aftermath!

What an amazing party on Friday night - these are just a few of the pictures - to see more just type the word moon in the password box on my homepage! - very simple but the running horse was the place to be - loads of friends turned up, I feel really lucky to have so many brilliant mates and it was great to see pals from the drama festival committee, chamber of commerce and my evening buddies all together having a laugh. OK, so my singing and dodgy stand up routine may have been cringeworthy to say the least but it was all in the name of fun. Sadly Hilde could not come for long as she was unwell but I am glad to say she is better now. It was a shame my good friends Andy park and Blue White could not have been there but it was an awfully long way to come. Thank you to everyone for coming and sharing it with me and thanks for all the cards and gifts, it was a night I will not forget in a hurry! Thanks too to the Running Horse, Colin the DJ, and the Dukes head for the 'after party'.

My reccommendation for the week is the restaurant in Cobham - La Capanna, I was treated to a lovely meal by Hilde's family there and It was superb!

Not much to report on the work front except I did a great Surrey Life shoot with a thoroughly nice chap called Greg Manchester yesterday, He was located up on Ranmore Common and we had a great time with his dogs and his son Jack snapping away.

So now I am 40 I guess I had better grow up a bit and act my grand old age.....nah! no fun in that. Besides, I have to keep my youth for my lovely girlfriend who is a little bit younger than me although sometimes she is the more sensible one in the relationship. She is in Texas at the moment and I feel like I have had an appendage removed!!

OVER THE HILL AND AWAY WE GO!

Wayhey, I am 40 - cannot believe I have made it to this grand old age. They say life begins at 40, er, well, bring it on!
I will not be in the studio tomorrow as I may be a little hung over!!
hi to everyone, other news: Photographed Mick Hucknall this week at Sandown Park - nice chap, he spent some time with some of the kids from the Childrens Trust and was happy to be snapped with them along with the rest of the band. The concert was good too!
mind you - my era, I have to confess I was a fan of theirs, and Queen, spandau Ballet, The pet shop boys etc etc etc ......

Just got back from a really cool day in London at a music video shoot with Shola Ama the singer who had lots of hits in the late nineties and early noughties and who is relaunching her career! The video included a cameo with Jack Tweed who was well down to earth and had a good laugh doing his thing! Shola was a pleasure to work with and it was a great experience watching how it is all done. Lots more been going on over the past week or two - last week I had a work experience lad with me - Luke who spent the week learning Photoshop and editing. I finally got on top of a ton of bits and peices and am in the middle of another busy week. anyway, more next time but now its late and my eyes are starting to struggle! till then!

Facebook Frenzy

Ok so finally after avoiding it for too long I have embraced the cultural phenomenon known as Facebook. It is strabgely addictive, suddenly I have this new realm of communication and already I am keeping in touch with pals I have not had time to be in touch with, so far so good. I officially have friends now, there is something quite disconcerting about a statement that says - you have 1 friend which is what it said for the past eight months since I sort of signed up!
Anyway, finally I have had a quiet week and was able to catch up with some housekeeping and editing.
This week consisted of a total of ten meetings of varying types, two shoots and lots of screen staring. One very positive aspect of the week was my sessions with Greg Suart from Ultimate Goal who is helping me to re focus on my business aims and is so far very enlightening. Sometimes you just have to see things from a different perspective and this is what Greg does. It is like turning a light on in a remote corner of your head and discovering that actually, there is some sense in there! I will keep you posted on progress but for anyone who is needing a help in the right direction then this is the man for the job, for more info go to www.ultimategoal.co.uk
So, what else? like I said, a quiet week so not a lot! Only two more weeks till I hit the 40 mark and so far I still have not decided whether a party is going to happen yet although I am sure there will be some sort of event involving alcohol and falling over, we shall see!

