It’s been great to hear Ed Sheeran’s songs on the radio at last, so I thought I’d post a couple of shots of him and another great act called Sunday Girl from a gig I shot last year. It was a very low key event, but nice to hear artists perform.

April already! So this is my first blog post of 2011… A great start to the year was shooting the opening of the London Cocktail Club in the West End. I didn’t want to help spread the word about this fantastic cocktail bar, not because it wasn’t worth blogging about, but rather I wanted to keep it a secret all to myself! The cocktails are second to none, and combined with a underground feel makes it extra special. The service from the bar staff is amazing and it is great to see people take a real pride in their work. I have been there a couple of times since just to sample a really good ‘Old Fashioned’ & a couple of ‘Long Island Iced Tea’ cocktails..

This was the official opening night of the bar, after winning BBC Two’s series ‘The Restaurant’, James & JJ hosted a great evening for the press & VIPs. Raymond Blanc was in full stride, entertaining & welcoming. Always a pleasure working with Raymond, his energy and ‘Joie de vivre’ is infectious and the only problem photographing him is that he doesn’t stay still! You can view his thoughts on the evening over at his blog

Here are a few of my favourite images from the night

This image is part of a series of images for theatre & circus performer Polly Cupcake. It was such a fun shoot to do with the amazing set styling by Scarlet Winter (which I think was largely items from her home) and beautiful make up by Julia Jeckell. Retouching was by the talented Kieran of Response London. Thanks to everyone involved in the shoot which was a long days shooting but everyone worked amazingly hard and we came up with some stunning images.

And here with a behind the scenes and other shots from the day:

If anyone is mildly interested in a lighting diagram then I will gladly draw one but there are actually five lights lighting everything to provide the old renaissance style of lighting I was hoping to achieve… see if you can guess where they are.

And I got to photograph Charles. Charles is someone I have been wanting to photograph for a long time and this was the opportunity I needed. Charles is the father of a good friend of mine and you will rarely meet someone so dignified, calm and genuinely hospitable. He is from Ghana and the village he is from, his family are the ‘Chiefs’ of the village. Charles turned down the opportunity to become the chief, allowing the privilege to pass on to his brother, choosing to stay in London and raise his family instead. I am sure that he thought I was quite mad wanting to photograph him, however he was more than gracious with his time and I felt I was able to capture the serenity that he embodies.

The other piece of work I entered was a portrait of a sports climber, who I photographed as part of a ongoing project. I shot this on medium format black & white film to give me the texture that I felt would match the scene.

These are often high pressure shooting situations and this commission was no exception. The various leaders of this blue chip company are only together once or twice a year and have a very busy schedule of meetings on those occasions. You only have one window of opportunity, in this case under twenty minutes and you have to cover three or four setups to cover the brief. Having a good team is essential in these situations and I am very honoured to work with some great assistants. These multiple location lighting setups were all ready to go, so when we had those precious few minutes between board meetings we were able to move fluidly between them, get the shots for the brief and most importantly keep the subjects happy and comfortable, as I’m sure they have more important matters on their minds. Here are a few of the shots:

Here  are my favourite images from the day:

Check out AC Slater on Myspace & Deadly People Recordings

Thanks go out to: AC Slater : Tas Elias – Deadly People : BA – Production : DT – Assistant : BB – Security Detail