Meet me on the beach is an on going project, the aim is capture the sunrise and the surf complete with a model.

4.00 a.m starts, this isn't for the faint hearted. The beach's of Hartlepool are cold and the sea is freezing.

The Mighty MenCED Stone Group Ireland team

The Mighty Men of CED Stone Group Irelands Depot headed up by manager James Kane.

The guys had totally transformed the depot over a six week period, putting in new displays. moving tonnes worth of material for the first Irish Trade Show.

Hard working, honest with the company at their hearts these guys really did put on a show.

What3Words, Perennial and Life Less Ordinary...Build your tribe

What3Words appeared on my radar about two years ago now, and I got it. A game changer, it can save lives, give people an address, save time, save fuel, help locate things and people and a lot more all by a free app.

To save time explaining all about What3Words, you can read about them here What3Words and get the free app here FREE APP.

Now I know most of you haven't clicked on the link, so here's a brief explanation;

Easily find a what3words address for anywhere in the world.

We have divided the world into 3m squares and given each square a unique combination of three words.
what3words addresses are easy to say and share, and as accurate as GPS coordinates.

51.520847, -0.19552100  = /// filled.count.soap

Now you're going to ask what has this got to do with photography. Nothing, but it relates to my job at CED Stone Group. 

After stalking the company for two years, they finally contacted me to see if we'd like to partner up and spread the word, change lives and help the environment. Simple answer to that is yes and so here I am spreading the word.

As a company CED Stone Group will be using What3Words to locate each depot, give the option at checkout to use the ///what.three.words address for delivery, promote with haulage companies the use of the app, promote within the landscaping industry the use of the app and lots of other ways as they drift into my mind.

If you're wondering about the picture, here's the story about making connections or forming your tribe as we say these days (I'm sort of down with the kids.. ish).

What you're looking at is bracelets from Life Less Ordinary, which are super cool and meaningful to their owner. The What3Words are the location for a bench at the bottom of my street where I sit on a morning and watch the sea.. drink coffee and catch up on social media.. my "space".

The other bracelet shows my support for Perennial and has their help line number on the reverse, so it's always with me.

I'm hoping that I can spread the word for What3Words and hopefully with the friends from my tribe we can do good things together, change some lives.

Watching the sea from ///purely.member.gatherSometimes you need your space

Now now go and get the free app here FREE APP. and lets see how you can use it.

Recently I got approached by GoLandscape to take on commissioned work, shooting landscapers and designers.

My first question to Steve was "why me?". The goal behind GoLandscape is to attract young people into the landscaping sector as a career, so the goal behind the images is to make landscaping look fun, cool and sexy.. over all exciting and a career worth taking on. Steve had reviewed my website, especially the stylist shoots and "wants to bring some drama to the images" he said.

This image is of Lekha, team leader with John O' Conner Grounds Maintenance Ltd shot at the BBC in London. I shot with the teams for the day and had a real blast with them all, they really got into the spirit of the shots.

It has set me thinking about commercial work, producing images for companies and perhaps a little video.

I recently did a tribal fashion shoot on location and decided to try a little video with the Osmo Pocket.

The Osmo has recently been added to my kit. After using it to shoot an interview at RHS Cardiff the little thing has impressed me.

Have to say I loved the results we got after a little editing, I've already been contacted by two bands asking for the footage.

Due to playing with video I've become more interested in my YouTube channel and will be putting more time into the channel and promoting it. Every marketing guru I have spoken to lately, the mantra is the same.. "video video video".

People have asked is the Pocket worth the money and is it better than a GoPro.. for me yes it's worth the money and is much better than my GoPro thanks to the gimbal. I've solved the sound recording issue by adding an external microphone (sounds going to be another learning curve).

The actual video involved three smoke bombs and walking round in a circle. I fell over twice walking backwards and Lauren walked into a tree, the smoke being that thick at times.

As usual much mayhem and laughs goes into these shots. Behind the scenes, much planning and thought.

