AOP Awards 2016

Delighted to have had my portrait of biologist and seaweed expert, Agnes Mols-Mortensen, selected for the AOP Awards finals, 2016.

This was shot as part of a commission for Land Rover, on the beautiful black sand beach at Tjørnuvík, the northernmost village on the Faroese island of Streymoy. It was raining for much of our seven day trip, which added to the soft light and general mood of the imagery. 

The AOP Awards event will be held at The Old Truman Brewery, in Brick Lane, London, on the 13th October 2016. The exhibition will be open to the public from 14-17 October 2016.

Client : Land Rover.   Agency : Redwood.   AD : Dan Delaney.

Detail.. Note the drops of rain on her face..

Detail.. Note the drops of rain on her face..

Turner's House In Twickenham

Back in the autumn of 2015 I was contacted by one of the trustees of the Turner’s House Trust, who had read in an article that I was a great admirer of J.M.W. Turner’s landscape painting. He asked me if I was aware of the restoration project of Turner’s House in Twickenham, and would I like to contribute in some way. I immediately thought I could help in my capacity as a photographer, and so a plan was hatched, and in March of this year, just days before the restoration work was due to commence, the Trust kindly granted me the great honour of two days access to the house.

I wanted to approach the work in a simple and honest way, and so decided to work purely with natural light, with the single aim of capturing the atmosphere of the house. Turner’s work, for me, is all about drama and the play of light and colour, and I’ve aimed to capture the spirit of that in these photographs. All the work was shot using available light, on the ALPA 12 MAX / PhaseOne IQ180 combo, with ALPA HR Alpagon 32mm SB17 lens.

“Sandycombe Lodge was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself, away from the pressures of the London art world. It also provided a home for his father, old William, in retirement from his trade as a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden, and with old William’s declining health and changes in his own life, Turner sold the house in 1826

Turner’s House Trust intends to restore Sandycombe Lodge and make it available for all as a living reminder of J.M.W. Turner’s life in Twickenham and its influence on his art; 2013 marked the bicentenary of this building, a three-dimensional work by an artist renowned in his time and celebrated internationally today.

The house has had unsympathetic additions and is in a run-down condition. Turner’s House Trust intends to restore it to its original appearance and make it a monument to Turner in Twickenham. Once restored, the house will open to the public and allow visitors to explore a small but beautiful building, with fascinating stories to tell”

For more information on the history and restoration of Sandycombe Lodge, and the Turner’s House Trust, go here. You can also find information on Butler & Hegarty’s web site, the project’s architects, here.

Below is a small selection of the work that I made over the two days that I spent in the house, followed by some behind the scenes images. More work can be found here. 

Images shown courtesy of Turner’s House Trust.

Below are some behind the scenes images showing the ALPA 12 MAX with HR Alpagon 32mm f4 SB17 lens combo that was used for all of the photographs. The MBP tethering set up shows Inovativ’s excellent Digiplate Pro set up.

Lotus For Seven Tenths

I was commissioned by Seven Tenths Dive Wear to shoot this image of the iconic lotus position for in their marketing campaigns and clothing line. 

It was shot early one evening while hovering in the deep blue off the coast of Little Cayman. 

Thanks go to dive buddy Kim Linford for her patience, as holding this pose underwater is a lot harder to achieve than you might imagine!

I used a Subal housed Nikon F90x and Nikkor 16mm ƒ2.8 lens, and Fuji NeoPan 400 with the final image coloured on system.

Ad Campaign For Amgen

This Ad campaign for Amgen took us to Iceland, Bavaria and Morocco.

For logistical reasons we shot the various locations first, and then shot the models in the studio in London, carefully matching camera heights, angles and lighting. The blood platelets were created in CGI and added in post.

Agency : CDM London.    Client : Amgen.    AD : Shauna Kealy.   Location scout : Leonora Sheppard.   Post and CGI artist : Kai Bastard.

Below is a selection of the finished ads..

3 month Production for Virgin Media Business

Last year we were comissioned to shoot a library of images for Virgin Media Business. Now the product is launched we can finally talk about it.

The production spanned 3 months in total (60 working days) - from sign-off to final delivery of images.

Casting - we cast approximately 400 models over 3 days, in order to find a total of 68 people (47 adult models, 5 child models, 6 teens, 2 policemen, 5 firemen & 3 extras)

Locations - we scouted and permitted 14 locations over 23 days.. A hospital reception, an x-ray room, a school, 5 x offices with server rooms, a modern house, a civic centre, a recycling plant, an empty industrial space to park our fire engine, a roundabout on an A-road to park the police car, car parks and loading bays to park engineers vans etc.

Styling - the stylist, Natasha Freeman, had to work solidly for 25 days gathering all of the relevant wardrobe & prop items for this shoot. To name but a few...90 different outfits & accessories, server cabinets, computers, telephones, head-sets, plants, garden furniture, desks, tables and much more...

Travel - We hired mini buses, winnebagos, a cherry picker, dust carts, JCB’s, a police car, a fire engine.. oh, and a Land Rover.. you name it, we had it! 

Catering - over 200 mouths were fed over the period of the shoot, that’s a lot of food!

Agency : Design UK.    Art Director : Pieter Van Loon.    Stylist : Natasha Freeman @ LPA/Style.   Hair & make-up : Hannah Marshall @ LPA /Style.    Shoot production : Holly Brooks @ LPA/Production. 

Below is selection of imagery from the shoot, with larger versions here.

Young Vine Sunrise In Paarl, For Nederburg

Location shoot of young vines growing near Paarl on the Western Cape of South Africa, for Edward Dillon and Nederburg.

We had a window of around 30 seconds in which to capture the sun breaking the mountain line. The shot wouldn’t have been nearly as controllable without the help of The DoP Shop’s Solar viewing glass, which allows safe viewing of the sun..

Agency : Chemistry.  Client : Nederburg   AD : Nicole Sykes.  Shoot production : Leonora Sheppard.

Below is one of the press ads.

The Perfect Bunch For Nederburg

We spent 5 days in the beautiful Sonoma County area of California searching for, and shooting, the perfect bunch of grapes for Edward Dillon and Nederburg.

We shot a mixture of aerials, landscape and close ups.

Agency : Chemistry.  Client : Nederburg.   AD : Nicole Sykes.  Shoot production : Leonora Sheppard.

Below are two of the press ads..