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    Friday 29 February 2008

    The Queen Visits Windsor

    I was on Royal duty today as The Queen went on a walk about around her home town, opening a shopping centre and unsurprisingly giving nothing away as to the furor surrounding Prince Harry's immanent return from Afghanistan.

    Thursday 28 February 2008

    Underworld Play The Roundhouse

    I had problems with my 28-70 lens the moment this gig began, so was forced to shoot the majority of it with a wide angle. This meant I had very few good photos from the gig, which was a missed opportunity as there were some potentially some strong tighter shots of singer Karl Hyde to be had.
    Just as with Maxi Jazz of Faithless, I was surprised to read Mr Hyde is over 50 years-old, which is good going considering Underworld's high energy dance music.


    Monday 25 February 2008

    My Uncle's Photos

    I've begun sorting through the photos of my uncle, who sadly passed away last month. Akhtar Hussein was a distinguished feature photographer based in Texas.
    He has a big back catalogue from this travels around the world of some really varied stuff, which I'm yet to go through, but these two images taken of coyote hunting during his time as the official photographer of a hunt in Texas really took my eye. Both had great composition and show amazing action scenes.


    Saturday 23 February 2008

    Guardian Usage

    I was pleased to see The Guardian ran one of my Gutter Twins photos today, despite the grainy, dark light. It was the only landscape photo I filled, but obviously fitted their requirements as the lead music review.



    Friday 22 February 2008

    NME Awards Tour

    Brixton Academy was packed out with teenagers in their skinny jeans, pointy smart shoes and idenical hairstyles as Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong (bottom photo) performed in support of The Cribs (top two photos) as The NME Awards Tour hit London.








    Thursday 21 February 2008

    NME Awards Show: The Gutter Twins

    Following on from the glamour and bright lights of the Brit Awards where I was helping out editing last night, The Gutter Twins, with their dark, atmospheric style proved to be a big contrast. Their NME gig at Koko, their UK debut, was amongst the worst light I'd seen for shooting. Of course, as is so often the case, after the first three alloted songs to shoot the lighting was vastly improved. I've little doubt these guys - Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees/Queens Of The Stone Age and Greg Dulli from Afghan Whigs (photo below) - wanted to be photographed in dark, hazy light where it was very hard to make them out with the lens let alone capture a decent image. I just about had time to take three sneaky shots with a flash before the security spotted me. Still, the shots were at least usable.
    I was a bit annoyed I didn't arrive earlier, as unbeknown to me the superb Ed Harcourt was supporting. I caught the end of his solo slot, and it looked like he was having technical problems.


    Wednesday 20 February 2008

    Brit Awards

    I was helping out editing for a couple of photographers shooting the BRIT Awards. It was good fun to get inside and see what it's all about, as I've never been before.
    Of course the BRITS are hugely commerical and made specifically for TV, which leaves us having to indure the likes of Mika and The Osbournes. A few beers helped this, but there were those who clearly took this too far, as I found several guys laid out on the pavement outside Earls Court Arena having clearly been unable to handle the hours worth of free booze.

    Tuesday 19 February 2008

    The Other Boleyn Girl Premiere

    Freezing temperatures marked the Royal premiere of 'The Other Boleyn Girl' in Leicester square, not helped by having to hang around for 40 minutes for Charles and Camilla once the celebs had moved on from their red carpet walkaround to the warmth of the Odeon cinema.
    Complaints of the cold sooned dwelled however thanks to the appearance of Scarlett Johansson, who looked great.






    Monday 18 February 2008

    Channel 4.com Usage

    It's hard to say if many of my Camden fire photos got used - I'll have to wait for my sales report - but I did stumble across this online usage on the Channel 4 website in their Pictures of the Week gallery (under the title 'Politics'?!). Most photos used in the national press seemed to pictures taken by the public on the scene as it happened.
    It's further evidence of the rise of citizen photojournalism, where the public are in the right place at the right time with their compact camera or camera phone ahead of any photographers at the location of breaking news story. The success of websites like http://www.scoopt.com/ make it relatively easy for the public of take advantage of such situations.



    Tuesday 12 February 2008

    NME Award Show: Richard Hawley

    The NME Awards show gigs are coming thick and fast at the moment with shows most night of the week in London. The concerts provide good opportunity for shooting some excellent up-and-coming bands, as the gigs always have relatively strong support.
    Richard Hawley (top photo below) is a personal favourite - an old fashioned crooner, who has gradually matured into his sound since his days in Pulp. He has wit to add, and following on from the stoned electronica of Maps (middle photo below) and the promising Vincent Vincent And The Villains (bottom photo below), who are soon to release their debut album, this was the most enjoyable gig so far from the NME shows.








    Saturday 9 February 2008

    The Great Fire Of Camden

    My Saturday night with friends was thrown out of kilter when news broke of a huge fire engulfing Camden market. I was undertaking an impromtu portrait session with my friend Nina in my flat when phone calls started streaming in telling of a massive fire burning down not only the market, but also regular drinking spot and key celeb hangout, the Hawley Arms pub.
    I instantly went from being portrait photographer to news hound, picking up an extra body and long lens to make the short walk with friends to check out the scene of the fire. Unfortunately we arrived around 15 minutes too late to get really close to the inferno, where the great photos would have been, but I still managed to get a few from the Camden Lock bridge for Getty. Half of Camden was soon closed off, with hundreds of bemused characters wandering around gazing as fire fighters continued to tackle the fire. There were various rumours abound as to how bad The Hawley Arms was damaged, so the next morning we wandered down to take a look and get some more photos. The evidence was clear: The Hawley, along with one section of the Camden market had been gutted. No doubt both will be back.