PowerLove doing powerful images on location and love love love smoke.

Actor Head Shots.. so important.

I've always loved shooting portraits, but Head Shots are an extreme version. They have to be lit and edited in the correct manner, even sized correctly.

These shots could open a door or close a door, a persons acting career in your hands as a photographer.. no pressure then.

I involve the client in the whole process, from types of lighting through to the editing stage I consider it that important.

Now people probably think living in Hartlepool there's not may actors, well your wrong. Hartlepool now has a great university and part of it is film production.

Max here is off for an audition in the West End, a musical.. I wish him all the luck and if my head shot helps him.. that's great.

I haven't blogged for a while mainly because I keep forgetting to blog, not that I haven't got stuff to blog about.

A dream came true this week, I got to fly the Bat in the local church St Hilda's at Hartlepool all thanks to a local band LORE who needed some video footage to go along with a new track.

I met the lads at the church along with vicar. After greetings and me proving that I was a decent guy.. I plucked up the courage to ask.. "Can I fly my drone in here?".. none of us thought we'd get the answer back, "Sure.. just be careful and can you have a look at the windows while your on.. one of them fell out recently during a service". We had the green light!

The lads got cracking setting up and I did some phone footage of the lower windows.

Half an hour later, LORE were making some amazing music in what is an amazing space.. and I took off and started filming it all.

The video shows the church in a new way, and the music is excellent.. this is my edit of the day, not the actual video that will be produced.

Go check out LORE

A friend said this week, "your like a sledgehammer.. do you ever bloody stop?" as he turfed me out of his office again. It hit home to be honest and worried me. The need to win or be the best has always been a nagging part of me, driven or obsessive.. it's hard to tell.

I never thought I was creative, I thought I was a "builder". At work I build teams, in the past I've ran paintball teams, I've built a worldwide gaming clan, built websites... always with the "building", how big can we make it?, how far can we go? how much money can we make?. Then photography happened for the second time in my life.

I've fallen in love with the camera, but more so with the creating of images. Over the past five years this passion has come with a price, much soul searching about my photography. Is it photography or art? I'm not really used to creative soul searching like trained art people (the wife). Apparently it's all part of a process.. who knew?

When I can't see the path or "do peoples heads in" with this mad passion.. then it seems easier to give in, stop and put the energy somewhere else.

Then someone say's one little innocent comment on their photograph from a shoot, about how the picture makes them feel.. "I FEEL FIERCE".

"I FEEL FIERCE".. Victoria wrote under her picture on Facebook, and I filled up inside. How can I give up if I can help one person feel so good about themselves? Three words that saved my photography..  

What can you say about Peaky Blinders, I love the TV show. OK.. so it's not historically correct, but I love the characters and how it's shot.

When Matty asked would you fancy doing a shoot based around it I jumped at the chance. I really wanted to create the look and feel of the show and Matty went all out on the costume, props and haircut.

We decided to shoot over two locations, Preston Park a local museum for the street shots and my cellar studio for the portrait shots. 

The museum staff were great and welcomed us in.. "on order of the Peaky Blinders" as one of the staff said. I'm always polite and seem to get anywhere if you wave a camera around with a 70-200mm lens on it.

It was freezing cold, so we shot fast and headed back to the cellar.

Matty had a couple of shots in mind, a couple we grabbed at the front room window. At this point Matty had to smoke his first ever cigarette, which gave us all a great laugh and Matty a huge coughing fit.

I used some old blinds and smoke to add to the atmosphere in the cellar, and some new light setups on some of the shots to get the TV look.

All the shots were edited in Lightroom with a preset I made myself to get the colour coding as near to the TV program as possible.

I loved this shoot as it tasked me to create a "look".. I think we achieved it.

Last of the Chernobyl phone films, this time playing with a musical score.

