A taxing week!

So - the government are supposed to be helping small businesses are they? Well I for one are not finding that - having fallen foul of the tax on account system I am under pressure now to change what I do to survive. I have my fingers in plenty of pies and pride myself in running an honest and fair business but I feel like I am working for the government now, not myself, God only knows what the outcome will be if things don't change - I dread to think how specialist portrait photographers are managing having seen a general decline as it is a luxury product, oh well, beans on toast for a while it seems!
Next week sees the start of our wonderful Drama Festival, the biggest of its kind in the country, i have just loaded all the galleries, on my site ready to fill them with images of the festival - lots of late nights in the pipeline now but well worth the effort as everyone works so hard to make it a festival to be proud of and it is great to be a part of it. Dick Jones of Jones creative services has produced a great programme and is selling badges to commemorate the event so visit the drama festival website to order one - www.leatherheaddramafestival.org.
This swine flu is a bit worrying eh? a blonde friend of mine was worried about filling her car with petrol the other day until I reassured her that is was Mexico, not Texaco she had to avoid. . . . not a laughing matter I know but it did make me smile!!

ITS ALL GONE CRAZY

What a weekend! Covered the marathon on Sunday for the Children's Trust - what an amazing day - it is a unique event and the atmosphere is awesome. I was lucky enough to have a pass into the VIP area so got to snap away at the likes of Gordon Ramsey, Katie & Peter, Ronan Keating, Jenni falconer etc etc. I captured a good percentage of the Childrens Trust Runners at the half way mark before positioning myself on the finish line gantry to record some of their finishes, which of course included the Andre's and the Yellow submarine which was manned by Lloyd, Priya and the team. Whilst I did not actually run, I felt like I had, after lugging my gear accross London with the help of the Children's Trust's Ruth Allsopp who looked after the PR for the event. Well done to all who ran!

In the past few days I have also done the Denbies medieval banquet, the Leatherhead St Georges day festival and have just returned from the Mad Hatters Lunch in Guildford with featured Louis Mariette, DeDE Valentine, Sally Kettle and a host of other Milliners along with Anthea Turner.

I think I have taken in the region of 4000 images in the past five days! who said that photography is not hard work?

Apologies to all the people I have neglected - I have a load of calls to catch up on and stuff to do - please bear with me, I have to appease the tax man so its flat out at the moment. Better get on!

Going to the Runners, but not the Leatherhead Pub for once!

It is all going on at the moment! - I have just got back from a photocall with Katie Price and Peter Andre at the Tower Hotel in London in prep for sunday's marathon. I was there on behalf of The Children's Trust working with Louis Mariette (Britain's Next Top Model Judge), and Sally Kettle (1st Woman to row the Altantic, twice!) who are also running on sunday. Earlier I was outside GMTV with presenter/reporter, Priya Kaur Jones and Lloyd Scott photographing them with the Yellow Submarine that they are running around with. . . .all good fun - pics are already online via the link on my website.
Good luck to all the runners for the Children's Trust, and the other charities (Rainbow Trust, Chase etc) and look out for me in the crowd, I will be the one wearing a white T shirt!!!!
Yesterday I went along to see Angela Marshall from Appearance Management (http://www.appearancemanagement.co.uk/) who I am hoping to do some work with in the future. She offers a service to help you select the right colours, style and material to suit your skin and personality and has recently joined the Chamber of Commerce. Sadly I realise I have been doing it all wrong up till now and thankfully she has put me on the right track with some excellent advice. I really enjoyed the consultation and am sure that it will be a big help to many of my PR and Model clients - I would thoroughly reccommend her to anyone wanting to sharpen up and improve the way they look - but this really is just the tip of the iceberg as Angela has a wealth of expertise in this and other related fields. Thanks Angela for helping me, I think I am going to have to get rid of most of my wardrobe now!

Hey, the weather has arrived - what a great week, sunny and warm, just what the doc ordered! Everyone seemed to be ill last week with flu and stuff, thankfully things are picking up, at least on the weather front. I have had an interesting week. On Sunday I was at Denbies for the Rainbow Trust 10k Run, too early for me on a sunday but fun all the same. In the afternoon we went to the British Wildlife Centre which is one of my favourite places in Surrey. Tuesday was the breakfast for the Chamber of Commerce at Denbies which was a great success (again) with 54 atendees - I am so proud of what the Chamber is achieving nowadays and the new members it is attracting.
Yesterday I was in London - at pall Mall in the morning doing some PR photography which was good, except for the fact I was 6 minutes late getting back to my car and was awarded a parking ticket for my achievement - then after getting stuck in the wonderful London traffic and developing tourettes syndrome whilst avoiding the stock car type situation in the Strand, I arrived at Excel for the Marathon expo where I was working with The Children's Trust. Unfortunately I dropped my flashgun, smashing it and adding another £350 to the cost of the day! Was good to see the guys at Children's Trust though who were joined by Trojan from the Gladiators, Pria Kaur-Jones from GMTV, Marathon runner Lloyd Scott (the guy in the deep sea divers kit last year, and TV's Lucy Evans (Corrie, Hollyoaks etc). By the time I got home last night I was bushed but my girlfriend decided to treat me to dinner at my latest favourite restaurant - Wagamamas in Guildford - thats my recommendation for the week!!
Good luck to all the runners on sunday - I will be there snapping away - I wonder how Jordan will do and will she need two timings? as I am sure parts of her anatomy will arrive way in front of others!!

