Paris


Last week I managed to get away for a last minute trip to Paris for the Paris Photo show at the Louvre. I knew there would be lots of running about in between the show, restaurants, bars and galleries so I had to be ruthless with my packing. No tripod, no DSLR, no laptop, no drives, cables or anything.

In the end I went for the new Canon S95 but I was uneasy about this traveling light business and was so tempted to take the old backpack from hell... but so glad I didn't. The tiny S95 turned out to be brilliant and will now go with me everywhere. What a revelation!

Photographic bliss had been attained with virtually no effort and shooting was absolutely just for fun. Liberte indeed :)

Check out the Paris Trip Gallery... More soon.

Kefalonia Trip

October in Kefalonia was beautiful and wonderfully peaceful and quiet, if a little wet. Rain stopped play almost daily so the iTunes movie rentals got a thorough workout on the iPad while the Greek version of a monsoon tore through the islands. The mosquitos seemed to be happy that I was there too. Luckily I managed to sneak out between downpours to bag some moody seascapes before hitting the Rabola wine and dousing myself in insect repellant!

iPad!

I never thought I'd get one... and like many I never saw the need. But I succumbed and now I'm flipping hooked! It's a great device and a vice all in one. Images look stunning. Even though I still don't quite know what it's for I love it and I keep telling myself I'll find a serious use for it someday and maybe even write a review, if I can drag myself away from Angry Birds, that is.

AOP Awards 2010

After what seemed like a really long time since the last AOP Awards I finally received the good news that I had managed to get three images in this year's Awards. All three were shot during the fantastic trip to the Philippines for OneLife Magazine last year and after rejecting all the c-type prints I'd had made at a popular print place in town I ended up once again entering my own inkjet prints which I thought were far superior.

Apparently there will be no Awards ceremony this year so it'll be interesting to see how the new format goes down but the prints will be exhibited at the AOP Gallery and the Awards book promises to be better than ever. Let's hope it's a success or we could see the Awards going down the same road as many of the online photo awards out there and I think that would be a shame.

Sony Bravia

We had great fun shooting this series of studio portraits to promote the new Sony Bravia 3D TV in the June issue of Empire Magazine. They were also used as banners for the launch at the Gadget Show.

Art Direction and production by Duncan Woods and Jenna McRae at Bauer Media. Styling by Abi Rogers and Hair/Makeup by Amanda Green. 

Check out the full screen images in the New Work section of the website.

New kit that actually works.

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Unfortunately most of the gear, gadgets and new technology I try out these days is usually disappointing in some way but just lately I've been fortunate and feel I have bought into some really good stuff, for once. 

Here are my fave bits of kit at the moment:

Hasselblad H4D-50 - My new baby. 50 megapixels with fast and accurate true focus and solid Firewire 800 tethering. Unlimited bursts continuous shooting to card coupled with massive amounts of detail is fantastic. Lens corrections in Phocus software rock.


Macbook Pro 17 - Fast enough for location work. Great hi res antiglare screen, well made and looks beautiful.

Crucial SSD drive - Expensive but worth it for some, super quick, quiet and durable. The Macbook Pro flies with this installed.

Gitzo Systematic Tripod - Simply fantastic solid support for the Hasselblad. The best all round tripod I've used yet.

Really Right Stuff Ball Head - So sweet to use, solid as a rock and feels wonderfully precise and smooth. Made in the USA and built to last.

Canon 5D mkII - A great all round DSLR, good high ISO usability, HD video @24fps. Great add ons available for video etc and the compatible lens lineup is now massive.

Lightroom 3 Beta 2 - Awesome free software I now cannot do without - can't wait for when the full version comes out. A powerful tool and essential.

Photoshop CS5 - I only installed it yesterday but I'm already impressed with the upgrade. Great new tools and features plus 64 bit architecture. Bridge CS5 is so useful too.

HRT Music Streamer Plus - A bargain for hi fi nuts, USB Dac sounds seriously good, USB powered, version 2 out now, made in the USA.

Spotify Premium - Now upgraded to work with iTunes, great sound quality, shared playlists, simple sweet software that becomes part of your life. The Spotify iPhone app rocks too. Alas not available in the US - but you guys have Pandora.

iPhone  - Of course! I only have the 3G but wait patiently for the new iPhone and OS 4 this Summer... lets hope the phone part works better this time.