This has been up on YouTube for a couple of weeks and gathered a bit of interest and questions. The dog is a wild dog, not my dog though that is my whistle. The music is royalty free music bought through the editing package.

I've really got the bug for playing with video at the moment, it's given me new tricks to think about. The learning curve is pretty steep, but reminds me of when I began photography. I'm spending hours on an evening reading, watching YouTube and chatting in film groups to try and catch up to my piers.

The Zone, better known as the Exclusion Zone at Chernobyl is a must visit if your into urbex. A town that has been abandoned for 30 years, a town where people evacuated and left everything behind, a town where nature is reclaiming it's space.

I hadn't really planned to visit Chernobyl but a chance came up to shoot a festival involving the local art college, CCAD . This would give me a chance to make new friends both locally and the Ukraine, so I packed my gear and went.

This blog shows the shots I got from scrambling about in the buildings, what a place and what an adventure. 

As I don't normally shoot landscapes or buildings remembering how to set up the tripod took sometime and gave much amusement to a new photographer friend. Everything was rushed, ducking and diving into buildings you were not supposed to enter, hunting down shots and quickly setting up and then getting out.

I also shot a little video on the phone, a regret is that I didn't shoot more. As usual I was travelling too fast, with too many thoughts and not enough time to do everything I wanted to do.. so another visit will be called for, taking more gear.. "the dogs" and "the bat".

The video below shows Pripyat Cafe, complete with it's amazing stained glass. A fantastic piece which I could have shot all day.

A work trip up in the Highlands gave me a chance to give The Bat a couple of flights in among the mountains. 

The visit was to catch up with old contacts and touch base with some new quarries. The boss and I clocked up some miles during the week, long hours and lots of miles to be honest, but the scenery was awesome. 

Luckily for me, the boss happens to be a drone pilot himself, so didn't mind the jumping in and out the car to grab some flight time.

I shot some footage of one of the quarries, all went well until The Bat decided to take things into it's own hands and crash in to a gravel pile. This made me very nervous from then on. Even with all the tech on board these things still do strange things by themselves. Luckily.. no damage.

The wife and I are planning a road trip up to the Highlands soon after reviewing this video, we think we can do better. Planning more photography and now.. a little video.

After much thought and people asking, I've bought a drone. Me being me it has to have a name, so here's The Bat.

The plan is to learn a little bit of video production along with the photography and add this to a skill set. I'm still pouring hours of my free time into learning photography so adding, learning to fly, the rules and regulations, shooting from a drone and learning three new video editing programmes should keep me busy.

The good thing about The Bat is it's state of the art technology and is actually a flying camera. I'm hoping the learning curve isn't so steep as the last drone due it nearly flying itself.

The video above is flight number three and actually video number three, so still lot's to learn.. but it's a start. In other words, yes I know it's not a great video, it's tooooooo long and some of the flying is poor.. but if I apply myself to this form of art like I do to photography, hey who knows. 

HD Studio is located in central Newcastle, several shooting spaces, very well equipped, wifi and kitchen, changing rooms etc. A very impressive creative space, so many backdrops and rooms it was actually mind blowing. Studio One has to be mentioned with it's towering infinity wall, it's worth visiting just to shoot on it alone.

HD Studio is the creation of Stuart Henderson and Craig Devlin. A years worth of hard graft has gone in to the place by both the guy's, and the attention to detail has to be commended.

Both Stu and Dev are cracking photographers, guy's I've followed for a while.. so going to hang out with them was a bit daunting if I was honest.

As I've never attended a workshop with professional models before, I didn't really know what to expect. 

From walking through the door everyone made me feel very welcome. Dev gave me a quick walk around, Stu then picking up on the tour and introducing me to everyone which is a really nice touch and broke the ice.

Meeting the models was cool, both girls being professional models.. Maz Ulvants and Faye Hunter were very approachable and pulled off "looks" and poses that made it hard to take bad shots in all honesty.

