Just Popping to the Blog.

So another fun day with Miss Hart. Falling over to instruction and generally mucking about whilst trying to stop her dog entering the frame. Perhaps I should have a 'Miranda' section on my website which you can view as a flick book.. The falling shot was done onto a crash mat using a high speed camera and flash-I tried it, and it was not easy to both look at the camera and land well. Over to the professional then.

A trip to Paris to snap President Hollande's ex proved enough to make the front of the Times, and the interest of much of the French media. I wonder what Valerie herself thought? Update-now in Paris Match too..

Here we go again..10 mins left at the end of a busy location shoot and we have to shoot the AR (Augmented Reality) film. Well, I did, and here is the full extended (sic) edit.  Graham Norton AR (via Vimeo)

New shoot out-They could have asked me to model this...but then again..

Found a link here to a behind the scenes on my Charlotte Church shoot for Stylist Magazine from the studio hire blog from 26th Feb this year if you'd like to take a look: http://www.pinegate.co.uk/stylist-magazine-hire-the-studio/

It's not easy writing anything about someone who's job is to write about anything, but write it REALLY WELL. I've been snapping Caitlin Moran for many years now. Sometimes for the Times, where she writes both a column, and for the magazine where she is often required to tolerate such extremes as camping at Glastonbury, and doing extended photo shoots with me. In fact shoots with me can go on long enough, that they make it into her writing. I'm not sure if pride or horror should accompany her description of sobbing after 8 hours of being photographed by me-a story that made it into her bestseller 'How to be a Woman'. Still, we get along fine, and I think I know why as she says here- "I have such insane love for any photographer who SORTS HIS FUCKING LIGHTS OUT before people come on set. You'd be amazed how many don't, and faff around while you stand there, with all your vibe slowly draining." Another couple of cover shoots featuring Ms ...

Sometimes it's just really tricky to decide which picture lights my fire. Which one serves a need. which one says the most and yet fits in with the rest. This shot doesn't fit in but makes me smile. 'Please turn around Mary Berry.'

One of a series from Men's Health magazine.

So I was there to run through my website at the lovely Lucid Representation the other day. 'Get rid  of the Press section' they said. "Oh" I said. So I bring you two recent photo mags who interviewed me for some wisdom and came away with this:

Cheered today to finally see published the images I shot some months back of Thomas Heatherwick, Dan Pearson & Joanna Lumley for House & Garden magazine. It was a pressured shoot in a tricky space-large, but concrete and with people continuing to work around our shoot. Lighting it was tricky simply because it had to look unlit to suit the style of the magazine, with each shot done under different types of light, all of which needed balancing out.

Being the photographer does not always mean you can control the image that is published. My job is to fulfil  the brief. This might mean shooting in a specified location or fitting the subject in to a predetermined layout. This shoot with 6 Music DJ Liz Kershaw is a case in point.  I shot this image convinced that the Times Magazine would run with it. Infact, they wanted an interior shot image to balance out the imagery across that issue.  So here's the out take-never used and maybe never will be. But I like it.

The trouble with blogging is that I can't post about anything until it is out there and published. Anyway, the other week I whisked down to Cardiff to meet & shoot the enigmatic Charlotte Church. Almost failing to recognise her upon arrival, we got down to trying to shoot a cover and spread that showed where she is at currently. All I knew was she had given a good interview and we wanted a strong, assertive cover. Bearing in mind that she no longer goes in for the traditional pop star approach to selling herself, I decided we would simply make this shoot up as we went along. I'm not sure even now what Charlotte added to the mix. She remained fairly aloof throughout, but I think that sometimes, simplicity in a picture is all you need. Stark background, simple lighting, simple pose. No idea what she made of it though.

Thing is, I have to pretend this is hard work, otherwise my wife will make me finish painting the bathroom.