I party at Red

It was Red on Thursday. My favourite nightclub ever. This place is fantastic, I always have a great time shooting and a great time full stop - the atmosphere is guaranteed to put a smile on my face (even when I am tired and grumpy*).



I have had the honour of being their official photographer and have been documenting the nights for the past year now. As a photographer, the challenges of shooting in a dark bar, with constantly changing coloured lighting and fast moving dancers on a packed floor are not inconsiderable. But man, what a great crowd to work with!

This time I was working virtually entirely with ambient light - there was often plenty of it, just not always where I wanted it to be. I didn't have a flash with me, so I had a go at using the built-in Speedlight on my D100 for some shutter-drag fisheye pictures. The trick here was in not underestimating how puny this flash is, so requiring a close subject. Once I figured how close I needed to be to the subject for them to be lit about right, I ended up with a shutter of about 1/2 second at f/16 to give me some trace of the ambient lights.

My aim at Red is to capture the atmosphere of the party, to see everyone lost in the music and the lights, to share the moment these people are enjoying. It is so cool to be there with my friends too.



A rare treat.

* Yes, occasionally I do get grumpy. But not often.

an apple a day

Well, who would have thought it? Back after so long.


I thought that I would have a go at re-animating this blog as a kind of sketchbook for some photography ideas. I have just moved house, indeed city, to get to a point where I can begin to properly call photography my profession. Inspired by some of the people who have been unwitting mentors and inspiration to me for the past couple of years - David Hobby of Strobist fame, Mark Johnston and his friends at The Online Photographer and many others - I know that using the internet and harnessing the power of the blog is a great starting place to get things moving.

My good friend Hollin mailed me this morning to let me know that the Mac Format article I contributed to - he regularly writes for that fine Apple related monthly - is out in the August edition now. I couldn't wish for a glossier introduction to the wider world. I am sure even Mac Format readers get married or have photogenic offspring and need someone to record such events (though many are creatively able enough to do that themselves I am sure – though that does lead on to other ideas that I have had). But I knew that anyone reading that article with the curiosity to find out more, would have to have somewhere to go… so maybe here to? Hello if you have looked me up from the magazine to my website to here! Thanks for visiting.

So I will be keeping this up, ideas, plans, news, oh, and probably some photographs too. Because that is what it is all about.

Catch up with you soon then?