I got into the swing of things as the day progressed. There was planned clothing changes and different areas to shoot in, lights being set up before our arrival at the area. Everyone taking turns at shooting, some posing the models, some just going with the flow.

Shooting on white backgrounds has never been my thing as I'm unsure of the results, also fashion style shoots is alien to me. So did I enjoy myself and did I learn anything from the day?

I had a real laugh and made new friends (hopefully) and I got some great shots. I would do it again and recommend HD Studio.. I'd also recommend Stu and Craig for advice on photography, and I'd recommend Maz and Faye as excellent models, who are fun and helpful with the shots.

Here comes the but... 

I can't get past the feeling these aren't my images. I'm so used to working through an idea, setting lights, planning locations, bouncing ideas back and forth.. I think I love the creative process as much as the photography. This is the biggest thing I learnt from the day, a bit of self discovery.

But.. HD Studio.. I will be back. I did learn new lighting settings.. I just want to get my hands on those lights and play. 

On a final note, if you are a pro or an amateur photographer.. just go check out HD Studio.

Shooting the folk festival again, meeting friends, hanging out, listening to music and doing photography.. could it get any better?

Here's an interesting thought though.. what do wedding photographers do at a wedding if they are feeling ill? Battle through I suppose?

I wasn't well for most of the weekend and skulked around in the merch tent with the wife. I did get to meet some great new people and got some pictures over to Findlay Napier for him to use (fabulous artist).

Roll on next year, the festival is going from strength to strength so I'm hoping I'm chosen again to shoot.

Step one of a new tribal shoot, checking out the makeup and headdress.

I also wanted to practice back button focus on the Sony, something I set up during the week. I have heard many thoughts on back button focus so thought I'd give it a try and see if it helps me nail my focus. I just haven't been nailing the focus lately and felt I've been getting sloppy with my shoots and could do better.

Lauren and I have so many ideas for shoots, styles, locations and shots my head nearly explodes with the ideas. We have had the tribal shoot on the burner for a while, this is step one.. the next will be on location with and outfit.

Today Lauren dragged herself round, full of cold and tired.. I keep asking myself why are we doing this? I have a burning desire to be a good photographer, to learn as much as I can.. I can't help feeling like I'm playing catch up with my peers. This leads to me nagging friends to shoot.. even when they are ill. I'm going to try and stop this to be honest before I kill one of them.. "Death by Photography" will not look good on a young persons grave stone.

I know to some the shoots appear the same, but like Lauren says.. we both learn something on every shoot. Today I practiced back button focus and had two "dogs" for lighting, one gridded to light the feathers.. I didn't nail this, but it's a start.

I'm hunting for a location for the second part of this shoot, the image is in my head. I know how Lauren will look, the props needed and the lighting.. now all we need is the time and good health to get it done. Thats what drives me.. getting it done.

I had this sort of shoot in my head for a while, so when Bethan asked to shoot with me I knew we should go for this look.

Coming from Hartlepool we have some great beaches, but not hot sunny mornings. A 6.00a.m. morning shoot was always going to be a bit chilly... and it was. The big plus side, we arrived on the beach at just the right time to start watching the sun come up over the horizon.

I got "the dogs" out and set up. I have no idea why I call my strobes "the dogs" apart from I can say "release the hounds" or "who let the dogs out?". Perhaps they remind me of barking dogs when they flash?. They are all labelled, Dog One to Dog Four so I can keep a track of them in a lighting set up and know which one to switch on, turn up or down etc..

Never having shot with Bethan before it was a great surprise and relief when she started pulling off poses. Posing people is not one of my great strengths and something I'm working hard on.

I got my settings nailed in and we shot quickly, me being worried that Bethan would freeze on the beach. This proved to be totally ungrounded as she proved to be oblivious to the cold.

We had a quick break, taking some time to chat and for me to swap lenses and pack the "dogs" away. Bethan did a quick change and we headed down to the shore for some softer style shots, using some of the old pier.

