Tuesday 26th February 2013

With the annual Cheltenham Festival fast approaching I was asked to attend a stable day at Donald McCain’s racing yard in Cheshire – the Bankhouse Stables – for the Sports section of The Sunday Times.

I’ve photographed Donald before at his stables and he is one of racings nicest people – affable, humorous and generous with his time … which is much in demand.

So on a cold February morning I set off at a gallop to be in Cheshire in time for the assembled media pack to be introduced to the horses that Donald would be running at the Cheltenham Festival. A sort of ‘meet & greet’ with some racing thoroughbreds if you like!

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Thursday 21st February 2013

On a bitterly cold winter’s day, with a freezing easterly wind blowing, I was commissioned to take a “contextual portrait” of Paul Kehoe – the CEO of Birmingham International Airport.

With a job at Jaguar Landrover out of the way prior to my appointment at Birmingham International Airport, I was off to a flying start on a busy day.

Mr. Kehoe has spent the majority of his career in aviation. Starting as an RAF air traffic controller, he then moved into domestic flights, working at Belfast, Luton and Bristol airports. He joined Birmingham in October 2008 as its CEO, and has overseen the biggest transformation in its history. Mr. Kehoe’s efforts earned him an honourary doctorate in business from Birmingham City University, and according to his online profile, he’s feeling bullish about the future of the airport.

It was in this specific context that Mr. Kehoe was being photographed to illustrate an article about his high flying career path with The Sunday Times Appointments section.

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Monday 28th January 2013

I’ve worked with Jon Saxon the Editor of Doghouse – the British Pub Magazine for over 18 months now, and every shoot we undertake together has always been enjoyable and varied, offering results – that once on the printed page – look great. Certainly Jon has an astute eye for creative design. Each edition has a key editorial feature within it – a brewery or a journey along a specific route visiting various pubs on the way for example – but the edition we were working on was going to feature an in-depth article on one of the country’s beer cask manufacturers – Hereford Casks.
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Friday 25th January 2013

On a very cold and wintery Friday afternoon in January I was commissioned to be in Walsall to photograph Jim McCarthy – the Chairman of Poundland. Mr. McCarthy joined Poundland as Chief Executive in May 2006, and prior to joining Poundland, he was the Managing Director of J Sainsbury’s convenience stores and was a member of the operating, retail and investment boards.

Today Mr. McCarthy was posing for a portrait to accompany a piece he was doing for The Sunday Times Money section entitled, ‘Fame & Fortune’ – an article that tells all about the highs and lows of an individuals best and worst investments on route to making their fortune.

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Monday 24th December 2012

William Chase is the farmer behind the famous brand of Tyrrells crisps, founded in 2002 using the potatoes grown on his farm near Leominster in Herefordshire. I’ve photographed William before – he is always very generous, both with his time … and the free samples he so kindly gives away!

I was therefore very pleased to be sent to his new enterprise … the Chase Distillery, producing vodka & gin in the heart of the Herefordshire countryside.

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Wednesday 5th December 2012

“You won’t get much time, if any, for a formal portrait, so when the interview is taking place, please sit in and do some talking head pictures …”. Those were the words of Andrew, one of the Picture Editors on the Business section of The Sunday Times when he gave me a brief regarding a commission at Bentley Motors in Crewe.

Karl West, The Sunday Times Business Journalist, was interviewing the newly appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Bentley Motors Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, but due to Dr. Schreiber’s schedule there would not be enough time for a formal portrait to be taken, therefore it was requested, and agreed to, that I should sit in during a part of Karl’s interview and photograph some ‘talking heads.’

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Wednesday 28th November 2012

“Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me”. Emmanuel Kant, (German philosopher).

Dermot is one of the editors on the Sports section of The Sunday Times and he asked me to head up to the National Cycling Centre based at the Manchester Velodrome for a portrait shoot with Sir Dave Brailsford – Performance Director of British Cycling & General Manager of Team SKY.

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Friday 26th October 2012

I often work in Birmingham, it’s only 40 miles to one of the best city centre car parks from my front door, and if I can make the trip avoiding the rush hour I can be parked up within just over an hour. If I hit the rush hour, that can double though!

So it was with some relief – despite the very early start, rolling out the door at 6.30am – that I would be arriving in the city centre ahead of the rush hour getting into full congestion mode, (I hate sitting in traffic – who doesn’t?). The Sunday Times Business section had asked me to photograph Bridget Blow, (a Non Executive Director of several businesses & charities based across the West Midlands) “sat at the boardroom table”.

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September 2012

There is great importance in knowing the subject you’re photographing …

I’ve worked for the B2B publication Farmers Weekly since 1995 – it is Britain’s largest weekly circular magazine for the farming industry.

Jodie is their Group Picture Editor with the job of commissioning and gathering all the right pictures to help illustrate the industry specific news & events, features and articles of the last week. With an average of more than 120 A4 pages to fill it’s quite a demanding job! Part of getting the right coverage is planning ahead, and it was from this point of view that Jodie called me to undertake a series of on farm shoots. These were to help illustrate three case study farmers who were adapting their buildings for their dairy calves to reduce infection and help fight diseases.

The article was to run in a few weeks time, but required images of each of the farmers on their respective farms, posed in context with the feature’s content.

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Monday 10th September 2012

I’ve worked with Andrew from Knight Frank on several occasions, completing commissions for Knight Frank’s ‘Rural Report’ publication. Produced bi-annually, Knight Frank’s Rural Report is their flagship glossy magazine dedicated to all aspects of rural property ownership. Undertaking commissions with Andrew, the Editor, is always very enjoyable and when it was requested if I could spend an afternoon on the banks of a peaceful river running through the heart of the Cotswolds, why on earth would I say “no”?

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