Christian Cooke

Christian Cooke is a talented young actor from Yorkshire and I shot him back in December for You magazine's 'In A Taxi with....' page. The shoot was featured in the mag on 6th Feb (i think!).

Anyway it was a last minute request from You mag and Christian was dashing off to a Channel 4 photoshoot for 'The Promise', the 4 part series recently broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK (last episode airs this Sunday).

Paul Keating @ The London Palladium

Paul Keating is a British actor currently starring as the Scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz' which is previewing at the London Palladium right now.

The show opens to the public on 1st March and reviews thus far have been promising. I plan to go see it next month.

I shot Paul during a rehearsal break at the Palladium so I didn't have him for very long.

The Palladium was also upside down as they were just finishing off refurbishments in time for the show opening.

Check out Paul's t-shirt - it's a dog made of buttons. I liked it a lot!

Toby

Today I would like to introduce you to Toby. Toby is very special as he is my Grandmother's dog, therefore he is loved dearly.

Toby entered my Grandparents life's about 9 years ago when he was discovered, a bit worse for wear, wandering aimlessly around a field. A settlement of gypsy's had just left and he was presumed abandoned/ lost. I think it was my Aunty Kath who found him and initially my Grandparents said no, having been heartbroken by the loss of their first dog, Jess a few years earlier.

Anyway, Toby soon won their hearts and he now happily resides with my Grandma who refers to him as her 'little love', cooks him special meals and generally spoils him rotten.

I like Toby a lot, he's a right little character. And I love these pictures as they are so full of expression. I would like to know what Toby was thinking about as I was shooting......

Happy Valentines Day!

For Valentine's day, Diva Magazine produced 'The Love Issue' and asked me to shoot the cover and 7 inside pages showing couples in love.

The shoot was fun, I enjoy hearing stories about how couples met and good, happy relationships inspire me.

Thanks to everyone who took part and of course, Happy V Day!

In A Taxi with Hurts

Hurts are an English synthpop duo from Manchester composed of Theo Hutchcraft (originally from North Yorkshire) and Adam Anderson.

I had the pleasure of photographing the boys for You Magazine in November and the article came out last weekend. It was freezing when we shot this (Adam isn't very good with the cold!) but the sun was out and the light was great.

One of my favourite shots is below. I love reflections and how they can be played with through the medium of photography. More out-takes from the shoot to follow shortly.

Anyway, it was great to meet the boys, I'm always extra fond of fellow Northerners, especially ones who have struggled but refused to give up and then found success.
The guys were telling me about years spent on the dole in Manchester trying to get people to listen to their music - I can relate to that as photography can be a similar experience of plugging away and waiting for someone to notice and for your career to finally take off.

Hurts have an unusual sound, I wasn't sure how to describe it (I stole the synthpop quote from wikipedia) but I like it. I'm listening to it now and i'm still not sure who they remind me of, it's quite a mix. Have a listen though. Their debut album 'Happiness' came out in Sept last year.

Sir Ian McKellen talks about homophobic bullying

I had a great afternoon out back in November last year. Attitude magazine sent me to 'The Hundred of Hoo' school in Kent to shoot Sir Ian Mckellen.

He was there as part of anti-bullying week. Specifically his talk was regarding homophobic bullying. Sir Ian was on a very tight schedule. Organised by Stonewall, he was visiting 2 schools a day to speak to pupils.

After the brief 5 minutes allotted to get my shots, I was allowed to sit in at the back of the assembly hall to listen to Sir Ian's talk (the highlight of my day, i might add!).

It was all very moving, Sir Ian talked about how things were in his day and how persecuted people were back then for being gay. He also talked about the term 'gay' being used as another word for something being rubbish or no good and expressed how much that upset him. He asked the pupils to refrain from using the word 'gay' in that negative context.

And finally, 2 boys came out as gay to Sir Ian during his visit.

Phew! What an afternoon. It's not often you get the opportunity to listen to an A-list Hollywood star talk to schoolkids about gay bullying issues!