Spotting some old wooden pier legs, we decided to use them. At this point Bethan decided to fall in the sea! I nearly died and she thought it was funny and never stopped laughing. I worried from this point on that Bethan may freeze to death, but with some good stuff in the camera we decided to call it a day and head home.. mainly so Bethan could get warm.

People don't see the time that goes into editing from a shoot, this one would take me the rest of the day. I like to get the pictures edited and back to the model as quick as I can because I know they are as excited as I am to see what's in the camera.

There's a few different editing styles from the shoot, I like to play with the images, experiment and learn.

I've had a great response to these images, but most of all Bethan is thrilled with them.. we'll be shooting together again.

I was invited to shoot some stills for The Four Colour Ghosts and take some friends along to be in their new video, Freak. I'm lucky to have some great creative mates who were up for it and didn't mind helping the band out.

Amy turned up wearing a Killstar outfit, it just had to be shot.

While we were waiting around I'd spotted some long reed grass, the perfect place to get a couple of lights out and shoot. I was looking for a semi fashion style look with a mysterious edge.

We only had time for a couple of shots, not much time for chat or different looks. I normally like to shoot for about three hours as it gives time for the model to relax and a couple of ideas to be worked through.

I`m happy with these shots and I'm hoping Amy will give this another shot sometime.

The festival runs over two days, one major event place Hartlepool's Maritime Experience which will be fabulous for a folk event. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Yesterday we had a run down of the brief with the festival manager, outlined times of acts and where they will be located. It's a very busy schedule and I'll be working my butt off for this event, but we get free food and beer.. BONUS!

I don't mind doing events, especially if there's music involved. I guess I'm drawn to creative people. Talking of creatives, the art work for last year and this year was all created by Mandascat, a talented local artist. Go check her out, she'll be there again this year selling art.

I plan to do some portraits this year, so if your reading this and plan to be there come up and say Hi. You may end up with a portrait as well as a great time listening to the music.

I have a project in mind called "The Girl". 

This project came about by accident during a shoot on the beach with a friend and some props. A shot from behind the model made the image mysterious and open to storytelling in the viewer's mind, so we have decided to do more.

Over a period of time "The Girl" will appear in different settings and carrying different props that relate to the surrounding area, or giving a nudge to a suggested idea.

As with projects of this kind they may take a while to complete, but this may turn out to be the fun of them.

I'm getting the first shot printed and framed for my office wall to add some character to it.

This shoot has made me think that I need to have a chat about stylist shoots and what's going on in them.

A few people have asked, what's it about?, why?, why is she doing this?, what happens to the images? and lot's of other things to be honest.

I always answer these in person, but still understand that people sometimes don't really get it and may think it's a little odd.

I can answer all the questions both for me and a few of my model friends I think.

This type of shoot is about creativity. Here the young lady has made the costume, done her makeup and props. Sometimes this process is joint, lot's of discussion over style, colours, props etc. Sometimes not so much and then it's called "winging it".

I'm still learning photography so a stylist shoot is no pressure, no money changes hands and it's a case of.. let's see what we can get. I learn lot's about lighting on a stylist shoot, which then comes in handy when I shoot bands and portraits. 

I also learn about communication with a model, how to make them feel comfortable.. and how to make me feel comfortable. Normally this leads to lot's of laughs. I think I'm improving in getting a model to pose, which has been a huge weakness from the start.

So.. you can see for me, it's creative, practice and fun.

For the model, creative and fun.. but for this young lady.. a bit more. She's using these shoots to open the door to art college, her makeup and prop skills are going to be put to the test this year as she embarks on a Product Design Degree at Hartlepool  College of Arts. Students from here have gone on to work in TV and the film industry.. so I wish her all the luck.

So I know people won't "get" all of my images and that's ok.. I'll keep on being creative and having fun.. and if it helps someone along the way that's a great bonus don't you think?

I never guessed a few years ago that I would be shooting for the company that I work for. I've now shot shows, Hampton Court Flower show being the latest and now shooting for the marketing team.

