Photos by Phoenix

Number 1

Big congratulations go out to Newton Faulkner this week. Shooting up through the charts on three successive weeks, he just knocked Elvis off the top spot.

But I mean – ELVIS! Not enough to be number one in the UK album charts he gives the big E to the Big E. ‘The King’: down to number 2.

So this is my moment of vicarious smug. Didn’t I tell ya? “That boy’s going to the top” I said. Just remember where you saw him first, folks!

So the question is, all you would be stars out there… those who’ve already looked down the barrel of my lens, and those who are still thinking about it… who’s next for the top slot?

The Patience of Angels

Girls, I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to get the black and whites of the ‘Angel’ shoot up. You truly have the patience of … well, angels. The colour ones looked fab – collaboration rules! Hullabalooo, Huck, Ice-hot Hunnies, Trace, Aga… what a great combination.

And I think the black and whites have quite a different feel. These are the 35mm shots – I’ve put them in an album in the left margin. I’ll add the medium format shots over the next day or two. I hope you think they’re worth the wait! Let’s do it again sometime!

Email me if there’s a shot you want and I’ll send it back to you. There’s a button to email me in the right column. See you soon!

Sleeping on the job

I’ve got another blog. You knew? Ok. Called ‘Flaneur’, it’s all about taking life slowly, taking in what’s around me and drinking coffee. Well, it just occurred to me how my photographic blog seems to be my alter ego, rushing around at breakneck speed (including breaking my neck) and shooting from the hip.

So before I go completely bi-polar I thought it might be nice to introduce some balance, and talk about taking it easy on the job.

Part one: say no. I actually had to turn down a job. God, I hate doing that. (and it’s ages since I’ve been to Denmark). But having done that I had a couple of days off like normal folk, and ambled towards my next shoot, which was for L&P magazine, in Wiesbaden, Germany. Time to plan the journey – book a sleeper train maybe? Time to wander over and look into it. And maybe even have a coffee in the station café.

Turned out, as luck would have it, there’s a night train runs from Prague direct to Wiesbaden where it terminates. Great! How much? The price was so low, I had to ask the ticket lady 3 times to make absolutely sure I wasn’t sleeping on the roof or something. Sleep Monday night on the train, wake up bright and early in Wiesbaden, do the shoot, hang out for a while, then sleep Tuesday night on the train back to Prague. No airport security queues for me.

Well, the train was packed. Economy sleeper. Ho hum. Had to squeeze my way into the cabin where I would be sleeping with… 4 young Korean girls. Me? The 13th Duke of Wymbourne? With my reputation? Has no-one thought of the consequences…?!

It had also given me a couple of hours to go prop hunting. The magazine called me to say they might go with the headline “Biting the Bullet”. Could I do anything with that? Well, start with the obvious: grab some bullets.

Albert and Jens, the subjects of the shoot were great fun. Statistics and finance control so cutting edge you need protective headgear. Their office building had been found to be dangerously unstable, so the whole thing was being reinforced, rebuilt from the ground up. Albert thought it was a great metaphor for what they’re doing with the German pension system. So off we went!

A few hours to kill in town, and then the train back. This time a helicopter pilot for company. Cool. Niiice and easy. So… Warsaw next week. Can I set a trend here? Easy life? Unite my Poles, so to speak?

Cornwall revisited. At speed. In technicolor.

Well, as usual I’m behind.

A full-on time, this last few weeks, but I’ve got a few days now to catch up, so I’ll try to share a few shots now.

Since there’s no particular order to any of this, I may as well start with a few from a day I got to spend in Cornwall last week.

Half of these were shot from a speeding transit campervan – here’s the proof!

But I did get some quality time on the cliffs. Makes all the rushing around worthwhile, doesn’t it?

The question is: should I go forwards in time from here or backwards..?!