Quiet week...

Finally I had a relatively quiet week. It is nice to relax a little bit, not to rush from one job to another. There were only two events that I have to mention to you. First: I was taking pictures during the filming of “Desert flower” with Liya Kebede. She’s an up and coming Ethiopian model, some even predict that she is going to be next Naomi Campbell well I can tell you she was strutting around like her that‘s for sure.. And the second job was PR event: launch party for Hoss Intropia with Naomi Harris. Taking her pictures I could not stop thinking about her part in Miami Vice. She was absolutely brilliant. I liked her in Pirates of the Caribbean too, but I think the role she played as the hot cop suits her better

My new toy....

Finally I saw great benefits of my new camera the Nikon D3. This is the latest Nikon camera which gives outstanding result when used on high ISO. Usually when you use a camera in dark low lit conditions the flash gun gives a lot of light, so it’s impossible to avoid shadows. I don‘t like shadows. Therefore photographers tend to use higher ISO to reduce the light from the flash to avoid shadows. In return images look very grainy and loose quality. This is not the case with new D3. This is the first camera that produces high quality images when used on high ISO. The other advantage of the D3 is that images are so colourful and vibrant, they don’t need editing.
I could not believe the result it produced after I looked at the images I took for a law firm Bindmans. I was hired by them to take pictures of David Blunkett during the debate (Click on the link to see my pics on their website http://bindmans.com/index.php?id=400). I am sure my customers will appreciate my new camera as much as I do. It will be perfect for weddings, especially for the church ceremony where no flash photography is allowed. Can’t wait to the next wedding..

I was never into flowers too much, but it seems like the Chelsea Flower Show this year has changed me. I was very impressed with some of the garden designs. Such an imagination, deep colours and unbelievable combination of things which in normal life you would not put together. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to appreciate everything there, as there were a lot of famous people around and my agency was calling me non stop asking to send them some pics. So, I was running around from 7am attending numerous photo calls then to the press tent to send images, then another photo call, then press tent and so on and so on.. in the end I have did probably 8-10 miles of walking, took a lot of images and didn’t have time to have my sandwiches. No, I am not complaining, as I have quite few extra pounds to loose anyway :)))

Dangerous football

What a week. Everything started very good. A few commercial jobs including corporate portraits for New Schools Ltd and conference coverage for The Association of property and fixed charge receivers at Haberdasher’s Hall in Central London. Then some press work including coverage of The Perfume Shop High Street Fashion awards (My Pic of Kelly was published in Daily Express). And today, Sunday I am working again, covering Celebrity football match which was taken place at Millwall football ground with a lot of stars. It was like nightmare. 5 minutes into the match, I am concentrating to take pictures of McFly kicking the ball instead of singing and…. Just from nowhere the ball appeared so fast. I had a second to move the camera away (it cost much more then my face) AND…the ball hit my jaw so hard. Suddenly I felt that not only the ball had hit my face, but also all the eyes around looked at me in fear that I would collapse and the match will have to stop. I felt like a celebrity for a second, as hundreds of fans and supporters were looking at me not at a dozen celebrities around. And then pain made me to come back to reality. Everyone around realised that I will survive especially after I managed to pull a scarce smile on my face and match carried on. But I was in agony unable to scream, as the job comes first then I can indulge myself into pain.
In the evening Nichola and her fiancé came to see me regarding their wedding photography on 12 July. I cannot describe you how hard it was to talk, as my jaw hurt as hell with every word I was saying. I could not smile at all. They probably decided that I am the most unsociable person in the world and I could not explain even why as I could not make myself to say an extra word.
I hope I will have a good sleep as tomorrow I will have to start at 7am, going to take the first pictures of the Chelsea Flower Show. At least there would not be any ball around and I will walk far away from the hanging baskets, just in caseJ

Mud and Music!

Nice busy day again, two totally different jobs. First was a progress photography for a company called Harmonix, they are constructing a massive Access self storage building in Clapham. I am contracted by them to photograph the progress of it every 3-4 weeks.Then onto the Charlatans new album launch and in store performance at Zavvi Oxford street, which was great fun . I must say they sounded terrific.. must go and buy their album…

Sunny Sunday Polo day

Usually people enjoy sunny Sundays, having a roast dinner at home or spending time with the kids in the park. But me… I spent the whole day in a sun without any shade taking pictures of Princess Beatrice, Paul Young, Jodie Kidd and others at the Hurtwood Polo Match. Of course, I had a good view of the match for free and had the possibility to have free champagne (it’s not like I could drink, as I am driving), but I still caught too much sun and complaints from my wife that I’m never around and she has to play football with our son even though that’s my job. I think she’s just jealous and thinks I was just enjoying myself, of course she is right to a certain degree…

Charity Ball in the park

Well I love charity balls, beautiful women in lovely dresses smiling at me. So I really enjoyed to cover the Caudwell Children’s “Legends” Charity Ball held in Battersea park. There where some iconic guests invited including Joan Collins, Micky Rooney, Boyzone, Emma noble, Gemma Atkinson, Sugarbabes amongst many more.. In the end I had to work till 2am in the morning to edit the images and send them out. But all in all it was a lot of fun.

Busy week...

What a busy week! I had the pleasure to photograph the Vauxhall Tigra Couture catwalk in the Lakeside shopping centre with Lisa Snowdon presenting . Every time I attend a catwalk my wife is getting angry with me, as I am getting to see all the new outfits (it’s not like I am bothered) not her.
On Tuesday I was enjoying working with Steve from HBOS. Many companies are trying to promote environmentally friendly ways of living. Steve was showing the way he gone green by using Toyota Prius hybrid car. It was hard work, as the sun was very strong and there were not too much space. I still enjoyed it a lot. Very busy this week with lots of interesting jobs coming up keep looking back.

Friday the 13th... for me:))

Must have been Friday the 13th for me today, seems nothing went right.. Did a photo shoot with the lovely Alesha Dixon in Bluewater, Kent. That went fine, the problems started afterwards, I captioned the images, then somehow captioned them all with the same wrong caption, then I happily sent them into my press agency. So they put them all on-line with the wrong caption… Deep joy, then I had to call them and try to explain what happened, obviously they were not too pleased.. So I decided to go swimming, and what happens, some freak decided to break into my locker and steal my mobile phone from my jacket pocket. I am not bothered about the phone such, but I had all my important contacts stored on it! Thank god, they didn’t take my car keys which were in the other pocket, otherwise I will be looking for new car by nowJ Hope tomorrow will be better.

Hollyoaks day..and Kelly Rowland

Today I had a lot of fun with the cast from Hollyoaks. They decided that as it was election day, we should all vote for them instead of Ken or Boris . I don’t know about you but I think they might be right!! Next up was Kelly Rowland, lovely girl very charming to her fans and there were plenty of them there as she was leaving the GMTV studio’s this morning. All in all not a bad day.