The remit was to show the skill and attention to detail that Steve has when it comes to his bespoke stone work.

The focus is about the man not the machine, so I focused on Steve's eyes... the focus he has for the detail in his work. So you could call this a portrait shoot.. with water and a stone saw.

I'd like to think that my photography skills will be put to good use again.

Equations of Meaning.. another Tony Patterson release, I could really say now.. another album by my mate Tony. Before I go into the photography, you can buy the album from Cherry Red Records.. if you love Pink Floyd and Genesis, then you'll love Tony's album.

OK.. down to the photography and the concepts Tony and I came up with together.

Equations is a very personal album to Tony, you could even call it a sound track of his life. With this in mind, the images had to be thought through and crafted carefully.

I came up with the idea of a chair, on a lake shore (Tony's image of peace and reflection), whisky glass, old photographs etc.. Tony through a crucifix into the mix. The chair seemed a great idea until we had to carry it half a mile.

We also decided to shoot some portraits by the sea. With this sort of work you never know where the publisher/ record company could go with the images. During the day we laughed a lot, mainly at the fact that Tony discovered I'm mad when it comes to creating the image, his words.. mine would be creative..

I also took a few portraits for promotional use, magazines etc. These are always good to have up your sleeve when working with musicians and artists.

Over all, I was happy with the images.. Tony loves them and the record company used them throughout the album.

So here the debut album has arrived, sounds great with some huge anthems. I've had hold of a CD for a while and played it to death on the commute to London, love it.. so grab a copy when it hits the shelves. To keep up with that info and what the bands up to.. go check out the website The Four Colour Ghosts.

Now lets get down to the photography and the making of the images. As you'll have gathered by now, shooting bands and musicians is a big part of what I do along with the portraits and the stylist shoots. All the skills I have learnt over the past few years came in to play for this photography.

The cover was shot in The Rabbit Hole Studio, my home studio based in the cellar of the house. Lighting for the front and back cover was a grid flash if anyone is wondering about the technical side of things. The cards was a great idea, the turning card keeping everyone guessing as to what has in store for the band.

The following pictures will be used for album promo material and some shots going inside the cover. I liked the idea of shooting the lads on stage with my lighting rigs and then doing some portrait work.. hopefully making the band look cool with a gritty edge.

There has been debate, should the shots be colour or black and white.. for me I like the black and white edgy edits. makes the lads look gritty and meaning business.

Hopefully more bands and musicians may find my photography to their liking and get in touch.

Writing is not my thing I have to admit, but photography seems to be.. I hope.

So.. stylist shoots, perhaps some people reading this post may not know what a stylist shoot is.. well a stylist shoot revolves around an idea, a thought.

From there a model is found, hairstylist, makeup, clothing and a location.. sometimes if luck is on your side the model can take care of the first three things. 

Why do I love stylist shoots? The creativity and freedom, it's all about ideas and fun.. hopefully you may get that one awesome image. As I progress with my photography I`m now getting three or four images that I'm happy with from the shoot.

People often ask, where do I get models from.. Hartlepool is not full of agencies and catwalks lets face it. Well, brave mad people who see what I do and would like to give it a go.. get creative and get involved. Stylist shoots, I don't charge as it's all about fun and art.

If you like what I do.. get in touch.. be brave.. be creative.

I've been focused on band images for a year now and helped out some great people with their images for publications and album covers.

Up to now I've made it in to the Towersey Festival  with Jonny Maughan and The Crack with Mammoth Step. Really exciting stuff to be honest.

Today the album for Northlands went to the publishers for proof reading and I got a peek at my images being used extensively throughout. My best work up to now I think.

Also, hanging with the Four Colour Ghosts has to be a constant blast for me.. so band images, yes I think I`m getting there.

