Solstice

It's been a long ol' while since my last blog post. Far too long in fact. But I've been a very busy boy during that time, there's been a lot of things going on that would have warranted their own post while out on the road beavering away behind the lens but the fact is I've just been plain too busy!

Not long after my last updates I received an email from Roger Payne, group development editor for Archant Specialist, the people behind Professional Photographer and Photography Monthly magazines. They were launching a new magazine called Turning Pro and wanted me to write/shoot an article for the first issue. I was nervous as hell about writing for the first time, I'm crap with words which is why I take photos and leave my writing to ill thought out digital missives about my life, like the one you're reading right now. But none the less they loved what I came out with and instantly offered me more work! It's now looking like a regular contributing slot so I'm pretty chuffed with that!

Then jumping straight back into the world of sports photography I was hired by Oxford University to photograph the varsity golf match against Cambridge at Porthcawl Royal. Considering how cold (and early) that morning started out the day went brilliantly... They were all dead chuffed with the photos, which was a load off my mind given my virtually non-existent experience of shooting golf prior to that event ;)

Of course Doctor Jekyll quickly became Mr Hyde once again and I quickly re-immersed myself in an audible feast of endless drum and bass events. I've been finding less and less opportunities to go and photograph Aperture in Cardiff lately which is a shame as it's one of my fave regular events of all time to photograph, but on the flipside I ended up photographing the last ever Hospitality at Matter in London, big things! Monsieur Rodigan was rocking the Droneboy Laundry t-shirts launched earlier this year by Aperture organiser Dave Shaw... They're growing fast. Very fast. Speaking of which Dave swung me a couple of their tees, so here I am looking mighty fresh and mighty clean:

Photo by my awesome lady, Gina. Cross-processed Fuji Velvia 50. Oh yeah!

Oh oh oh! How can I forget I've also shot my favourite wedding to date! Dave and Becky's Big Day was the perfect spring wedding in every sense of the word, right down to there being not a single cloud or vapour trail in the sky thanks to a certain Icelandic volcano... No wedding planner can blag you that, that's for sure. But anyway, they're the most genuinely smiley, happy, loving couple I've ever had the pleasure of pointing my camera at; it's days like that that make me love my job all the more.

Diving into another new realm at the deep end, I've been helping out my friends at Postart Ltd with several on-site event shoots, offering prints there and then on the night. It's been a whole new side of making money from photography that I'd never really considered before but it's fast paced, you meet a lot of people and I've learned a LOT from it in a short space of time. They also take it incredibly seriously. So I'd like to thank Paul and Dave for the chance to come along, cheers chaps!

And finally I've been doing more and more work for the Scout Association. With summer here there are more and more events going on including the All Wales Scout Camp this weekend just gone. It's been pretty manic but really enjoyable! With over 90 activities for the 1,300 attendees to enjoy in just one weekend there was something for everyone... I don't think I got a single photo where everyone wasn't either smiling or deeply immersed in what they were doing.

Work aside, I've been using photography more and more again in my private life. So much so I'll be setting up a new blog for all my rap-scallion escapades in the coming weeks. What ho!