of photos to go through.... but finally the edit is done.

I really wanted to try and capture the feel of the film in the shots - dark, painterly and mysterious (sounds like a dating ad), so it took a while to get the feel right in the edit, but I am happy with this, and really happy that I got to work on the film itself.  The lighting was awesome, the people were great and the food was...fart inducing (veggie curry every night), but tasty.

If only you could have seen the girls swooning over John (the big cage fighter), it was really quite pathetic but also hilarious - Vanessa, you know what I'm talking about.  I really can't wait to see the finished product.  In the meantime I have selected a few of my favourite shots from the shoot.  Enjoy!

Diet coke break anyone.....

Spine film shoot, the thrills, the stills...

Just a quick teaser as I have been stuck in front of my computer for hours now and need to take a break!  It was such an honour to work on such an incredible production - more news about Spine soon, and of course, more images.  In the meantime, take a look at a beaten up cage fighter...

On the road with Smatka...

As promised here are some shots from last month when I went up to Manchester for In The City with Smatka, what a great day!

Rodrigo y Gabriela at Shepherds Bush Empire...

Another favourite of mine are Rodrigo y Gabriela, they are truly a unique and awe inspiring talent and watching them is captivating.  The speed at which they play their guitars is mind blowing, they deserve more exposure than they get - but at least their shows at Shepherds Bush Empire were sold out, which is testament to just how brilliant they are.

I remember first hearing about them about three or four years ago when they were playing Latitude festival in Suffolk, and I missed their set to my dismay - the classic clashing of set times, I don't even remember who I chose to watch over them now, but I kicked myself when a friend came out of the tent they were playing in looking like he'd just had an epiphany and sang their praises to the nth degree.

Here's a couple of shots from their show...

Chromeo at The Roundhouse, Camden...

Last Friday I went along to The Roundhouse to shoot Chromeo, it was an awesome show, not only is their set eye catching and vibrant but they really got the crowd going - which can be hard in London as a lot of people know!  Good old Montreal-ers do it best...

Here's a shot from the show, the rest can be seen here.

New website, new projects, all happening!

At last my new annabelstaff.com website has been launched and I am really happy with it.  There are a few little tweaks that need to be ironed out but overall it's making me very happy every time i look at it!

So today's agenda on such a miserable, wet, cold dreary London day involves a lot of catch up work that has sadly been neglected due to my workload of late.

That's a good thing I guess but it also means that there's a lot to be getting on with and promises to be kept.  The biggest one being getting the latest photos I took of the lovely Smatka, which I took on a whirlwind 24 hour road trip to Manchester last month, done and dusted.  What a day (and night) that was, it was like hitting the road as a 16 year old again (mmm, yeah come to think of it one of Smatka's lovely band members is 16.. swear that didn't make me feel old).

Lots of frolicking around Manchester ensued and an extremely drunken van ride back, taking a little stop off at a massive 24 hour Asda (class) to pick up some junk food and vodka and hitting the road again to fall asleep singing to the worst music blasting out of the stereo - thanks to Stars purchasing the cheesiest CD she could possibly find.  Good times.

It was all for Smatka's triumphant gig as part of "In The City" this year, which got some great press - and deservedly so since Smatka blew everyone away, with such a unique talent you can do nothing but stop and be sucked into to her crazy fantasy world.  She has been described as a cross between Siouxsie Sioux and (strangely) Paloma Faith - I can only imagine the latter is solely due to the theatrical element of Smatka's shows.  Good thing then that Siouxsie happens to be my favourite musician ever.

So there's a lot of images to get through, I am really happy with them and it's hard to narrow them down when it all conjures up good memories.  I will post some when they are done, looking forward to getting the out there.