The next call revolved around locations and ideas. With the weather looking bad for the weekend, Simon told me he had got the use of a studio in the middle of Newcastle. Fantastic I thought, lights, big white spaces, everything a budding photographer could wish for!

So we all met up outside a huge building in the middle of Newcastle and then proceeded to carry huge amounts of musical instruments and my stuff up four flights of stairs.

Now here is a new thing I learnt, there is in fact… art studios too! And here it is…

I kept my cool and didn’t freak out, and Simon if you’re reading this I kept my moment of panic bottled up in a very small tight ball deep down inside so you didn’t see it written all over my face.

My mind raced, we moved furniture, we created a backdrop, we borrowed a chest from somewhere else, and we created images together!

The guys were great fun, we laughed loads which is what I’d like to think my shoots are all about… creative fun.

So when all the sweat and tears, the laughs and the goofing around are over.. we made this together.

Unfortunately it rained and we had to call off the shoot after only a few shots. Stylist shoots sometimes turn out that way for the photographer and model, luckily we didn't have a full lighting crew with us.

The big saving grace is that these shoots are for fun and learning photography and lighting.

When I got an email via my website from Brendan asking if I’d like to shoot some pictures for an album, Northlands, I was intrigued but didn’t reply for a while.

There was a website link in the email, www.northlands-music.co.uk I followed it and read the lyrics from the songs on the album and listened to some sound bites. I replied to Brendan straight away by email and contacted him on Facebook saying that I would love to be involved.

The album is conceptual, telling the story of a guy who travels away and then returns to the North East of England to find things have changed. The coastal scenery remains but the heavy industry, ship building that he grew up with has now gone. There is a running theme of rivers throughout the album, the environment that industry once surrounded.

Brendan, Tony and I chatted over ideas, but I already had some strong shots in my head, based around the travel and sea aspects.

We agreed on a date for the shoot and locations. I think the guy`s were surprised when I said they would have me for all day and the locations spread around the North East, involving lots of driving. I planned the driving as it gave me time to listen to the album and really get into the guys minds.I wanted to produce some images the guys would love and compliment the album they had been working on for two years.

I borrowed some old suitcases from friends as props, hoping the guy`s would work around them for shots.

Listening to the album in the car was a real treat and gave us all ideas for shots. It also gave me the feel for the edits to the pictures. Some of the images will be used on the album and others for press releases, so if you take the time to view my gallery of Northlands, you’ll find three different styles going on.

Yet again photography has got me involved in exciting stuff, meeting two great talented guys who I think I shall be seeing again. If you’re reading this dudes… told you it would be a laugh and fun… and thanks for the killer sandwich.

It was great to see a photographer friend get into the limelight with one of his pictures being chosen for an advertising campaign.

After a quick chat on the nett, I realized that Si stood a chance of not even seeing the boards in the flesh. So I thought it would be cool to shoot him with one of the boards, and making sure he actually saw one close up.

Si spends a lot of his time shooting Whitby Abbey and is the Abbey`s official photographer amongst other things.

Get ready for some cute kitten pictures.. yes the internet needs even more kitten pictures.

She`s a small ball of fun and bites and is so cute to photograph. Feather has also discovered my home studio, so don't be surprised if she turns up in some of the portrait photographs.

Amanda found an awesome sounding place, Wild Northumbrian and a shepherds hut placed in a meadow surrounded by a flock of sheep. No phone signal for two days! No work calls!

We arrived early at the retreat and made ourselves at home, after pushing our stuff up the hill in a barrow. Amanda found this to be great fun as she got a free ride back down the hill in the barrow, something she had not done before. It was great to hear her laugh.

I lit the stove and boiled the kettle, put on some music and explored our new home. The hut was great, some lovely touches and nice little details.. and warm!

Amanda settled down to some writing… and I got my camera gear set up for some night shots, photography just couldn't stop.

Time drifted and the rain came down, which meant much running around with cloths to wipe lenses and flashes.

