This week I've been working at Cheltenham Photo Studios with models Iveta Niklova and Natural Happy Girl to create some 'bodyscape' images.  These are images celebrating the human form but often from a particular perspective making it difficult to be sure of the anatomy you are looking at. 

Despite the joy of working with such talented models, this is actually quite hard work: Not just fine tuning lighting, but the physical exertion required to get the camera on the right angle and perspective with lots of changing of lenses.


However, it was very productive and I now have some great images representing this niche genre.

On Monday I had a creative day at BIPP with fashion and glamour photographer Jon Gray and model Katie Green - best known for quitting modeling for a time following a demand by her agency for her to lose 2 stone when she was cast for the new face of "Wonderbra" and now crusades against the commercial demand for size 0 models.


Katie was subsequently signed by the irrepressible Michelle Mone for a range of Ultimo lingerie, but was sacked for appearing topless in a national newspaper.


Notwithstanding the ups and downs of Katie's career, she has a great look and is delightful to work with.  Together with the lighting expertise of Jon, all I had to do was to press the shutter et voila!

This week saw me at The Fat Duck restaurant in Bray - voted the best restaurant in the world in 2005 and holds 3 Michelin stars.  The chef Heston Blumenthal is a celebrity renowned for his innovative approach to developing flavours through 'molecular gastronomy' which often seems to incorporate the use of liquid nitrogen or dry ice (solid carbon dioxide).

We had the tasting menu which is the right thing to do to experience the full range of offerings which has as much to do with entertainment as it does with food.

On Monday I did a day's portraiture course at BIPP in Aylesbury, Bucks with Llewellyn Robins.  The course was full and it was comprised mostly of photographers working towards their licentiate status with the Institute.  Very few of them were full time professional photographers and a large percentage seemed to be taking it up following redundancy, early retirement or simply disillusioned with their current careers.  It's rather interesting I think that people readily turn to the creative arts to get their lives in balance!

I don't do a lot of portraiture with members of the public, but generally with professional models or those with some photographic awareness such as celebrities or politicians. However, below is a group portrait shot i did some months ago for the website of Combe Garden Design:

For the last 2 weeks I have been photographing the interior and exterior of the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Hanborough, Oxfordshire for Jane and Martin Rogers.  Parts of the Church are over 900 years old and both the exterior and interior photography were challenging for different reasons:  With the sun lying low in the sky at this time of year it wasn't possible to get a good shot of the doorway in the best light although I got good cover of some of the other aspects.  The natural light in the interior is typically uneven so I made good use of my portable flash equipment to capture some of the details.  The picture below of one of the stained glass windows is a composite of 2 photos one exposing of the interior detail and the other on the window.

I have just returned from an overnight stay in Brighton where I was attending my final meeting of the Universities Apple Computer Group to which I have been the Chair for the last 7 years through my association with the University of the Arts London.  This group negotiates and reviews a procurement contract for the supply of Apple computer equipment and associated services to the Higher Education sector and has been spectacularly successful in terms of the savings it has brought to the member organisations.

Today Christine and I attended the memorial reception for our friend the philosopher David Pears who died in July.  The memorial was in the picture gallery of Christ Church College, Oxford which was very apt as without his help it would never have existed in it current form which is truly remarkable. Amongst David's other achievements in the visual arts he was Chair of the Board of Trustees at Modern Art Oxford - then known as MOMA -  at the time when one of the directors was a certain Nicholas Serota now Director at the Tate.


The memorial was a great tribute to David's rich and eventful life with eulogies from his former colleagues and students at Oxford, friends and David Isaac, the current Chair at Modern Art Oxford.

Today was the public opening of the Oxford Flickr Group's exhibition 'Made in Oxford' at the Jam Factory in which I have contributed a framed picture of Christ Church College. 

The group (without any help from me I might add) have enthusiastically put this together and even produced a book of the all the photos.  As I was enjoying myself at the Manoir yesterday evening, I couldn't attend the private view but as the exhibition is on until the 31st October there is plenty of time left to troop along.

This evening I was lucky enough to be invited by my friend Paul Levy to attend the annual music and food festival at Raymond Blanc's Manoir Aux Quat Saison.

The evening began with a champagne & canopy reception at the Manoir. The music was provided by the very gifted violinist Chloe Hanslip in the neighbouring St Mary's Church.  This was followed by a six course feast provided by the Michelin starred kitchen, two of my favourites were the confit of "Landais' duck liver and the pan-seared Cornish sea bass - delicious!  Unfortunately, as I was the chauffeur for the evening I couldn't over indulge in the wonderful wines that accompanied each course,

One of my table guest was the very delightful food author Geraldene Holt who I had previously met at the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery where I was one of the official photographers together with Toby Glanville.

I'm not the most literally gifted person, but I'm hoping this blog will provide a timeline of my creative endeavors and experiences.