Stock - How to turn your kitchen into a war zone...

All in 3 easy steps: 1) Taken a inspired photographer who has just spent hours browsing Flickr.

2) Pop to the local supermarket and buy a wealth of supplies to throw into various liquids.

3) Stand in your kitchen without  a care in the world for the amount of mess you've just made up the wall....Marvellous!

One thing I was always taught as a child was not to play with my food, but when it's this much fun you just have to...

It's been done a thousand times before, but this afternoon I thought I would turn the kitchen into a what can only be described as a war zone. I blame FlickR for being such an inspirational source of media. (Good job I don't live at home anymore, else I think my mother might have killed me with the amount mess I generated)

It was almost as much fun taking the pictures, as it was eating the delicious fruit afterwards. For the full gallery, please click here.

Photoshoot - Drenched...

Not your usual Sunday morning....1:00AM GMT and I'm stood outside. My mother and brother wielding a bucket of water and my 5DMkII. We wanted to get this shot in one take (still not sure why I thought it was a good idea at this time of the morning) to minimise my chance of pneumonia. 40 buckets of water later, and i'm a shivering wreck!

Was it worth it? My brother and mother sure thought so and having just learnt it made it onto FlickR's explore at number #15, i'd agree!

Strobist : 580EX II Off Camera Left, 430EX Off Camera Right. ST-E2 Trigger

Photoshoot - Storm In A Tea Cup Jewellery

Storm In A Tea Cup started out as a hobby for Jennifer, making handmade jewellery in the comfort of her own home. The delicate and intricate jewellery has now taken the market by storm (no pun intended ;)) and as such has been picked up by the reputable "Culture Label" range. Although having plenty of photographs of the jewellery itself, they needed photographs of the items modelled. Upstepped a brave friend of Jen's and we had ourself a shoot on our hands.

If your interested in seeing some of Jennifer's designs please feel free to check out her website Storm In A Tea Cup, or see her items on sale over at Culture Label.

Event - Silverstone F1 Grand Prix

Silverstone, home of British motorsport and the most exciting racing event of the year - the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Very luckily I was given tickets to this years event, and with a background in motorsport I couldn't turn it down.

To open this great British event, the Red Arrows aerobatic display team thundered overhead performing mind-boggling  maneuvers in the sky. Absolutely superb to watch whilst the crowd stood in amazement.

What can I say apart from the atmosphere is absolutely incredible, a true spectacle to experience. Despite nearly being deaf by Lap 3, you really begin to understand how incredible these machines are (as the pass through Maggots corner at speeds in excess of 160mph, some even bottoming out and causing sparks...see below!).

Just like most motorsport events, spectator safety is a priority, meaning photographers like myself with no press pass experience great difficulty photographing from anywhere thats close enough, or even somewhere without a chainlink fence! Still a brilliant day out and one event I'll definately be planning on returning to next year (perhaps with a bigger lens and better vantage point :D)

To see the a gallery of images taken today, please feel free to click here.

maneuvers

Photoshoot - Osterly Park and the Pitsford's Home Guard

Osterly Park is one of the largest open spaces in West London, with it's original footprints dating back to the 1570's. It's spectacular mansion surrounded by gardens and parkland, made Osterly today's location of choice to chill out and relax in the sun. It just so happend that on this weekend, Osterly was being visited by the Pitsford Home Guard. They hosted a display with barracks, uniforms, rifles and even an old Messerschmidt! The phrase 'Carpe Diem' is one that comes to mind here, and as soon as I saw the Home Guard stood next to the plane, I had to ask.......Can i take your picture!?

They were more than happy to oblige, and after photographing a single member of the platoon, more came over to have theirs taken. Hats off to these guys (or is a salute more appropriate?) for being such good sports! :)

I had a great time doing a real impromptu photoshoot with members of Pitsford Home Guard, and hope they like the photographs as much as I did taking them (Well...they did have rifles after all). I've since learnt that Osterly Park was one of the first locations used for the training of the first members of the Local Defence Volunteers (forerunners of the Home Guard).

If your local and are thinking about visiting Osterly Park it really is a nice day out. Please feel free to click here to see the full gallery from today.

Published - Orbis Ring Flash Website Gallery

Ever heard of FlickR? If you haven't you're missing out. Unlike any other site, its simplicty to share photographs, gain exposure the world over and meet interesting new people is unrivalled. Flickr bridges new career gaps from amateur to professional photographers, and it's not uncommon to read how the photographers you admire today, started off uploading on FlickR. Following on from an earlier post about my Orbis Ring flash, James Madelin (creator of the Orbis) spotted my photograph in the Orbis FlickR group and was impressed with it's originality. As such James has now asked to display it on the OrbishFlash.com website. Excellent!

