An angel of the first degree...

Gary is the 4th of the Rent @ Greenwich cast who I've photographed for a 2nd time since the show (he played Angel, one of the best Angels I've had the pleasure to witness). I've been wanting to photograph Gary again for the last 2 years and we finally got around to it a couple of weeks back on a rare sunday off.

With help from the brilliant make-up skills of Jamie Birkett and a large bag of silver ticker tape, we made some sparkly, shiny rockstar images.

These are a few of my favourites.....

I love how the light catches the sparkles, and makes Gary's skin all shiny.

Then we made this, which I love....

Altar Boyz - production shots

A few shots I made of the Altar Boyz, currently playing at Greenwich Theatre. The Altar Boyz are Liam Doyle, Jonny Fines, Jamie-Ray Hartshorne, Faisal Khodabukus & Alex Jordan-Mills. Directed by Steven Dexter and designed beautifully by David Shields (set & costume) & James Smith (lighting).

Roll out the barrel....

My friend Tom.... Carradine's Cockney Knees Up at the gorgeous Wilton's Music Hall bar. Pretty much does what it says on the tin, a fabulous evening of increasingly raucous singing. :-) 

Stupidly high iso, all the light was yellow, lots of fun.

Fairy-lights, bunting, crochet & tears - 'Beans on Toast' production shots

....so ok, the tears were mostly from me, but maybe from a lot of the other audience members also. I burst into tears at the finale, too much emotion. Such a beautiful show, I'm just going to post all the pics, I loved photographing these guys.

Scott loves Jen. Jen loves Scott. Jen is gone. Warm, funny and touching memory play by lamp-light; fragmented memories and live folk music. Created and performed by this year's graduates of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, this beautiful new musical play asks whether we should let go of what we have lost, or cling on to the memory if it brings us happiness.

'Beans on Toast' is directed by Alex Howarth & produced by Patch of Blue.

i've got hot ears - improv 5-a-side final

So anyone, who knows me well, knows that the thing I most love photographing is improv. It's fast and sometimes intense and it really focuses the mind (as well as the eye). Everything else drops away and all there is is what's in the tiny square of my viewfinder.

So when I met some new people last week I jumped at the chance to photograph a whole new group of faces making stuff up. The fact that there was a knockout tournament element to the whole proceedings just made it all the more fun.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Promo shots

This term at Mountview a group of students from the acting course are performing the world premiere of an adaptation of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" by Peter Hedges. Their director, Alex Howarth, asked me to create some promo images for them, so last weekend we found ourselves in the back room of the brilliant Earl Haig Hall in Crouch End with orange flashes and fairy lights.

I can't wait to see the final production next week, I think it's going to be a bit brilliant.

a wander from greenwich to canary wharf...

...with some boats and the mini fuji...

The boys in black from New Zealand.

I only photographed one show whilst I was in Edinburgh this summer, it was a flying visit and I needed to catch up with friends and have a mini-holiday. ;-)

But I'm really glad I agreed to photograph Black Faggot, a new play by Victor Rodger. It was a fabulous hour in the theatre and the 2 guys in the cast don't have any moments for rest, these gentlemen certainly have their work cut out.

This production was directed by Roy Ward and stars Fasitua Amosa & Beulah Koale. 

slightly stagey soho sunday : people singing

For the 2nd year in a row I had the pleasure of photographing some of the west end's most sparkling performers, as they entertained the sunday crowds up above old compton street. Thanks to Dylan Turner for his fab organising and inviting me along again, these people make me smile a whole lot.

Mile after mile, Endless sky, Endless variation.

See Rock City & Other Destinations is a beautiful show, that's the beginning, middle and end of what I want to say about it. Go to the Union Theatre and see it. :-)

See Rock City and Other Destinations' UK premier is directed by Graham Hubbard with musical direction by Matt Ramplin and Lighting Design by Tom Boucher. It is produced by Aria Entertainment & Szpiezak Productions.

One frame : take photos, they will make you happy

You're not allowed to take digi cameras to secret cinema and that's something I think I'm glad of because I didn't spend the whole time looking at details through a viewfinder. They did, however, sell old school disposable cameras. So we bought 2 - 48 whole frames to play with, what would I photograph?

Well pretty much just us was the answer to that, sometimes with the flash sometimes without. Most of them are in some degree of being out of focus because the focal length is longer than my arm for selfies or because I tried to get too close and fill the frame with what I saw. Half of the 2nd roll is lost, either too dark or just a think the film got spoiled - the camera did get rather damp. But then there's shots like this..... which I hope to god isn't considered a spoiler.... and they fill me with joy because I will always remember exactly when this pic was taken and how happy I was when I pressed the shutter.

