Sometimes it’s just nice to go somewhere beautiful and take photos of the beautiful stuff that you find.
Kenwood House on the top of Hampstead Heath.
Urban Photo Safari
I used to be substitute teacher for my friend James’s photography class. Then he asked if I wanted to take over the teaching, and I got nervous but I agreed. Then 2020 happened and so no-one was allowed to go on walks together to talk about photos.
But, now we’ve sort of got started, just a bit later than planned….
We walk and we talk and I’ll explain how I see things, and hopefully you’ll like how I see things!! Making photos with a phone camera is all about what you put in the frame and very little about how you press the button.
If you want to come on a photo walk with me, search “urban photo safari” on The Indytute.
These are the kind of photos I take when I wander without a plan.
Someone else’s pictures
I found a packet of negatives on a market stall, they’re from the 50s. I’d love to know who these people are, they look like they were having fun..
Hue - vietnam - very blue & green
One of the best days of 3 weeks in Vietnam & Cambodia at new year was the day spent being driven round the town of Hue on the back of mopeds.
I was really nervous to begin with, I’ve never been on the back of any form of motor vehicle, but it was the best fun. It’s definitely the best way to understand how the town works with its transport!!!
Anyway, it also took us to places we wouldn’t have seen if we’d been in and out of a bus all day. It’s a beautiful town, which if my photos are anything to go by is predominantly blue & green.
Whilst we were there we had a gorgeous lunch in a monastery (or it may have been a school!) - where I met another lovely monk who let me take his photo. Such a beautiful face…..
There was also coconut jelly, which I DID NOT eat. But it looked very pretty!!
2020 vision
So, yeah, corny title I know. But it feels fitting. A new direction, with hopefully new clarity.
I think my photography needs are changing. I still love photographing performance and performers, but I fell out of a loop and didn’t rush to get back in it. I see opportunities that once I would have chased and I have fleeting regret and then it passes. I’m not sure that world fits me very well these days, it’s like we fell out a little and now we shyly wave at one another from a distance!!
But people are still my passion, I just want to do something differently. I want to photograph people, exactly as they are, where they are, with no artifice or agenda. But I don’t want to steal those shots, I’m not the photographer with the long lense on the other side of the road. If I’m not brave enough to ask for someone’s permission, then I don’t deserve their face in my photo. That means I miss things, it means that even when I ask sometimes people say no, and no means no - for me it has to. I’m searching for what this means, sometimes the search is worth it in itself, and I’m not sure where the end point is, but for now I know I need to be braver and kinder and more open to asking for the images I see.
Because I don’t like posts without photos, here follows some beautiful souls who I met on some recent travels round Cambodia & Vietnam…..
Kew gardens on a sunny september sunday....
… to see the Chihuly sculpture exhibition. Check it out, it’s totally gorgeous!
i also photographed some flowers, obviously.
J'ouvert..... Carnival 2019
Now, if you’ve ever talked to me about Notting Hill Carnival, you’ll know that me and it do not get on. There’s too many people, and too many whistles!!!
But I was chatting with my boxing trainer on saturday morning about how much he loved carnival and I thought I’d head to the website and see which bit of it I could get on board with. I found the mynottinghillcarnival.com website and found the following description…..
“The J’ouvert celebration (from the French, Jour ouvert, “opening of the day”) is an important and integral part of the Caribbean carnivals.
This ancestral tradition is a procession that traditionally takes place before sunrise. It still exists in Trinidad & Tobago, Brazil, the French Antilles.
The participants cover their body in mud, and celebrate the start of the carnival. When the sun has risen, the masquerade bands then take over.
Nowadays, many variants of the J’ouvert exist. Mud is being replaced with paint, powder, and even chocolate. And most of the floats now take part in daytime celebrations in Notting Hill.
Covered in chocolate or colour and barely recognisable, everything is possible.
This tradition manifests our need as humans to let go of our daily worries, to let go of ourselves just this once.
