It’s 4:30am and I’m laughing as I clumsily navigate my luggage past the street lamps along the narrow side road. I’m walking to Paddington to catch the train to Heathrow. My backpack has been all over the world with me, USA, Dubai, Australia, the Canaries, Jordan and much more, but this is the first time that I’ve taken a bag with a background stand and backdrop on a photographic adventure. Who does this? I say to myself with a chuckle as I climb on board the train like it’s perfectly normal. I’m headed to France for two weeks of photography with friends old and new and travelling to several new cities. I love to travel, but in many ways this is a little unusual for me, of late my idea of a photographic adventure is to head off into the unknown, a desert or dormant volcano to capture the beauty of the human form in an otherworldly location.

But on this occasion I will be staying and shooting in two rather grand looking chateaus. The black backdrop slung over my shoulder will be used to stage a studio like scene juxtaposed against the grandeur of a chateau, or at least that is the idea. 

When I first picked up a camera, I thought the hardest part would be the technical side. It wasn’t. The real challenge was learning how to *see* people, not just photograph them.  

This guide shares my approach to photographing people authentically, building trust, creating a safe space, and capturing genuine moments.

These thoughts come from my experience photographing a wide range of people, models, actors, celebrities, and just "normal" people alike.  

I’ve also included a selection of photographs taken yesterday with Oliva Linz from Ukraine. It was her first day in the UK, and we were complete strangers, with only a handful of hours to get to know each other and be creative. Although we had chatted briefly before the shoot and agreed on the studio location, none of the images we made together were planned. Everything was created in the moment. The aim is to share my approach in context, alongside some recent images.

Twenty twenty five is now three months old and is playing out well, but it is also in stark contrast to this time last year. These past few years I have rekindled my love of photography and I have been fortunate to be able to dial up the focus year on year but I’m not sure I’ll be able to top 2024. I began the year with a lot of enthusiasm which was strange given I was suddenly out of a job, one I had had for ten years. But that’s me, glass is half full.

I seized the opportunity and booked in a number of photography trips. However, two weeks into this new life and I was offered a 3 day a week contract. I had promised myself I would take a break (I’d had two jobs in twenty years) and I also had said I wouldn’t take the first job that came along.

But it was a great role and I really liked the team and project AND they were fine with me working around my planned trips. It wasn’t long before that became a full time job and I love it. But that has meant that my day job takes focus and this year I have had fewer opportunities to shoot. That being said, the studio time I have had has been very productive, each one special and a reminder why I love the creativity that photography affords me. This is the story of the three awesome shoots I have had this year.

This story is taken from my book; ‘2024, in review’. This is something I do every year for me alone, a way to compare my work year on year and perhaps something to enjoy later in life when I have packed away my cameras.

I’ve had an amazing year; 2024 is going to be a hard one to beat. These past 12 months have been truly special, the by-product of a collection of unplanned events. I’ve had two jobs in 20 years, and that streak came to an end in March this year. Suddenly, I had a lot of free time, and I knew I wanted to dive into some travel photography before getting back behind a desk. So, I seized the opportunity and booked a bunch of trips. But two weeks later, I was offered a job I couldn’t say no to, and they were kind enough to work around my planned trips. So, this is the story of a wild 2024. Buckle up; it’s been a fun ride!

Digital photography and the nature of an image going no further than a jpg, be that on your website or on social media, has created a fast food attitude towards photography. Too many times have we scrolled past an image that has taken hours or even days to create. I hated the idea that my images were trapped in their digital form.

But when I started printing again I found that my attitude to the way I composed and framed an image had changed. I was being more considered with my approach given that I wanted to print the end results. In the past I would shoot slower, mindful that there are only so many frames left on the roll. That necessary delay waiting for the film to be processed and printed made you appreciate the time you had to capture the image in the first place.

So knowing that I am going to go home, invest time in editing the images but also invest time and money into printing them has caused me to once again be more considered with how I take the images in the first place.

Iceland has been on my list of places to photograph for many years, but the idea of coming here had gained momentum after I discovered a passion for capturing people in otherworldly locations. Iceland is a place where movies are filmed to ensure the audience is transported to another world so it should surely work for me as well? I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to visit some remarkable places in the past few months and to be honest I thought I was done with my trips for this year but the network effect of having creative friends found me booking tickets to Iceland the month before.

I was holding my phone when a WhatsApp notification appeared on the screen from Elena. “We’re downstairs!” It was a dark and rainy morning in London, a perfect way to leave for a warmer island. I got in the front next to the driver and simultaneously greeted Mark and Elena behind me, whilst also apologising for the early start. Our final moments in the UK were spent in Gatwick airport sharing a homemade cheesecake that Elena had brought. A nice symbolic gesture, but also an indication of how we were all going to enjoy spending time together. Afterall, you can do anything with people that you have shared a cheesecake with before 6 am in the morning.

I was already awake when my alarm went off but it startled me all the same. I’d been awake for a while now, sleep had been elusive since coming to California as I take ages to acclimatise, but this morning was special and my brain had been busy imagining the day ahead. It was 5 am and my body still ached from being in the car for the last two days as we drove from the Bay Area to Death Valley.

My camera bag was at the foot of the bed along with my clothes ready for me to quickly get going. In the room next to mine I could hear the faint movements of life from my neighbour and shooting partner; Sirena. We’d briefly met the night before after she too had driven from San Francisco. She had greeted me in the lobby of the hotel with a massive smile and an enthusiastic hug, any signs of being on the road for eight hours had evaporated.