Looking out of the window, the rain is lashing down and it feels like Britain again! Lets hope that this is just a temporary thing as I was quite enjoying the hot summer weather, made a nice change!
The events are still thick and fast - I even went to a christmas event - a preview at Denbies Vineyard - at one point we had santa jumping up and down between the vines in sunglasses - quite surreal! The Swing and Pop events at painshill were fun and the weather did them proud. The highlights were of course the fireworks at the end of the evening and spectacular they were - pics available to see on my home page!
The Duck race too was a huge success with over £2000 raised and a riverside full of kids and families brandishing duck whistles - a great family atmosphere. For me that preceeded a superb night in Hyde Park with my old pal half pint (aka Andrew Gordon), as we watched the Boss in all his glory on stage at Hyde Park Calling. I have always been a Springsteen fan and this is the fourth time I have seen him perform. For a sixty year old bloke to keep going like that for two and a half hours is pretty amazing - I would be knackered after ten minutes! My reccommendation music wise is his latest album - 'Working on a Dream', and look out for the first track - 'Outlaw Pete' - awesome!
Last week I was in London a lot, for various commercial projects and sweltered on the tubes which I really don't enjoy. I did drive one day and seriously regretted it after getting stuck on the Kings Road for I don't know how long!
Last Thursday I was working for The Children's Trust again covering the Guy Portelli Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Guy won investment from Dragons Den to put on the exhibition which was very good and made even better with support images of Iconic rock and pop stars by famous photographers. I met photographer, Nobby Clark there too whose work is well known and who informed me he had photographed Springsteen (pah!) - For me it was quite an honour to meet one of my contemporaries and to actually have approval of my techniques by him (ie. no flash and prime lens). Amongst the guests was Prince Harry's friend Astrid who was really pleasant too.
Somewhere between all this I managed to go fishing with my girlfriend but it was too hot to catch anything, although it was a beautiful location and it was great to relax in the sun!
After such a hard week sunday was truly a day of rest and it was spent walking with the dog on Leith Hill and watching films, just the ticket.
It would not be right to let the week pass without mentioning Michael Jackson. What a shame and such a musical genius. Once again the press had a field day with an average of six to eight pages per paper dedicated to him for the most part of the week. This I disagree with as he is just one person in a world of billions and whilst he was a superb performer and unique in many ways he did have his dark side and it was obviously his dark side not his music that gave him so much coverage - what a sad world we live in. Nevertheless he was one of those artists who left his mark in some way on most people. I myself won a Michael jackson dancing competition when I was nineteen and recently at a party I relived the experience (after a few jars of the brown stuff of course!) I hope that there is not one almighty battle now for his kids, for their sake . ...and boy, how quick did the jokes start! I bet the phone companies made a fortune on text messages.
Happy birthday to my Nan who was 86 on the 4th July, bless her and my brother Christopher who died when I was younger would have been 37 yesterday, I cannot even imagine what he would have been like but I still miss him so much.
and finally, as Trevor would say, hello to Kristin who is in Namibia at the moment eating crocodile kebabs and doing canyon treks, - it sounds like 'I'm a celebrity....' hope you are looking after my camera, I dont want it coming back covered in elephant dung.
...till next time, I will try not to leave it so long!

This time of the year is all about events and this year there seems to be more than usual.
On sunday I was at Wildlife Aid in Leatherhead for thier open day. It was a little lower key than usual but a fun day with all the usual hilarity from Simon and Vernon the extremely funny and near to the mark compare! That was the second visit for me last week as the centre had a visit from Chris Grayling MP too. For more on wildlife aid and the series Wildlife SOS, visit the website at http://www.wildlifeaid.org/
In the evening I went to see musical version of The War of The Worlds at the O2 - superb night and well worth going next time if you missed it. Also last weekend was Ashtead Village Day which was a big success as usual. This year I did the chopper ride, just to get some aerial photos of the area which you can see via the link on my homepage. Not brilliant due to the weather but everytime I go up and look down on surrey it amazes me how green it is, especially around Ashtead.
This weekend is no different with 4 events on in all. Dont forget the Duck Race on sunday - should be a good day if the weather stays good.
For some reason I am on a downer at the moment, whether it is just because I am knackered from working too much or the annoyance of finding Mr tax man being the only real person that benefits from it all at the moment I dont know, it just seems to be a bit like being on a treadmill at the moment! I'm sure it will lift.
....or maybe it is the thought of turning 40 next month, yeah, that must be it........

Oops, I am getting behind with my blogging - pressure of work you see! This last fortnight has been a pretty hectic one - I was up north last week, sadly to attend my Uncle George's funeral in Barnoldswick although he had lived to a ripe old age and was a real character so it was a celebration of his life rather than a morbid affair. I have been in and out of London for concerts, events and PR jobs all week and am just about to go and climb on the roof at Denbies to photograph their Atrium. Never a dull moment!
Happy birthdays go to fellow photographer Mark Lewis - who was about a hundred and four last week. I caught up with him briefly at Silvermere where he was a little worse for wear. Also to My friend Andras who is 29 today - I believe he is at Thorpe Park today with his new squeeze Vicki.
We had our Chamber of Commerce Focus For Growth Conference on Tuesday which was a great success - the speakers were all very good and it was nice that they were largely Chamber Members so they will get a lot of benefit out of it. Thanks to everyone who supported it.
Hilde and I went to the new restaurant in Cobham - Strada, the other night which used to be Dawson Strange, where I used to work. I have to say I was very impressed with it, the food was very good and the service excellent so that is my reccommendation for this month. However it was a little weird being in there and brought back a few memories of people I used to work with.
It is a little sad that it is no longer Dawson Strange which was there for donkeys years.
....what is going on in Cobham these days by the way? knifings on the high street and bodies in bins, you dont get things like that happening in Leatherhead!
Congrats to Blue's daughter by the way who just passed her PHD much to her Mum's delight.
and hello to all the models at Leatherhead Food International - I am still wading through the editing now!!

