Inside and Out

Advertising campaigns are great things to work on. I would never class myself as an advertising photographer in the strict sense, but my work often crosses into that genre, in that the images used are licensed for usage in advertising campaigns for a period of time. In this case, the job in hand was to work with the Barbour visual merchandising team in order to create a number of square format images to be used in a special Christmas store window display (a spectacular advent calendar featuring different jackets and mid layers with gifts in the pockets), and to adorn the carrier bags in all the retail stores worldwide. My stylist for the day was the London based Paula Carney (Now based in Belgium actually). Paula is one of the UK’s best clothing & visual merchandising stylists – she has some big name clients on her list including Harrods, Argos, Canada Goose, Burberry, and many more. She can produce visually stunning sets from anything.
We set up & shot about 30 different frame…

In this industry, you often get to go where others don’t – on trawlers in the North Sea, behind the scenes at airports, in restricted areas cordoned off by the emergency services, or in clinical environments. I found myself visiting two separate hospitals for two different clients, but using the same technique to shoot interesting PR briefs.
The first image was shot at the Centre for Life in Newcastle city centre for NHS Innovations North. They oversee the development of new medical technologies from inception to implementation, and my role was to document various innovations that were being rolled out in the clinical environment. In this case, it was the brand new IVF cabinets which were being installed. I had a narrow window of opportunity, as the whole room was about to be designated as a totally sterile environment later that day – a process which involved the room being made bacteria-free, to eliminate the risk of contamination during the IVF transfer process. I had two research s…

One of my favourite clients is the charity Parkinson’s UK – I’ve shot various PR stuff in the north east, and I cover the Great North Run for them as a means of giving something back. The charity organises all sorts of active events for its supporters – from climbing mountains, to participating in marathons. One of the events that grow in popularity on a yearly basis are the bike rides in various parts of Britain. The Pedal for Parkinson’s event in Stirling is one of the efforts that help to raise £££’s annually. A couple of summers ago, I was lucky enough to cover the whole thing for Parkinsons UK. The brief had a few specifics, and took some graft to fulfil.
I set off from my home on Saturday afternoon, and stayed in a small room in the Stirling Uni halls of residence in Bridge of Allen. I took a walk into Stirling City Centre to have a look around, and get something to eat. The city is beautiful, and my location was spot-on, if a bit basic. The security at reception treated me with …