Vinyl love..

Sitting in the garden with some green tea and I can’t help smiling as I flick through and select photos from the weekend. There was a conceptual band shoot on Saturday and on Sunday I traveled into the English countryside to shoot a family portrait session (more on that laters).

I had the pleasure of shooting a Brighton based band called Heavy Dials. They contacted me through a mutual contact whose collection I shot last year and whose wedding I had the honour of shooting in Spain earlier this year. It’s amazing how effective word of mouth is, it’s how I’ve gotten the majority of my jobs and opportunities! What can I say I’ve been fortunate to have some amazing clients :)

Anyhoo we shot the images in Stanmer Park, Brighton (haha any day that I get to shoot amongst trees and moss is a good day!). There were 3 band members, 2 assistants, a dog, me and a TON of props ranging from chairs to a keyboard, a cello and even a giant glass bottle (heavy!). This is just one of the 400 and something photos we took on Saturday. The entire shoot took just over a couple of hours as a lot of the prep was done prior to and earlier that day. We’d already planned out the photos that we wanted to take so everyone knew (generally speaking) what was required for each shot. We did leave room for some randomness and I think in the end we completed 6 scenes and each one is so special because it really was a group effort.

Since I can’t share the photos for a while here’s a couple of behind the scenes shots :)

Photos by John Dryden

what's your passion?

Can’t believe it’s been a year since this photo! It’s funny how 2011 has thrown a lot of different photography work my way (despite all the uni stress). I’ve shot architectural photos for a company in Birmingham, been flown to cover a wedding in Spain, organised some personal shoots that I will show soon and later in the month I’ll be shooting promotional photos for a band in Brighton and have a couple more weddings lined up..phew! It’s all fun and experience. Wedding are a big deal, each time I come away feeling humbled that the couple picked me to record possibly the biggest day of their lives to date! These people that place their trust in my vision give me the confidence to push myself harder and to believe in myself that little bit more.

Photography for me was there ever since I was a child, as the oldest of three my Dad would entrust me with with the camera (and actually who would blame him, I have two younger brothers and I still don’t trust them with my camera!) I think because no one else in our family would really use it or record anything at some point I became obsessed with taking pictures, I think I was about 8. Suddenly I realised that in the 8 years I was alive there were only 2 albums that summed up our lives and all the memories and stories outside the photos in those albums had slipped away.

I guess since then I’ve nearly always had a camera on me, to be honest most of the photos don’t get seen by anyone else but me but that’s ok. Photography for me particularly after I bought a dSLR, opened up a world where I meet people and through that there are more opportunities. I’m a yes person. I’ll always say yes to every thing that comes my way. Right now I’m at a cross roads but I know that whatever I choose for whatever reason, photography for me isn’t going to go away any time soon and that’s kinda comforting.

So I’m curious, what’s your passion? What interest has always been there in your life?

B

Unspoken..

It's been 7 years since I began my Architecture course in the autumn of 2004. The years were the longest and most challenging yet. I made wonderful friends along the way, moved out of home and learnt a lot about myself. Although I do enjoy the subject, photography for me began as an escapism from it all, architecture and my life. Last week was a big week, after countless sleepless nights (and cups of coffee) I handed in my last ever piece of coursework. A few days later I learnt I passed (yay!!) it seems I'll be graduating with a Masters in Architecture after all!

Now that I'm at the end of this road I feel nostalgic for all the memories and the strange little bubble I was in. I feel as though I'm at a crossroads.. having to choose between something I've worked so long and hard for and my passion. I've given myself the summer to travel, work and decide or .. not decide and just see where the road takes me..

:)

Treasure Dress shoot

The blog post for this is long overdue! I was commissioned by TreasureDress (a gorgeous online boutique) to shoot 3 stories for their launch. This photo is from the Enchantment series. Megan (the model) was a pleasure to work with and so was her friend Kelsey. I had a great team whom I'd worked with a few weeks before so felt secure in the knowledge that no matter what happened that day three heads would definitely be better than one :)

All the photos were shot in Brighton. Initially we started at the seafront and later moved to Stanmer Park. I was a little worried about that as I didn't have a chance to scout it before and was going on Vicky's recommendation. It turned out to be perfect.

Equipment wise I was using my Canon 450d and my 17-85mm Canon lens as well as my trusty 50mm f1.8 and used natural light for all the shots.

Right from the morning to when we finished in the evening there was lots of laughter, silliness and fun! Here are some of the photos from the day.. the rest can be seen on my website under commissions and also on my facebook page :)

Model - Megan Waters & Kelsey Birchmore

Hair & Makeup by Lydia Pankhurst

Styling by Vicky Smith

Clothes from TreasureDress

and.. the outtakes :D

Haha Megan's face!

:)

nothing's gonna bring me down..

This is a photo of one of a very close friend! We have lots of fun together and keep each other sane in the madness that is doing a Masters of Architecture :s

I actually regularly ask myself why on earth I am putting myself through this course when it's clearly not something that I can see myself doing in the future and I've come to the realisation that it's probably because I'm stubborn. I've put myself through 3 crap years of undergrad and a year working in a practice I wasn't happy in and getting this qualification means that it was all worthwhile even if it is a little pointless in the grand scheme of things :p

I have learnt that if I can do this! Then I can do anything! I'm stronger because of it, learnt that I can take knocks and get up again and mainly the importance of having good friends! What can I say the pain of architecture has brought us all together..

Anyhoo this photo was taken on the beach in Brighton and it summed up the fun Friday we had. From now on we're gonna make every Friday a Fun Friday.

ps. I now have a twitter :)

Hope you're all well!

Inspirations

Iain Crawford is a beauty and fashion photographer based in London. His images are beyond beautiful. Enjoy :)

my other world..

I was asked to asked to write a few words of my course and experience for the university website. Here's the link if anyone's interested in seeing a glimpse into my other world ;)

dancing inside..

I finally have a website!!! It's designed and created by me through wix.com (would definitely recommend). Let me know what you think!

This shot was taken in the summer in Brighton. We just don't get enough hot sunny days in this country! I had a great team and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed paddling about in the sea :D I definitely get a lot more excited about working with other people than I used to. It's when you find a dynamic that works and you're all inspiring each other and then the magic happens :)