Duck time coming up

Greetings all. So now that the annual Drama Festival is over things are slowly getting back to normal. It is never quiet for long though as we have loads of events in the pipeline - The Duck Race, Focus for Growth Conference by the Chamber of Commerce, Wildlife Aid Open Day, Ashtead Village day, to name but a few.
I am currently working on a creative poster for the Duck Race - last year we had a giant rubber duck squeezing through the arch of the town bridge and prior to that it was the 'Leatherhead Duck' on the roundabout by the Plough - kinda taking the mickey a bit out of the Dorking Cockerel (in a nice friendly way of course). This year I hope to have an equally amusing image so keep your eyes peeled and come down on the 28th June to join in the fun. Sadly I will not be there for long this year as I am heading off to a concert in London later in the day.
The weather is lousy today - wet and miserable, not what we need right now, where has the sun gone? I am supposed to be doing some stock photography this week but so far it has been no good. A big congratulation to my pal, Andy Hill and his wife Laura who have just announced that they are expecting a baby, (here's hoping it will take after its Mum on the looks front....only kidding Andy, I suspect the hair style will be similar you yours though!)
Congrats too to Andras for catching an 18lb catfish the other day - wish I was there to see that one. I hear Mike Creasy managed nil poisson - remember Mike, worms and a twig!! works everytime...he will know what I mean. anyway, I'm off, have bigger fish to fry, catch you later!

It has been a busy week with all sorts going on. Kelly, my work experience assistant finished on friday and I hope that she learned loads and enjoyed the experience - whether she will still want to be a photographer remains to be seen. Well done Kelly and good luck for the future. Bobby Davro and Vicky Wright came in to the studio on Friday too and we had a little shoot which was fun followed by dinner in the town. This week there has been a couple of studio shoots and some commercial work so hopefully things are picking up a little on that front.

Today I was at Denbies Vineyard running a small photographic course which was great fun. It is very rewarding to help people understand how to use their cameras and Denbies is the perfect venue being very photogenic and full of learning opportunities. I look forward to running more courses like this in the future. I will soon be offering Photoshop courses too in the near future so watch this space.

Now it is bank holiday weekend, and so for some chillout time. Big hello to my wee pal, Sian and I hope you all have a nice holiday!

Soap box time!

Well, that was a fantastic final night - Michael & Shakira were great as always and the performances were well received. It was all hussle and bustle in the green room at half time as everyone wanted to say hello to Sir Michael who generously posed for photos and signed autographs and the audience watched him present the awards to our winners. Well done to everyone who took part - the standard was superb as it always is and I do not envy the job of the adjudicators one iota. After 28 performances - 30 including the awards night i am now drama'd out for now - it is nice to have an evening to catch up on stuff such as this.
Other news and this week I have some help in the form of Kelly who is working with me for her work experience - hopefully she will learn something and it will give her an idea of whether to persue a career in photography or not.
Entertainer Bobby Davro was in my studio yesterday for a brief visit, they should give you back your saturday night slot Bobby, get us all laughing again, ...we need it with the current state of the country, a bit of humour would not go amiss.
Finally, you may read in the local papers this week that we could lose our town centre managers here in Mole Valley. Here in Leatherhead we have grown and developed since the dark days when we were voted worst high street and this is largely due to the commitment of our town centre manager - Lucy Hanson who works with traders to put on events, encourage new business to the town and attract tourists. Who will do all of this if she goes? plus dealing with all of the other issues that crop up. This could be a very short sighted decision by the local council - the worst time to leave a town to its own devices would be in the middle of a recession.
I encourage everyone to get behind Lucy (and Sandra in Dorking) and support what they do - we do not want to go back to the dark ages and certainly do not need the negative press we will attract with these desisions.
I will get off my soap box now....till next time!