My Blog

I recently went to Poland on a photography trip and stayed in the lovely city of Krakow.  During the five days we visited the infamous Salt Mines which boasts the deepest Cathedral underground, you can even get married there!  The Nazi’s used the mine during the occupation of Poland to work on engines for their planes.  However the Polish resistance fighters were some of the most brave, as they frequently dropped a spanner in the works..literally..whilst working on the engines and did an intentionally bad job at repairs hoping for them to break down, putting their lives at risk.  We visited Oskar Schindlers Factory where there is now an amazing museum documenting Poland from 1939 – 1944.  It is well worth a visit and so well designed and curated.  The day before we left we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.  Nothing can prepare you for the sheer enormity and the scale of death, torture and hell European Jews, gypsies and other groups the Nazis considered expendable and not part of the master plan.  I will not be posting any images from either of these camps on my blog, but if you have the chance to go prepare yourself for the scale of tourism as well as the horror.  If you are in a group with a guide you won’t have a great deal of time to contemplate your surroundings as you are pretty much kept moving most of the time.  We had a little more time in Birkenau, which is the bigger of the two camps, and where the vast majority were murdered.  I got the chance to just walk around on my own and take in the scale of what had happened there.  I don’t think I will ever be the same again.

Leah Millinship from Leah Photography asked me to be her assistant at the wedding of a lovely couple Amy & Jason in the King Arthur Hotel on the Gower Peninsular in Wales.  The venue was amazing and the plan was to venture down to the coast for the couples official photographs.  Unfortunately the fog made it difficult to see 10 yards ahead leave alone the Irish Sea.  Instead we made the most of the fog and went from being disappointed with it to being amazed by it.  Really enjoyed the day, met some fantastic people and was privy to amazing scenery and wild welsh mountain ponies casually grazing along the mountain road.  Just beautiful.  Anytime Leah (www.leahphotography.co.uk) xx

I’ve been doing some research for a project, delving into the techniques of Josef Karsh, Julia Margaret Cameron and Lewis Carroll.  As it was Christmas lots of my family were gathering at my parents house.  It was an opportunity too good to miss and thankfully they all agreed to model for me.  I wanted expressionless faces and the kids were fantastic at staying still.  They were all wonderful.  I hope to continue taking portraits of my family until I have them all on both my maternal and paternal side.  It may take some time but hopefully by the end of 2012 it will be complete.  Thanks to my assistants – Julia & James and love to all my family who took the time to do this for me.

My Family

Spent a few hours in the studio creating some un-seasonally dark images.  I wanted a stark look to them and chose a low key black background.  For lighting I simply used a beauty light on the left of her face and another soft box light to the right just to fill in the dark shadows.  Shooting on f4 @ 1/125 with a 24 – 70 mm lens.