FlickR isn't just a website, it's a community of photographers ranging from the weird, to the down right brilliant. It is full of inspiration, ideas and new techniques to help move your photography to the next level.

For those who haven't, feel free to check out my FlickR account here and if you like, add me as a contact! :)

Photoshoot - Tai Chi Swayze

Tai Chi Swayze arrived in 2010 with scuffed guitars, banging tunes and care worn shoes to dance with - their idea was to have some seriously upbeat fun. With a statement such as making music like a Jackson Pollack canvas (but louder) it certainly had me intrigued. Upon my arrival at their studio in St.Margarets, they played a quick set for us. Blown away doesn't quite describe it (literally because I was sat next to an amp and toweringly high speaker!). Great bunch of guys that produce some seriously outstanding music! I highly recommend you check out their MySpace and take a listen for yourself, or better still get yourself to one of their upcoming gigs. Hopefully i'll get a chance to photograph them in action soon!

A rag-tag mix of art school scenesters, steel city rockers and inseparable ex-lovers from around the globe makes this below picture a favourite of mine. I can just see this on an album cover or magazine cover! The derelict camper van nearby to their studios made a great abstract portfolio shot:

A direct quote from the band, "we rummage through a crinkled mixed bag of quirky Pop, moody Shoegaze and fizzed up New Wave. Live the five Swayze youth play with all the fizz and fun of a retro video game. Add some 90’s Synth, Modern art, New Wave guitars, B-Grade Horror and the occasional vodka fuelled mood swing and you're away." Now if that doesn't want to make you check them out, i'm not sure what will....Well maybe one more photograph to persuade you...

Shooting a band is a first for me, and it's a great learning curve, lighting 5 people simultaneously is a great skill to be able to achieve. I really enjoyed this shoot, hopefully it won't be my last of this kind. Finally, I take my hat off to Tai Chi Swayze for letting me photograph them...keep it up guys! For a gallery of my favourites from the shoot, please feel free to click here.

Photoshoot - Andrew Johnson

From one creative medium to the next, Andrew Johnson is an extremely talented and young animator. One of his short films has been selected to be aired outside on a large screen in Middlesbrough as part of the BBC's displaying young talent, and as such Andrew approached me in the need of a headshot. With very little time to shoot and process the final shot (4 hours!) we had our work cut out. Inside a nearby office block, we produced your standard headshot. Although, not wanting to miss an opportunity we worked on some different ideas using the surroundings (plus, it was an opportunity to use my orbis and with plenty of white wall space, the honlphoto gels!)

The Orbis really excelled off camera, acting as a fill-light source on a low power for most of my shots. For a gallery containing some of Andrew's shoot, feel free to click here. His brilliant short film entitled 'The Stalking' can be seen here via his website and I highly recommend you take a look.

Photoshoot - Amy: "Tor" of Guildford

It's been a hectic week, and Sunday was a chance to relax in the sunshine. After a quick drive down the A3 into Guildford, Surrey I found myself at 'The Mount' with its idyllic views across the entire town. Never one for being without my camera, it made for a great panoramic image with Guildford Cathedral situated in the centre (You can see this image in the gallery). Accompanied by Amy, it was a chance to grab a few images of her enjoying the great British weather. She makes a gorgeous model, right? :)

I particularly like this image, shot on a tight F22 aperture to give the sun that distinctive look (note the number of points minus one can tell you how many blades your aperture is made up of) and lit with a single 580EX II in a shoot through umbrella camera right triggered via the ST-E2 transmitter.

For a full gallery of Amy and my trip to Guildford Mount feel free to click here.

Event - David Hobby's Strobist Seminar

David Hobby, the famous creator of 'Strobist' is known world over. With that in mind, as soon as 'The Flash Centre' announced his tour of the UK my ticket was purchased within a matter of minutes. A one day seminar, based around using small light sources and balancing them correctly to produce your desired look ranging from natural to dramaticly lit portraits. The morning consisted of a presentation, with questions fired back and forth between David and the audience. This created a great rapport between everyone and gave a relaxed open atmosphere to the day.

In the afternoon, the format shifted from discussion to live demonstrations. Below is a photograph of Dave taking a shot and then analysing it on the tethered projector. Really interesting to see how he works, interacts and builds his shots.

The Brunswick Gallery even had celebrity guest appearances in the form of Drew Gardner, but where's his PhaseOne!? :D

It was a pleasure to meet both Drew and David on the day. If your lucky, you might be able to catch David at his last few locations on the UK tour. Highly recommended!