Do consider taking part in this tradition, a few bands propose this experience at the Notting Hill Carnival. And if you come across this joyful bunch as a watcher, at the carnival, understand that this is not just paint or chocolate.
This is one’s daily life being dismissed and forgotten, just for one day.”
So, I set my alarm for 4:40am on Sunday and headed for West London - I never go to West London!! But I will now be going every year, just for this. A part fo Carnival that I can be at without freaking out about the size of the crowd. Everyone was covered in paint, strangers covered me in paint, everyone who I asked said yes to having their photo taken and everyone smiled constantly.
I love these photos that I went out of my comfort zone to find, and at the same time found something so much more…. Total Joy…..
Aha me hearties - Piramania promo portraits
Someone, who knows me very well, asked me to photograph pirates on a proper galleon. It was a rainy Sunday morning, we only had an hour and there was no room for lights, but we made the very best of what we had.
I’m such a pirate geek!
We also made some pirate “headshots”!
My Best of Morocco
I fell in love with Morocco, back in January, I fell in love with Morocco. It is a beautiful and diverse country. It made me reconsider how I want to visit the world. And it was just full of pictures just waiting to be made. If you haven’t already, please check out my Faces of Morocco post, to see the other side of this amazing part of the world. I intend to visit this place over and over again, if I’m lucky enough to find the time.
I you take any of these images I will hunt you down and drop a piano on your head!! If you’d like to use any of them, please just ask.
one frame : leaves
A big glass pyramid - Paris trip with Mum
Last summer, trying to make something even halfway original of the Louvre.
Failing kind of miserably.
Faces of Morocco
Back in February I journeyed around Morocco for 2 weeks, a beautiful country full of colour and light and wonderful design. Everywhere we went I asked strangers if I could take their photo, and I was really lucky because many of them said yes. Kind and friendly people who happily let this stranger look into their face and photograph them.
These will always be my favourite images from those two weeks.
All images shot with fuji xt2 and 14mm f2.8 - not really a “portrait” lens, but it’s what I had!!
Night Of The Living Dead - production shots.
I shot production shots for the first time in over a year, and what a crazy, brilliant design to come back to.
Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Ollie Rosenblatt for Senbla present George A. Romero NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD™ LIVE!
Written by Christopher Bond, Dale Boyer and Trevor Martin.
Created by Christopher Harrison and Phil Pattinson.
Director – Benji Sperring
Designer – Diego Pitarch
Lighting Designer – Nic Farman
Too long away.....
Jeez, it's been nearly a year since I posted anything. Life was difficult for the 1st half of 2018 and photos took a back seat. But I think I've got my head back on straight now and I dusted off the camera.
Here's my beautiful DeVience boys as a welcome back post. Onwards & upwards, so they say.
Walking in space, We find the purpose of peace : Hair production shots
I don't get to photograph many shows these days, but i'm very glad that I got to photograph Hair.
This cast bring their A-game every performance.
Hair is currently playing at The Vaults, Waterloo.
Good Morning Starshine : Hair rehearsal shots
Hair is currently playing at The Vaults theatre in Waterloo. It is a joyous, vibrant, challenging 50th Anniversary production and I've loved being involved with it. A few weeks before moving into the theatre I was asked to make some rehearsal shots for press release.
The Tribe
Candy-floss revolution
Another lovely Sunday spent with Evie & Sarah-Jane. I love our creative days.
My favourite two shots of the day.
Model : Evie Hoskins.
Make-up & hair : Sarah-Jane Lyon
Fuji xt2
we've got magic to do : pippin rehearsal shots
I just prefer rehearsal shots in black & white.
Pippin is currently playing at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester.
go hard or go home : devience at big red
My favourite rock boys taking the roof off our favourite rock club a month or so back!!
Travelling light with just the xt10 and 27mm f2.8
Yank production shots
Yank, a new musical, opens tonight at the Charing Cross theatre. It's a beautiful, important tale of love, from a time when not all love was so open. This cast is just divine. Go see them.
Love is Love.
