So that was 2011...

 

Shooting the wonderful Liv Boeree last week in a Rolls Royce Garage.

...And very fine it was too.  I'll stick to just photography, rather than any personal stuff, since that's what this blog's supposed to be about.  In no particular order, some highlights have included:

• Shooting over 120 jobs - not bad during a recession.
• Getting to 100 magazine covers.  They're all shot, but 98, 99 and 100 won't be published until perhaps February 2012, so you'll have to wait until then for the proper blog post, and suitably big montage.
• Starting to dip my toe into shooting video, and charging for it, as well as learning the rudiments of editing, sound and so on.  All very promising stuff, and although I don't have the same excitement about the moving image than I do the still, it's something I can't, nor do I want to, ignore.
• Some superb adventures - survival training, and training with the Royal Marines, hordes of celebs and top athlete's, the Men's Health Survival series - including the chance to actually run in one this time, the usual amount of travel - both nationally and internationally, and all sorts of odd situations - the Only Fools and Horses convention, shooting in an underground toilet, inside Battersea Power Station and the Playboy Club.

More of the same next year please, but with a few less "last minute panic" jobs, a bit more time to plan stuff, and perhaps some new gear, as some of mine is starting to show it's age after 3 and a bit years of very heavy use.  I also suspect there'll be a lot more video knocking around too.

I also promise (you'll have heard this before) that I'll make more effort with actual learning type stuff for the blog, as it's what it's supposed to be here for after all.  I've got a few lectures coming up with Calumet in the New Year, and that should help kick start me into finishing the countless educational pieces that are all currently 75% written.

Have a great holiday, I'm certainly looking forward to some down time, and I'll be back in 2012.

This Week I are Mostly Been...

Sam Trickett, living the high life of a pro Poker Player.

• Giving blood, going out for dinner a couple of times, catching up with some old friends, having birthday drinks, playing squash, running a hilly 10K at night, and cleaning the flat.  Not all in the same day, obviously.
• Shooting Sam Trickett for WPT magazine in a snazzy 29th floor Penthouse Apartment.  Cracking venue, and a pleasure to work with Sam again almost exactly a year after last time.
• Shooting a feature on Gym stuff for Men's Fitness at Reebok Sports Club.  We were using most of the editorial staff as stand-ins for the shot, which lead to some competitve, but thankfully out of focus behaviour.
• Taking a portrait of Charlotte Cooper of the Subways for Runner's World.  A lovely lass, who is clearly a very fast runner too.

This Week I are Mostly Been...

My Brockenspectre on the South Downs.  Spooky.

• Shooting 2 sports drills in 1 day for Men's Fitness.  The first with the England Rugby 7's squad down in Twickenham, and the second with Lawrence Okoye at the Lee Valley Athletics centre.  Quite an intimidating day for a skinny runt like me to be faced with such big blokes all day long, but I kept the camera safely in front of my face.
• Heading round Brighton all day Saturday on a very well organised pub crawl.  We started out with very good intentions only drinking half pints, and then let things slip later on in the day.  Followed it up by walking up and over the South Downs to Ditchling for a very satusfying pub lunch, after making BrockenSpectres on the way up.
• Catching up with some old friends after far too long.  And consequently giggling a lot.

This Week I are Mostly Been....

1 hours, 3 minutes.  Not bad, but even better when you consider I'd already been shooting for 5 hours with 15KG of gear on my back.

• Helping to set up, shooting, then finally running in the 4th and final Men's Health Survival of the Fittest Race at Battersea Power Station.  This one was the biggest yet with more than 7000 people running the 10K/15 obstacle course.  Besides all the usual obstacle and assault course bits, there were sections inside Battersea Power Station, and a very cold, wet and muddy ice/mud/swimming pool section.  I was very pleased to finally get to run in one, having photographed every single event since 2008.  It took me several obstacles to stop reaching over to protect my camera as I clambered over, under and through things, but once I realised I didn't have to worry about expensive gear hanging round my neck I had a fantastic time.  Bring on next year!
• Heading down to Portsmouth to photograph an Only Fools and Horses Convention for Shortlist magazine.  It was a bit odd, to be honest.  I've never seen so many people queue so patiently just to get autrographs, but if it keeps them happy.....

This Week I are mostly been...

The small black dot is me, freezing my nads off on Saturday evening.

• Spending the weekend down in Devon.  Some lovely walks, very good food, a great run along the cliffs, a mental bonfire night/fireworks display and a swim out in the Atlantic on Saturday evening.  Can highly recommend the latter if for any reason, you're feeling too hot and want parts of you to retreat back into your body for an indefinite period of time.
• Attending a video training course with the guys at Golf Monthly over in Bearwood Lakes given by the folk at Alfi Media.  I learnt a great deal of stuff, and it felt great to actually be sitting down and learning something for once, rather than teaching.
• Heading up to St Andrews for Golf Monthly to take some portraits of the R+A.  Had the amusing experience of taking a portrait of someone holding a book for which I'd done the pictures.  Still a bit of an effort to get up there and back within a day.
• Taking a portrait of a wonderful couple in their 70's who are still running marathons, for Runner's World.
• Shooting a sports drills feature and some portraits of Rashad Evans at Stars Gym for Men's Fitness magazine.  He was a dream to work with, and it's a cracking venue as well, may well be shooting there again in the future.
• Making a start on a personal project by taking a portrait of the marvellous Liv Philip the Freediver at my local pool.  She made another record attempt on Saturday evening, but I've yet to find out how she got on.

This week I are mostly been...

Getting stuck in to the MovNat workshop - any chance to swing about on some bars and behave like an infant...

• Spending 2 days down in Cornwall with the awesome guys at Survival Wisdom shooting a story for Shortlist magazine.  As we all know, I jump at the chance to spend time mucking about in the woods, building fires and shelters, and generally acting like I'm still a boy scout.  The guys were superb, and we were pretty lucky with the weather - it's just a shame the venue was so far away!
• Shooting another workshop down at Optimal Life Fitness for Men's Fitness, this time based on MovNat.  I had the pleasure 2 years ago of spending a few days in Corsica with Erwan Le Corre, the founder of MovNat, and though it wasn't him teaching the course. it was pretty good stuff, and lots of it made me realise how many things we're all probably doing wrong in our daily lives that won't be doing our health any favours.
• Having dinner with the family.
• Playing squash for the first time in ages.
• Going out for some birthday drinks.
• Having more meetings about next year's lecture tour - will finally get something moving on that front in the next week.
• And getting started on my long overdue personal project - should be shooting the first portrait this Wednesday.

This Week I are Mostly Been...

• Just got in from shooting the Greensand Marathon for Runner's World - making it my 4th weekend working in a row.  Bit tired at the mo.  The run looked fantastic though, along a very scenic part of the Surrey Hills, and the weather was perfect too.  I shot some video as well, which will be up on the RW site very soon hopefully.
• Spending Saturday shooting a Kettlebell training course with Mike Mahler for Men's Fitness with the guys from Fitter London.  Very impressive stuff, particularly when he progressed to stacking the kettlebells on top of each other - not sure I could even hold them like that, let alone lift them.
• Went to a friend's housewarming party in their swanky new flat in London's Fashionable East End.  Couldn't stay long due to exhaustion...
• Catching up with 2 old friends after far too long a gap.
• Shooting a supplement for a bookazine I originally shot 2 years ago for Health and Fitness.