I arrived at Gran Canaria airport late on Saturday afternoon on a flight from London. It was March 2nd and I had left behind a British winter that seemed to never run out of rain so the heat of this Spanish island was a welcome respite. Somewhere in the arrivals hall was Cristina, my model and traveling companion for the next week, who had also just arrived from Rome.

We had been chatting about this trip for the past two months but had never met before. We shared selfies via WhatsApp so as to be easier to identify in the busy airport. Cristina was born in the Ukraine, but has lived in Italy for the past nine years and to my untrained ear sounded more Italian.

If you know me, or have read any of my past posts you will know I love to print my photographs. That all started in the late 80’s and early 90’s when photography was a day job and I had a darkroom at home. No SD cards or photoshop, the only way to see your images was to process the film and then print the image. You crafted your techniques and eventually got better and better at it, just like any other creative process. But today traditional darkroom printing has been replaced by a digital process that aims to emulate it.

My photographer friends each have different editing workflows but ultimately we are all trying to achieve the same thing, an image that best represents our own creative style. However, in today’s world it is rare that the image goes beyond its digital confines, we tend to share or sell our images on the internet in one medium or another and a printed version now holds a higher status. In many ways it reminds me of my son throwing money at buying vinyl records of music he already owns on CDs and can access anywhere via Spotify.

Kate and I had arrived in Valletta, Malta the night before so had yet to see the city properly. I got up and went out to find some coffee, the benefits of being an early riser being you get to experience new places in the quiet of the morning. This was my first view of the streets of Malta, it was both very new and yet very familiar. The architecture has a Venetian feel to it, the narrow streets are lined with apartment buildings each one with ornate enclosed bay windows. I found my coffee and as I sat down to drink it I spotted a nun. At the same time I got a text message from Kate who was out and about and had also spotted nuns.

We were in Malta to take photos, but also to be tourists and experience the place. If you could do both at the same time that would be an added bonus and by now it was clear we both had an affinity for seizing a moment.

Each year I do a retrospective of my work in printed form, a book of my favourite photos that I have taken that year. This is just for me, a keepsake but also an important medium to measure myself with year on year.

I believe photos should be printed, released from the trappings of their digital siblings. I much prefer the physical aspect of a photo, feeling the texture of the paper and seeing how the image changes in the light. Honestly, I’d rather pick some gorgeous stock and print out a bunch of images and just stitch them together myself. But book binding is an art form I have yet to learn. One day perhaps!

A tutorial on how to create the perfect one light setup for hard lighting. This post contains portraits, behind the scenes photos and a walkthrough of the kit and the settings I use to achieve great results.

I first used this set up when working as an assistant back in the 90’s. It was a common way to do castings, a simple white wall and bare head positioned above the model would provide a consistent way to showcase the talent.

It’s Monday morning here in NYC and my bags are packed ready to fly home after a rather accidental but fantastic weekend trip to the city. Work had taken me to Nashville and the flights required a layover which for BA means NYC. So after the working week I flew back to NYC and instead of going straight home I got off the plane to see family and friends but also to take some photos.

I was last here in June when the city was shrouded in a thick orange smog caused by the Canadian wildfires. At the time I had planned to shoot some street fashion with Marisa Roper who is local to NYC.

You could be forgiven for thinking the salt pans of Gozo were created millions of years ago by meteorites or perhaps they are the remnants of an alien structure. Visually they are immediately ancient, belonging to a history that we couldn’t possibly have learned about at school. The islands of Malta are rich in this same history, one that attracted countless civilisations over time. At the heart of the Mediterranean, Malta is studded with ancient fortifications that illustrate the strategic importance of its location for militaries and trade alike.

I have wanted to visit Petra for many years. It’s one of those places that is immediately recognisable by your friends and yet the same people might struggle to say exactly where it is. It has been the backdrop to movies and covets history from many of the major civilisations this planet has witnessed. It’s an ancient city carved into the sandstone mountains and who’s monuments have stored the treasure of pharaohs or welcomed the Greek and then Roman empires. All of this is framed within a jagged mountain landscape that is only made accessible by enormous canyons.

My first job in photography was working in a professional darkroom, printing other people’s photos. I later created my own darkroom in my parents garage and would spend hours in there perfecting my photos. I’ve always enjoyed the end to end process of photography, the pre-planning, the styling and makeup, collaborating with a model, lighting and of course the photography. But as soon as the shoot was over I would rush to process the film and then print off a few photos. It wasn’t uncommon for me to open the door to my darkroom to discover it was 3 am in the morning.

I found myself in the lobby of a hotel on the outskirts of Salt Lake City in Utah waiting for a chap called Dmitriy, that classic American name, to take me to meet Jenn, the lady who would be the model for our trip. I would later establish that Dmitriy was of Greek origin but born in the Ukraine. I love to travel and I truly enjoy meeting new people, but this was definitely out there, even for me. I was alone in Utah and about to meet two total strangers for a photography tour that specialises in art nude in the desert, how did that happen?

A few weeks back I got an email from work to say that I had a lot of holiday allowance left to use, the second most in the business and we are 750+ people. Use it or lose it! This was timed with me chatting with a model who I had worked with earlier in the year and she was planning a trip abroad, a photo tour of salt lakes and the Moab desert.

I make no secret of the fact that I like contrast in my images. It’s always been a part of my photography since I first picked up a camera. Today when preparing for a shoot I often think about clothes and backgrounds knowing that I want that contrasting look.