What a great week. I have just returned from a brilliant week away on holiday in Portugal with my girlfriend and her family. We stayed in Praia de Luz on the Algarve which is a lovely sleepy little place and basically just chilled and relaxed (something I rarely do!) I actually read 3 and a half books and did not go near a computer all week. I did however take loads of pictures - (...well some things cant change) we also went dolphin watching which was great fun, especially the ride out to sea on a very fast rib! We also visited Villamora and Monchique while we were there - all in all a very nice week away.

On my return I was faced with 150 emails to wade through - yesterday I was working with BBC newsreader Nicholas Owen who was interviewing a local Surrey Personality for a magazine - Nick is a great guy and is just as friendly and genuine as he comes across on TV.

Congratulations to my pal, Andras who starts his new job on monday - good luck, and well done to the Running Horse darts team who topped the league and were promoted last week!

We are getting close to the Drama Festival again, this is when I take a deep breath and prepare for a fortnight of late nights and lots of time sitting in a dark auditorium but enjoying some great performances.

Just before I went away I hosted a children's photography workshop at Denbies. Over 50 kids turned up and we had a great time, it was great to see them practising their new skills afterwards and a big thank you to everyone who came along - there are a few pictures available to view by following the link on the home page.

Once again the weekend is upon us and thankfully the weather is picking up....at last, enjoy it while it lasts. who knows, we may even get a summer this year!

As you will have guessed by the lack of blogging going on this week, it has been a very busy one!

My Surrey life feature on Leatherhead has generated a few nice comments, as has the cover of this months Ashtead and Leatherhead Local which features Bluebells in Norbury Park. I am also doing the cover of the Dorking diary which is edited by Louise Fowkes who used to work here at the theatre. That too is looking promising and I wish her all the very best!

My big disappointment this week was getting my first picture in Hello magazine and them omitting my credit. I have had pictures in the national papers before but not in Hello or OK and so when I finally did get on in it was annoying not to get any credit for it - if anyone cares to have a look it is the one of Shilpa Shetty in her Gymnasium on page 28. It was good seeing it in there nonetheless and I have to thank Max for the opportunity, he has passed me quite a few very interesting jobs over the past couple of years. Talking of Mr Clifford, I was lucky enough to be a guest at Hush in Mayfair on Tuesday night for a 'cash for questions' charity evening with Max and the Rainbow Trust. I lost count of how much wine I drank as they kept topping up the glasses when you were not looking but it was very good and Max himself was very entertaining indeed, they raised about 4,000 on the night which was great news!

On Thursday I attended the Denbies Gatwick Diamond award celebration - it is a great result for the vineyard and I am proud to be associated with them - I went along with Zen George from the local who was very excitedly telling everyone she had recently had installed a streamline visa machine in her bedroom! This of course is because there was no telephone point free in her office you understand and not because she has some sort of sideline going on - got a few laughs around the table all the same. I also went to a reception at 'The Chapel' this week - the very impressive and inspiring home of Phoenix plc who are hiring out office space in their building - one of the most creative I have ever seen. to see more go to http://www.thechapelsurrey.com/

This weekend is a quiet one and I am going away next week after a busy monday and tuesday!

I have been so busy that I have missed a few birthdays this last few weeks and here is my chance to redeem myself - I might add that in most cases I was not told about them till after the event but here goes anyway - firstly my wee friend Shorty who is coming in for a portrait shoot soon and is one of the best posers in surrey!, top RAC man - Mr T, the wonderful Jenny Gabbert who makes the best fruit pies in the world, the awesome Dick Jones and my Mums fella - Duncan Maddox - happy birthday all.

...time to get some editing done - have a great easter and long may the sun shine!

Part two of the de fragging my internals fiasco and my pal, Andy Hill is here working on my computer - finally he has managed to sort out one of the major problems and is doing all sorts of weird things to make it run smoother - I have not got the foggiest what he is doing, my limited brain knows very little about the tech stuff other than anything to do with imaging.

I went to a preview at the Holiday Inn in Chessington on Thursday with Chamber president John Hickey. It was to showcase their christmas 'Las Vegas' themed parties and was very good fun. They laid on some amazing food and free drinks and the entertainment was good too. Throughout the evening there were magigians, cartoonists and showgirls wandering around as well as a kookaburra, snake and parrot! As you can see, I had my cartoon done, - not sure about that nose but the ears are about right!

Met up with TonyTijhuis - the manager of the Burford Bridge Hotel, yesterday to talk about Chamber issues and a project I am working on. I have done weddings and such at the hotel in the past and have always liked it there but it has been very nicely refurbished recently and is well worth a visit for lunch or tea, especially as it is in such a lovely location at the foot of box hill.