I`d decided to use a couple of flashes, one inside and one outside. The inside flash was fitted with an orange gel to give a warm glow, and the outside one had a light blue gel to give the impression of moonlight.

I think I got a few cool shots.

You can see more shots of the hut and the surrounding landscape on my site.

If you like the pictures you can even buy them from my online shop.

We had a great time and I’d recommend a stay if you need to get away from everything but still love some of the comforts of home.

Oooops… nearly forgot.. the breakfasts are great, order one! 

Even though photography is only a hobby and I've never made any money from it, I still like to have fun building my “business”. I guess I always like to do things “right”, the look and feel of my site and all the social sites have to have the same feel and image so they “fit”.

Being interviewed about my photography and what I`m saying with it turned out to be a real soul-searching experience.  Deep questions were asked and I really struggled to answer some of them, but what came out was my new tag line, which I think works with what I do.

“image maker picture taker” came out after studying my photographs from 2014 and some from 2013. It was interesting brainstorming with someone who looks at images for a living, the process has actually made me look at the path that my photography is taking. I think I now have a clearer view of where I`m going, what I like to do and where to focus my skill set.

The pub has become quite the hangout for musicians, even I have been known to play my Cajon there (badly). The bonus of this is I get to take some candid shots of the bands and audience.

Last night I got to hear some great music, arranged by Brian of PinDrop. Brian works his butt off promoting local bands and artists around the North East and has used at least one of my photographs as a flyer for an event, so I thought I`d introduce you to him via my little blog.

Local music should always be heard and supported. With the aid of PinDrop, everyone`s a winner, the artist gets their sound out there, the audience gets to hear up and coming talent and the most important thing.. I get to shoot bands!

P.S. You may be wondering about my Cajon, here it is. Made by SG Percussion and amazing art work by Mandascat.

Lauren is a whizz at makeup, had the costume so all we needed was a prop. After researching the character we decided on a baseball bat. A big thanks has to go to Lauren’s mum for the decoration of said bat, it really helped to set off the character.

We started off in the studio, then worked our way to an old burnt out warehouse, which I think really set off the costume.

As one of my first stylist shoots with the lighting rig, I think I did ok.

More pictures from the shoot can be found here www.howywhite.com  . Please feel free to pop in and comment.

I managed to attend a photography workshop at the weekend, the first one for me. Hosted by Lucinda Grange, it gave me a chance to meet Lucy in person, learn some new stuff and talk photography, the young lady being one of my new photography hero’s, it was exciting stuff.

The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming, six photographers, Lucy and a model.. and a set of studio lights!

After splitting ourselves into groups, Canon and Nikon.. and a very small group of Sony users (me), notes were handed out and Lucy started off the workshop.

We ran through the basics, aperture. speed and ISO all of which proved very useful to me. I've always have had the feeling that I have never really nailed the basics.

It was great to stop for a little lunch, chat and talk photography. I took the opportunity to grab a couple of shots playing around with what I had just learnt using the 50mm to play with DOF.

After lunch we moved on to some studio light work, as you can tell, one of my favourite subjects at the moment.

Unfortunately the Sony has different hot-shoe connections too Canons and Nikons and I was unable to play. My “Sony Leprosy” was handled with lots of laughs and I did get to handle Lucy`s Nikon.. it wasn’t as bashed up as expected after all the travelling she does.

Everyone got a real thrill at seeing their photos of the model when using off camera flash, I think Lucy may have wetted a few peoples appetites for more of this work.

From there we got to go outside and play with reflectors, silver and gold.

Everyone started putting their new skills to the test, I got to figure out the use of a white card for setting my white balance too.

Along the way I got two images of the model, Keighley supplied as part of the day, which I was happy with.

As a first workshop, I really enjoyed it. Good value for money, I learnt new stuff, talked a lot (probably too much) and had a laugh.. it`s whats photography should be about.

Don't forget to check out Lucinda’s site, some very impressive work from a talented young lady.

www.lucindagrange.com