It also reaffirmed my desire to shoot more with film, sometimes there's just not enough filters and plugins, this is straight out of that camera and I love it.

So yep, take photos, you will never regret having too many photos of the people you love.

It doesn't matter how "bad" you think those photos are, they are better than none at all, and with every press of the shutter the photos will get better. I've lost count of times that people have said "teach me how to use my camera better" - the answer will always be practice, practice, practice, you can't help but get better. And anyway, if the photo makes you smile (or cry) at a memory, then it's pretty much done what it needed to do.

Music Box

Too cool for school....

image.jpg

Check them out at musicboximprov.com or go see them in action, they're mad as a box of frogs.

Sometime, do you think we could fall in love?

Just a couple of the portraits that I made for Zanna Don't at the Landor Theatre. :-)

An adventure in fur, felt & fluff.

As they travel to Edinburgh for their first month-long foray into theatre I thought I should post the portraits I made of the stars of "No Strings", a brand new improvised show.

You can check out their exploits on their Facebook page.... and I'm sure they're going to have 100s of adventures north of the border.

Who's got extra love? - "Zanna, Don't!" production shots

Zanna Don't is a crazy, lovely, sparkly show that's currently running at the Landor Theatre in Clapham North. Over the last 6 weeks or so I've been making lots of images for these guys, they needed a poster and some shots of the characters for the website and then this weekend I dropped by the show to shoot a few production shots.

This show is full of smiles and joy with a cast who will have you skipping and twirling all the way home.

Zanna Don't is directed by Drew Baker, designed by Ben M Rogers (set & lighting) & Andrew Cox (costume) and choreographed by Tom Scanlon.

The cast is..... Zanna - David Ribi, Mike - Jonathan Dudley, Steve - Liam Christopher LLoyd, Roberta - Jennifer Saayeng, Kate - Ceris Hine, Tank - Ben Sell, Arvin - Jonathan Wooldridge, Candi - Carol Heffernan, Georgia Phillips & Thomas Wright.

Bubbles & bagpipes & sunshine in Sweden

Every now and again I get asked if I photograph weddings and the answer is always the same....  I'm not a wedding photographer, it's not what I do. But when Matt & Sara asked me to photograph their wedding the answer was easy, these are two of my dearest friends, it was an honour to be asked. Then they showed where it was all happening and I was virtually begging them to let me make photos there. :-)

These two are kind, gentle and gorgeous people, they take care of me when I behave badly and we spend a stack of time together in our little corner of south west london. Just don't ask what "marrying mr darcy : the boardgame" is all about, or who's winning the ongoing pool tournament.

Just a few shots before they head off on their secret honeymoon adventure....

smallimg_6817.jpg

Matt got ready in the room above Sara so I flitted backwards and forwards whilst everyone was putting on their finery. Matt's friend Dylan decided to video Matt's thoughts on marriage whilst he was trying to tie a bow tie.... not an easy combination!

I reckon my friend Matt scrubs up pretty well.

Sara just looked like a Hollywood star in her beautiful dress.

There were bubbles instead of confetti. I love bubbles.

Our friend Fiona rushed over during dinner because she'd peeked outside and the light over the lake was looking pretty gorgeous so the 3 of us snuck off for a couple of frames in the sunshine.

I love this last shot, it's so simple and sweet.

Thanks so much guys for having me along for this glorious ride, I know you're going to conquer the world and have a fabulous time of it together. There'll be 100s of images waiting for you when you get home. x

Jamie : Both Sides

Jamie and I have been talking about a new photo project for a while now, but we wanted something different. There's actually another idea in the works also, but this one came first....

It starts with Jamie, well looking like Jamie, perfect make-up and rockstar curls..... 

....that morphed into this....

....another thought....

IMG_6701.jpg

....finally got the idea of where this project should be....

....then we added water - whilst standing on a bath mat!!

....now those are all processed in a very specific look, a colour palette that I love. But whilst talking through the edit with Jamie last night we came up with the plan that this would be better.

The left half is straight out of camera, just colour-corrected back to her natural skin tone. Then the right half, the "perfect" half is my processing, a little cross-processed.

It's totally different to anything Jamie and I have done before and I love it. Does it say what we wanted to about beauty and probably post-processing? Maybe, maybe not! :-)

PostScript...

Then the final shot is totally different. It's from early on in the shoot, before the make-up destruction. It didn't fit the general plan, but I wanted to test some different processing, and this is the result. I've never made anything that looks like this. It's just so sad and beautiful.