Tonight I am going to my local to see Thunderclap Newman - my old friend Tony will probably know them....by the way Tony - check out Blue October - especially the album Foiled - you will like it! Hi too to wee Sian, hope you are ok, and Blue up in Scotland - have a good weekend all, ...whats left of it anyway.

secret celeb shoot!!

I had a lovely shoot today, the results of which will hopefully end up in a well known national magazine - I will let you know a bit more about it when I get clearance but it was good fun and involved someone very well known!!
Surrey Life came out today, with a nice two page feature on Leatherhead which I am quite proud of! I am having the rest of the day off with my girlfriend who is currently fast asleep on a chair in the corner of the studio - I have not got the heart to wake her though!
anyway off now to get something to eat and make the most of the sun.

Monday morning again - the weeks seem to be flying past at the moment - at least spring seems to be on its way. I went for a walk along the river Mole in Norbury Park yesterday and noticed the buds about to spring. Life is so much better when the sun is out too.

Sad to hear about Jade Goody yesterday - it is nice that she has seemed to have been accepted finally by people for who she was - a lot of people did not like her as she was brash and not that well educated but in fact she was very shrewd and straight forward and I believe very genuine. Now people have seen that she was actually very courageous and that the reasons for doing things the way she did were actually largely very selfless - she has raised the awareness of cervical cancer by a huge amount and has caused an increase of smear tests of over 20% which is a hell of an achievement. Lets hope that people do not forget and that lives continue to be saved because of her courage.

I myself had a busy time last week, what started off as a quiet one turned into the opposite and I ended up working quite late most nights to keep up with the editing. I did some work for Which? magazine in Banstead and a couple of local conservative councillors came in for their PR shots, thanks mainly I think to my friends David & Sylvia who have been acting as my Public relations officers lately!! On Friday I was up early (not like me) for the Queen Elizabeth Foundation Corporate Golf day at Tyrrells wood - lucky them, the weather was fantastic and it seemed to be a very successful event, I photographed all of the teams as they teed off - Roger Grunsell from Swan Lettings was there with two teammates in dark shades - he looked like he was flanked by minders in his pic. Well done Dave and team for putting on such a good event and I hope you raised plenty of wonga.

Sadly we have another casualty in Leatherhead shop wise as 'Inside' closed on saturday - they are re locating in Walton on Thames leaving an empty gap at the front of the Swan Centre. Not good! lets hope it is filled soon. I noticed that finally the old Dawson Strange studio in Cobham is going to have tenants again - this time as a restaurant - it will be a strange experience (pun intended) eating in what was my old place of employment. Also I believe Pizza Express are moving back into Cobham soon. However if you really want to eat out the place to be is the Vecchia Trattoria or the Tatty Vicc as we locals like to call it here in Leatherhead - they are experimenting with dancing on odd nights now as well as having a quiz night on a thursday - the food is great and remember you will be supporting a local independent business rather than a big chain so go and see Chris and Susan in there and keep trade local!!

Finally my music tip for the week is Pete Doherty's new album - Grace/Wastelands, which is surprisingly good, not the grungy haphazard stuff you would expect from him but melodic and well written tunes that actually show that he has some talent and it is not all about drugs and Kate Moss, best track is 'Last of the English Roses' - my good friend Tony, will be off to Spotify now to check that one out!

Weekend off!

For the first time in absolutely ages I have had the whole weekend off. On Saturday I went fishing with three pals at Bury Hill near Dorking. The weather was good and I expected a day of ribbing as I had very basic tackle - 2 rods (one from argos), no high tec equipment and just lug worms and sweetcorn on a feeder with a bit of groundbait. The others were using state of the art carp rods with specialist baits and all sorts of stuff, they also had alarms telling them when fish were biting wheras I had a snapped twig balanced on the line on one and a clothes peg on the other. Just goes to show though that the basic way often works best as between us we caught seven fish and five of them were caught by me!! What a victory! I have to say I was a little chuffed! Catch of the day was my nice five pound tench (good size for a tench!) .

Yesterday was spent driving round Surrey making the best of the weather for a bit of landscape photography with my girlfriend. Being a keen photographer herself and having a more creative eye than me it was nice to be challenged and also nice to do it for fun rather than money.
We stopped for a coffee in Cafe Rouge in Reigate and took in the Stepping Stones on the Mole, and Newlands Corner near Guildford before heading back to Fetcham for a chicken dinner and a movie.
All in all it was a very chilled weekend and I have arrived in work today feeling much more able to deal with the stresses I normally face on a monday. maybe I should take weekends off more often.

Sad about Jade Goody, much as many people including me feel she is in the middle of a media circus and that it is painful to watch - you have to admire her courage and my heart goes out to her - lets hope that the good she has done in making people aware of the dangers of not having scans continues as her legacy and that she is allowed some peace from the media over the next few days, I know Max is doing his best to keep it as as well managed as possible.

Lets hope the weather continues like it is, it is very sunny today and about time too - I think we have all had just about enough of the bad weather for one year - heres to a tropical summer!!
time for a visit to Costa me thinks!!