IO-Play - Bluetooth hands free car kit that works really well with iphone. Good sound quality, easy to use, essential. Having Spotify working in the car is the nuts!

 

Black Hills, South Dakota

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Summit Road

Roadside Trees

Silver Birch

After months of what seemed like a weird form of semi-hibernation, tucked away in a dark North London retouching dungeon, I finally escaped.

Here are a few images from a recent trip to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota - if only to serve as evidence to prove that on occasion, I do actually leave the house. 

APA Awards

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It's always good to win something but sometimes it's great to help someone else win... This time Redwood's Land Rover OneLife Magazine won Best Use of Photography in the APA International Customer Publishing Awards for the Mongolian story we shot last year.

See what the judges said about it in the APA Winners' online brochure - page 23.

RAF shoot for FHM

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The elite fighting force that is the RAF Regiment (aka The Rocks) are to the Royal Air Force what the Marines are to the British Navy. These guys are extremely tough - and to make the rank of Flying Officer doesn't just take brawn, it takes brains too.

As part of a new drive to help recruit the rare few with the right stuff to become RAF Regiment Officers, FHM Magazine launched a National open contest of absolute mental and physical toughness to see who has what it takes to make it through what they call "The Rock Hard Challenge".

For the FHM spread I photographed Flying Officer Anthony Bird, who will be the man to beat in the contest which takes place in January 2010. Shot on location at RAF Honington, Suffolk. Post production by yours truly. December Issue out now.

To see the animated spread, learn more about the challenge and maybe have a go (if you think you're hard enough!) check out www.fhm.com/RAF

Creative Review Photography Annual

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This year's Creative Review Photography Annual / October Issue features three entries from yours truly... and as a bonus, my portrait of the brilliant Jake Tassell aka "the Banker" from my series After the Riots, made one of the six chosen limited edition covers ... nice.

IPA Photography Awards 2009

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I just wanted to say a little about the IPA 2009. It was the fist time I have entered this US photo contest so I wasn't sure what to make of it but even though I didn't win I did make it through to the final rounds of judging on 12 entries.

The good thing is they gave all the runners up an "Honorable Mention" on the IPA site. After going through the extensive lists of entries I personally think there are images there that didn't make the top three that outshine many of the winning entries... but that's my two penneth so make yourself a cuppa, sit back and check out all the work that made the IPA 2009 Honorable Mention Gallery and see what you think.

Sarment Shoot, Burgundy

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This Summer I was lucky enough to land a wonderful job shooting portraits and landscapes in the beautiful Burgundy region of France for the website and brochure of a new business venture called Sarment, which is a French word describing the first growth of the vine. We worked with some fantastic people including the pick of the world's best Sommeliers and after they twisted my arm I took their advice and brought home some of the best wine I've ever encountered.

A huge thanks to Trefor Thomas at Brand Advocate, everyone at Sarment and not forgetting the genius winemaker Olivier Leriche at L'Arlot for helping to make the shoot possible and teaching me so much about good wine.

My wine tip of the month: Domaine de L'Arlot - Nuits de Saint Georges 2001.

After the Riots

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A personal series of portraits depicting six different characters after the protest in the City went wrong...

A big shout goes out to the talented actors involved and everyone who helped me on this including the amazing Sue Odell who worked her magic with casting and styling, and hair and makeup expertly handled by Amanda Green. Not forgetting a big thanks to Jesse Stagg, Andrew Howe and all the team at Street Studios for all their support.

Check out the rest of the series at morgansilk.co.uk and look out for the Banker - he's the one with egg on his face :)

Network Rail Campaign

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The Network Rail Campaign I shot in April is now live!

The print and posters are all over the UK at the moment and some locations like Euston Station have used state of the art digital posters.

The idea is to inform the British public (deprived for years of a fully operational rail service) of the massive job Network Rail have done improving the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Glasgow. We ended up shooting the viaduct up in Cumbria, the night shot in Camden and if that wasn't glamorous enough we then shot the platform at Rugby Station. Once again it was a pleasure to work with the fantastic Angus and Nick at Locate Productions and also ace Art Director Toby Burnett for Iris London.

To check out the three poster campaign in more detail go to the New Work section on my site.