Recent shoot with the team at Barker & Stonehouse for their Spring brochure. Stylist and concepts by Diana Civil.
Last month I had the pleasure of working with Arla on a campaign for their new protein yogurt drinks.
We shot on location in the lake district and North East coastline.
Arla were keen to use real people instead of models.
I have had the pleasure of working with Deadgood for many years on various campaigns. Our most recent collaborations came about when I was asked to photograph their 'Deadgood Future' campaign.
"The collection itself fuses technologically advanced materials, a forward thinking aesthetic and tongue in cheek references, to create a product mix ideally suited to the modern commercial interior. " Deadgood.
Throughout the shoot there needed to be a consistency in lighting and composition. The lighting was kept bright and bold to help define the colour and shape of the product. For the Composition and framing, Deadgood took inspiration from film director, Wes Anderson's 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. The framing in the film is consistent throughout and involves a lot of symmetrical compositions. Nearly every shot is straight-on and often filmed with a wide angle lens. This is something we incorporated into the 'Future' shoot, with all images meticulously set up and shot in this way. A lot of thought going into the placement of the product on the gridded flooring.
Framing the images in this way was a lot harder than anticipated and threw up quite a few challenges on location. We found that adding depth to the shot was essential to prevent the set up looking too flat and giving it a functional feel. Luckily the location lent itself perfectly to achieving this and is full of sections of angled walls and walkways. The location we used was the amazing Coopers Studios and Ryder Architects 'offices.
Another Key element to the shoot was the flooring, which is a subtle references to futuristic films such as Tron and Stanley Kubrick's '2001 A Space Odyssey'. This also helped to add a lot of depth and symmetry to the set shots and draws the viewer's eye to the product.
For a more in depth look into the ideas behind the shoot visit their news page. http://www.deadgoodltd.co.uk/news/
Me and my assistant had a fun filled week living the student lifestyle on campus at Sunderland University. The shoot was to show everything from classes to student halls and leisure facilities.
On a recent trip to Malaysia we visited the Cameron Highlands which is high up in the Malaysian mountain and a region renowned for its tea plantations. While there it was hard not to notice the thousand of Land Rovers which had been worked to destruction.
They are used agriculturally and worked until there is no life left in them. Once they have driven there last trip down the mountain they are simply left at the side of the road. Hundreds wait there until nature overgrows the wrecks and they start to disappear into the near by jungle.
The reason for so many Land Rovers here is down to a tax law which applies to the highlands where local farmers receive a 10% tax cut. There is one rule though which states the vehicles must only be used for agricultural work and are not allowed to leave the cameron highlands. A local farmer told me ''there are more Land Rovers than people here!''
The weathered paint, crumbling metal and jungle vegetation which is slowly taking over these vehicles only added to the beauty of the legendary Land Rover Defender. Sad in a way to see so many left to rot but at the same time they are like statues to the resilience of the defender as you can see the years of hard work in there dints and scratches.
Last month saw the 28th Sun Awards and I am thrilled to have had two of my images chosen in the top 50 with one being chosen as third place in the best image category.
I was honoured to have my images printed and on the walls along side some great photographic talent, some of whom I have looked up to since being a student.
Last month found me back on the farm, this time in Dumfries for a new national Arla campaign. We experienced just about every weather condition in the space of one afternoon, from hail and rain to summer sun.
The Images will be used to adertise the extra 25p which is payed back to the dairy farmers for every bottle which is sold. The images will be used across a wide range of media from large scale supermarket posters to online marketing.
New look branding and website
Read More