Tonight I did this...

We Are Scientists at KOKO.... after mistakenly turning up at The Roundhouse (hope my assignment editor doesn't see this!  oops!).  Anyway I made it in plenty of time, phew!

The crowd was heaving, full of screaming girls which was kind of hilarious, and the band were on really good form.  They seemed genuinely excited and having a good time, and they sounded great - thankfully they played "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" on the third song so really made my time there worthwhile (yeah yeah unoriginal but it's such a bloody good song).  Took me right back to 2007 and meeting a certain someone...

And the best thing?  FABULOUS LIGHTING!  Oh what a breath of fresh air it is to go to a gig that has thoughtful, exciting, flattering lighting... and you can almost always count on any band playing at KOKO having good lighting.  It made my job so much more pleasurable tonight, rather than standing there throwing obscenities under my breath about "whoever the f*** decided this lighting would be a good idea" etc etc.  Sometimes I do wonder if people stand back and take a look at what they have created - sometimes there is barely any lighting, and I wonder are the crowd - the paying gig going punters - as pissed off at me that they are standing there unable to make out the people they have come to see (and hear, obviously).

Anyway - this is my favourite shot of the night.... enjoy.

yeah you know the score, it's all copyrighted 'n shit.  Leave it alone x

Justin Wilkes, and a round-up on the way...

I seriously cannot seem to find the time to update at the moment, which is sad, I don't like neglecting my blog, and there's so much exciting stuff going on!  But then that's part of the reason it has been so quite on here lately...

A couple of weeks ago, I did some shoots at PTP studio with the lovely Justin Wilkes from Kiss FM - he was in need of some new promo shots, so we threw some ideas around and eventually settled on this.....

So much fun to shoot, and actually quite fun to shop for as well.  I had an afternoon spent in Cash Converters (ok actually that is NOT exciting) buying crap old stereo equipment to be smashed up by a baseball bat - a look of horror and excitement on the faces of the people working there when I told them this.  A marvellous baseball bat borrowed from my mate Scott, some hazard tape and a can of smoke later and we were ready to go.

Let it be noted that the can of smoke was, frankly, shite - so I asked my good friend, and re-toucher extraordinaire Darran Robinson to retouch in some smoke, it was not what I expected - but I like it so it stayed!  Big thanks to Darran for spending time on this and liaising so closely with me - if anyone needs a brilliant retoucher get in touch (plus scroll down for an even better example of his re-touching after this image!).

Ok so you can imagine how fun it is to smash up a rubbish stereo with a baseball bat, really unleashing all your frustration right?  It's all in Justin's face below....

Then Justin wanted something a little different, for a different purpose - and so, we came up with this.  Shot outside with some remote flashes, and a little bit of ape placement courtesy of Darran... love this!

And there was also this....

More posts coming soon! 

New 85mm f1.4 lens...

Total geek out!  I got my brand new 85mm lens yesterday - and it's gorgeous!  The best thing is it is made by a lesser known Korean manufacturer called Samyang, who make third party lenses for big manufacturers, and I heard a lot of good things about this lens - especially via a big review in the BJP.  Which made me want it.  A lot.  What made me want it even more is that it's a fraction of the price of the Nikon equivalent - only £200!  Ok it's only manual focus - but this hardly matters when you are doing portraits.

So, I ordered direct from their distributors in Poland and it arrived a few days later...half expecting it to be plastic and not as good as they said, but, it's heavy, well made, and stunning.  The bokeh is amazing.  And I am going to stop before I look like a total nerd.

Enjoy...

New work coming very soon...

I can't believe I haven't posted anything for almost three weeks!  I have been manically busy - setting up the studio, shooting Quality Knitwear's new look book, testing in the studio and working on my new (and currently on going) project, which is really fun to work on and I am sure something people will love...more on that soon!

When I get a moment to get the edits ready I will start posting - expect Quality Knitwear photos to be hitting the blog on Monday.

Until then I hope everyone's out showing their opaque skins to the sun...

New studio test shoot, going back to the 80's...

Last week I went back to the studio with some friends..........and some wine.... and this is what came out (there will be more to come as I get through the edit).  We had so much fun, except for when we realised we are subconsciously stuck in the late 80's / early 90's...

Hola my beautiful friends and thank you for being such great and willing models!