Recently we've been shooting some drinks work for the Savoy. Using the Kinghts Bar which is located above Simpsons Restaurant and looks out onto the Strand. The bar has a Art Deco feel to it and they serve a host of there own signature cocktails such as "Put the Kettle on" inspired by tea and "Don't make a fuss" where the glass has a lipstick lips style glaze added.
Looking back at 2017 and forward to 2018.
2017 was a great year. I was lucky enough to work with some great people and some pretty awesome projects throughout the year. So thank you to everyone who put there trust in me to get the job done! Here are a few little personal highlights from the year, sorry I can't put everything up here, theres just way to much of it and you'd still be looking at this in March.
Better By Bike.
I was commissioned at the start of the year to shoot a campaign for, Bath, Bristol and North Somerset councils for their Better by Bike initiative, the council want to get people to commute to work using cycle paths in the area and its also a great way of keeping fit. Picking up with a similar feel to how we shot for them last time back in 2015, 6 days on location was a fairly chunky project, the weather was mostly kind to us too which is a bonus!
Burts Chips
It was a bit of a strange job when I was approached about shooting some cocktails that were inspired by flavours of crisps for Burts Chips. Even stranger was a Martini with cheese instead of an olive but anything goes in the 21st centuary. We shot them on location in Bristol and there was lots of product on set, which is only a good thing. Super fun job and all of the cocktails looked stunning.
Personal Work
I was lucky enough to find a bit of time to shoot some personal work and tinker on things. Much of 2017 was about drinks on a personal level. I love how technical you can get with these images, spending time refining the lighting and then once the drink is poured it's all done in a matter of seconds. Different story with the bottle images however where you can tinker for an age... Love shooting this kind of thing and want to do lots more so if you've just rebranded something liquid/ booze based, lets talk about creating some awesome imagery for it.
Reach Robotics: MEKAMON
I shot product, lifestyle and campaign images for Reach Robotics new augmented reality based product MEKAMON. These are now available from the apple stores.
Winkworth Sherwood
I spent 3 days in Winkworth Sherwood's office on the bank of the Thames shooting portraits of fee earners for the rebrand. Art Direction wise we wanted it to feel editorial, New York Times kind of relaxed interview. I think we managed that despite spending only a short amount of time with each sitter. Always a pleasure to work with art director Anthony Mullinder.
Strasbourg Christmas Markets
I was commissioned to shoot a large scale paper model of Strasbourg, created by the super talented Sam Pierpoint. It came in at something like 1.6m x 1.6m, pretty big for something so delicate. A whole lot of patience and skill had gone into crafting it. A day in the studio to assemble the model and then a day of shooting all the elements to bring the city to life. There's also a version where the smoke moves and shooting stars ping across the sky. The model is now actually in Strasbourg for all to see and scratch their heads about how it's all put together. Loved this one - heaps more of this kind of thing please!
The Gift Of Cake
The Gift of Cake is a brilliant start up based in the South West. Send cake to loved ones to say a little something, instead of the predictable flowers. There was an awful lot of cake on this shoot, I tired it all and it was all delicious! Very much looking forward to working with their team on some more of this next year as they produce seasonal ideas. Check out there website, all the photography work on there is from yours truly. www.thegiftogcake.com
The Savoy
I've been lucky enough to start shooting for The Savoy. These drinks were shot over a couple of occasions in the Knights bar, which is part of Simpson's In The Strand restaurant. I'm looking forward to going back this year and shooting some new signature cocktails that they may have up their sleeves. Back in 2017, The American Bar, which is part of the Savoy won the coveted title of best bar in the world. A little goal for myself this year is to try and shoot some cocktails for them too! Though the greatest shame is that every time I've been driving, so I can't even sample these...
Its been a hectic and colourful year. Again, thanks for the love and trust. Can't wait to work with you all in 2018. Lets make it even better, brighter and crazier than the year just passed.
Zest Imgery
The guys at Stuff Advertising got in touch last year with a lovely little brief to shoot some food details for a client of theres. Of course I was delighted to help and here are some of the results.
2016: A Year in Review
2016 has been a year of highs and lows. A strange year. One to remember for many reasons, but also one to forget for a variety of things too.
Looking back at the year at the photographic highlights of the year as we prepare to move into 2017. Hope you enjoy looking back as much as I have.
Excited to see what the new years going to hold for us all!
GLITCH - AN EXPLORATION OF REFRACTION.
I recently had an idea about taking the conventional, painterly kind of still life stuff and trying to turn it on its head a little bit. Flowers have been painted and photographed for years. Karl Blossfeldt's early photographic studies of flowers and fauna stand out, but almost every photographer has done something with flowers along the way.
I wanted to try and see if I could do something a little different. Glitch like as it were. Perspex blocks make for a perfect way to achieve that as what they "see" on the ends can be pretty strange at time.
A lot of careful placing and waving a tape measure around helped determine what would be seen through the blocks, here are some results. Retouched by Darek Szwedo (szwedo.co.uk).
BETTER BY BIKE
Back in the Autumn I shot a new campaign for Bristol City Councils Better by Bike initiative (with Stuff Advertising) where they want to encourage people to cycle around the city to help reduce congestion and make Bristol a greener place to live.
We shot on various locations around the city for a couple of days using people who actually live and cycle around the city as our subjects. Using real people who cycle around Bristol was an integral part of the shoot as opposed to using models.
The campaign was launched with a door drop targeting households around the Bristol to Bath cycle track and is now live on the Better by Bike website - www.betterbybike.info/.
I DON'T EAT ANYTHING GREEN
I got into the studio to shoot a little idea that I’d had for a while now. It was pretty simple really, but it all came about after reading something about Kurt Cobain and not eating anything green… A fairly literal visual I thought.
BLOK KNIVES
Sanj from The Quarterly got me together with Ben to shoot a piece for the magazine with the theme of journey. In this instance, the journey of craftsmanship. Ben from Blok knives was only too keen to get involved and was an absolute pleasure to work together on this one.
Its great to see someone who’s so passionate about what they do and taking the time to make something so beautiful and unique in this day and age. Safe to say, I’ll be placing myself an order for one of Ben’s knives sooner rather than later!!
You can check out his work at: www.blok-knives.co.uk
“When I walk into work it just makes me smile, because I know I’m going to make a knife.”