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• date

• February 27, 2012

• feature

• Foster & Son Ltd. Shoemakers telling the story of bespoke shoes

• As part of an ongoing project to chronicle the whole cycle of production of the making of a bespoke shoe, I recently spent a day photographing one of the shoemakers in the Foster and Son workshop, above their premises in Jermyn Street. Foster and Son have a continuous tradition reaching back over 170 years, they are one of the oldest-established custom shoe and boot makers in the World, with a reputation for fine “West End” style shoemaking. Foster and Son was founded in 1840.

  All we covered on this day, was the creation of paper templates from an already completed last and the cutting of the leather for the uppers. other stages including measuring the feet, the creation of the last, the purchase of and tanning of leather, closing and final putting together of the shoe, have taken and will continue to take different photo shoots, in London, Essex, Devon and Northampton.

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• date

• February 20, 2012

• feature

• A boar shoot in the Mazury, Poland January 2012

• In January I went to Poland just as the first snow fell, to photograph with my Leica M9 a boar hunt which will form part of a book showing a small part of this wonderful district in Northern Poland called the Mazury. We got up at 5am, had breakfast, then met the hunters, wardens & beaters in the Olsztynek car park where the rules of the shoot were explained and cards scheduling the position of each gun on each shoot were distributed, before driving off to near the first drive. On each occasion the horn was blown to signify the start and end of each drive.

  At 11 we stopped for tripe soup with bread and at the end of the day as it got dark around 4pm  a barbecue with wild boar sausages, tea and vodka and the marking with blood of a successful shoot for a new member of the group. We had walked about 15km that day in -9 degrees C temperatures! We retired to one of the hunters houses where more vodka was drunk with many a tale of successful shoots and the odd one that got away!.

  The following day I had time to photograph the snowy landscape. You can see more pictures in a slideshow.

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• date

• November 23, 2011

• feature

• Your personal photographer!

• In September I had the pleasure of fulfilling a new type of commission. A Taiwanese living and working in London was taking a few days off when his girl friend came over for a holiday and they had a busy programme visiting London and its many sights. They wanted to focus on enjoying themselves and actually seeing the sights and not be distracted by taking pictures as well. They commissioned me to spend a day with them starting in South Kensington at the Victoria and Albert museum and ending in Knightsbridge at Harrods.

  They were young, full of life and energy and it was fun, photographing them with my unobtrusive Leica M9, informally, paparazzi style, mixed in with some posing and fooling around.

  We had time to visit the Natural History Museum, the Royal College of Music, the Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens, The Serpentine gallery with its summer pavilion and ending outside Harrods.

  You can see some more photographs in the “Your personal Photographer” slideshow.

  So if you are planning a memorable day in town, the country or on your yacht contact me for a quotation for joining you to take photographs of the days activities and I then deliver the images as files, prints, a slideshow or even a hard back book. If its something more ambitious such as a week in the Himalayas, a three day party in Ibiza, the house warming of your Barbados home, a family gathering over a weekend in the Cotswolds, do get in touch and put the icing on the cake with a photographic record, professionally done with artistic flair.

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• date

• October 26, 2011

• feature

• A corner of Belgravia

• I have been commissioned to take a series of photographs of Belgravia for the Belgravia Residents Association (BRA) Members Directory, which is due to be published in January 2012. The brief for the photography is evolving and will include aspects such as elegant, timeless and classic along with “Great people have always lived here. I will be capturing aspects of culture, history, architecture and the environment.

  The pictures shown here are from an initial walk through a small part of the North East corner of  Belgravia near Hyde Park Corner and concentrates on the architecture from some of the grand houses to mews houses, blocks of flats and a pub.

  Future walks, will focus on shops, churches, street life, culture, people and business.

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• date

• October 19, 2011

• feature

• A commission in Poland for a photobook of the Western Masury

• I have recently been commissioned, by a local hotel, Dwor Kraplewo to photograph over a year, the landscape of the Western Masury, near Ostroda, an area 200km North of Warsaw, known for its lakes and forests and spectacular landscapes, which is one of the favourite areas in the country for people to take their holidays, especially walking and cycling.

  The pictures shown here, were made during an initial visit to agree the boundaries of the area to be covered and select the principal locations. The area is full of historical sites and was once being part of Prussia and reflects Poland’s turbulent history.

  I will be visiting 4 or 5 times over the next months building up a picture of the changing seasons, its effects on the landscape, and the varying activities, whilst a colleague writes a very local history of the area, from the 1st World War to now, which will accompany the the images.

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• date

• July 18, 2011

• feature

• A snapshot of life on a Scottish Estate

• You may remember that a couple of years ago I was commissioned to tell, in pictures, the story of ‘a year in the life of a Scottish Estate’ – a vibrant working farm on the borders. As you can imagine, over the course of 12 months, and with the changing seasons, huge transformations take place – both in the scenery and in the working and sporting activities. So it has taken a good two years to capture the key moments and provide an accurate ‘snapshot’ of this 4,000 acre estate.

  In the end I took over 3,000 photographs, chose 800 of these, and had a draft book of 350 pages printed by Blurb to present to the client for discussion and fine tuning.

  This resulted in a small shot-list of further scenes and additional people to photograph, and in mid June I revisited the estate. I took over 300 additional pictures with my new Leica M9 which has now replaced the M8.

  The Leica M9 has several advantages over the M8, including a full frame 18 mega pixel chip, the ability to change ISO directly and to adjust EV settings while shooting – just by turning a wheel. This helps me ensure a scene is every bit as dark as I want it, or conversely that snow is as white as white. With a Leica you can be quietly confident of always remaining in control.

  The book of the Estate now includes new images and is in its final draft. Once printed, copies will be given to the client’s family and the members of staff who make the estate such a wonderful place to live and work in, and above all to enjoy.
  

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