photography by lubo

My "year in the life of a Scottish Estate" draws to a close

2011-07-06T11:30:00.001Z

As reported on several times over the last two years, I have had the enviable task of photographing a huge variety of scenes and activities to tell the story of a "year in the life of a Scottish Estate" on the borders. Over 3,000 photographs were edited down to roughly 800 which were then laid out in a draft book of over 350 pages, which was printed via the excellent Blurb book printing service and then pored over by and then discussed with the client.

Changes were made and a small shot-list produced of scenes and people who still needed to be added to the book. I went up in mid June and took over 300 pictures with my new Leica M9 which has now replaced the excellent M8.

The book with some of these new images added and further editing now moves on to its final draft, then several 10's of copies will be printed for distribution to the client's family and the staff who make the estate such a wonderful place which is a home, a working farm and a sporting estate.

Nivea - a million moments of closeness, photographing people -Together!

2011-06-14T09:47:00.000Z

Now a chance for all you photographers to show what you are made of and enter a competition with your photos of people expressing closeness.

From a shared smile to a loving hug, Nivea are trying to capture photos of people with their friends or family showing a true moment of closeness. Every day Professor Geoff Beattie will pick a shot of the day and analyse it for signs of genuine closeness.

So upload a moment from your computer or your Facebook account for a chance to WIN!

Here are some of mine!

Blue & Red

2011-06-14T08:55:00.001Z

I was in Lisbon recently and snapped this scene with my Leica M9 and I think it is one of those perfect Leica moments where everything comes together.

Sustainable haircut & Thames side views

2011-06-01T20:28:00.000Z

This week I strolled along the Fulham Road and spied this scene outside a hairdresser - the future of hairdressing is green and sustainable! - Leica M9 90mm F2.8 at full aperture 400 ISO

Later that day I crossed Tower Bridge on my way to a meeting and caught the Shard and the Mayor's Office against a lowering sky and a detail of Tower Bridge itself. - Leica M9 35mm F2 at F8 400 ISO

BNI Notting Hill has a social evening at The Electric House Club

2011-05-11T11:29:00.001Z

As a photographer, I get a lot of my work via referrals from previous clients and from networking. The core of my networking initiatives comes via BNI - Business Networking International with my being a member of the Notting Hill Chapter which meets every week on Thursdays from 6.30 to 8.30am!

A number of times a year we have evening social events varying from wine tastings to ten pin bowling and this month a night out at the fashionable Electric House Club on the Portobello Road.

I took along my Leica M9 with 21mm F2.8 Elmarit lens using it at ISO settings from 400 to 1600 and in the moodily lit,essentially dark club got some great shots of our members having a good time, getting to know each other better and chilling out whilst having excellent beers, cocktails and wines helped down by a wide range of delicious food.

The Leica has an uncanny way of capturing the subtlety of the light and being small and unobrusive, people act naturally in front of it. You can see more in the slideshow.

Leica Noctilux F1.0 Lens at the RSA

2011-05-06T14:22:00.000Z

On Wednesday I went to the RSA to listen to a talk by Brian Christian about his new book The most human, human "An eye-opening inquest into human imagination, thought, conversation, love and deception (David Eagleman, author of Sum )" His talk proved David knows what he is talking about. Brian is a brilliant explainer of things in a quiet, humorous deeply thoughtful and cultured way and made us realise what complex and wonderful beings we all are and that proving you are a human to another behind a wall is not so easy as it may sound.

I took my Leica M9 this time with my F1.0 Noctilux lens and snapped some pictures on the way there including this sad but amazing "Mummy/Vagrant" sleeping in a doorway and at the presentation itself and some menu cards in a restaurant afterwards, all shot at F1.0 to see how the tiny depth of field and beautiful Bokeh worked out.

You can judge for yourself in this slideshow.

Do buy the book - its wonderful!

Rain or Shine Havaiana's hit London!

2011-04-27T14:14:00.001Z

RAIN or SHINE?

On April, 14^th, Havaianas hosted the very first festival of the year…right in the centre of London! The RAIN OR SHINE indoor festival took place in the Ultra Lounge of Selfridges (Oxford Street, London, UK) to celebrate the global launch of the new Rain Boots range!

I accompany this announcement with some of my pictures of London, in the spirit of this fun happening!

Surprising? Not really considering that it’s Always Summer with Havaianas ;)

Guests enjoyed Brazilian cocktails by Sagatiba but also traditional British brews while sampling a mixture of the best Brazilian and British festival foods including Tacos, Fajitas, Mini Fish n'Chips & Burgers.

Musical artist Jamie Woon wowed the guests with music from his recently launched album ‘Mirrorwriting’ and Daisy Lowe got the party going spinning tunes from the DJ booth.

Dance artists ‘Brazilian Fantasy’ took to the floor and created dance frenzy toward the end of the night when all of the guests really ‘gave it some rain boots!’

Among the British and International famous guests: Daisy Lowe- Bombay Bicycle Club – Clara Paget – Jade Parfit – Harry Treadaway – Kate Moross – Laura Whitmore – Nat Weller – Jamie Woon – Tolula Adeyemi – Misty Miller – Luke Evans – Is Tropical – Lara Bohinc – Leo Gregory – Mary Charteris - Clare Maguire – Jameela Jamil – Lara Bohinc– Laura Jackson.

The Rain Boots collection is composed of 8 colours (2 unisex and 6 feminine): Green, Black/Yellow, Pink/Light Blue, Purple/Pink, Grey/Pink, Turquoise/White, Always Summer and Elegance. They cost between 45 and 50 pounds, depending on the colours. For the time being, they are only available at Selfridges and on www.selfridges.com

Very soon, you’ll be able to get them on www.havaianas-store.co.uk so we recommend you to enter your email on that page in order to be the first to know about their availability.

What about you? RAIN or SHINE?

A tale of two Leica's

2011-04-21T16:00:00.002Z

Last weekend, I had a very pleasant tasting of Portuguese wines at Vagabond Wines in Fulham when I got chatting to another customer who was from Denmark and turned out to be a Cognitive Neuroscientist and we of course ended chatting about photography as I spied he had a Leica D-Lux 4. Finding out that I was a photographer, he asked that I take a few snaps of him with it and later having sent to me jpgs back from Denmark I was blown away by the results. What I liked about this camera, was the really intelligent face recgnition focusing software, the good LCD screen, easy controls and quiet shutter and the astounding quality of the resulting jpgs.

You can see two of the pictures here and all five that I took, each interpreted twice in a slideshow. Jon Wegener is a partner in Cogency a consultancy the works to improve organisational judgement and decision making.

This morning I went as usual to my 6.30 to 8.30am BNI Notting Hill networking breakfast and took along my Leica M9 with Noctilux F1.0 50mm and Elmarit F2.8 135mm lenses to take pictures for a new website we will be developing.

Using only available light whilst members networked and took part in the 18 step agenda, the two lenses worked their magic, whilst the unobtrusiveness of the camera and its near silent shutter meant i photographed everyone as they were. With both lenses working fully open the bokeh and quality of light was wonderful to behold.

You can see more of the pictures in a slideshow

Northbank Restaurant with Business Junction and surroundings

2011-04-18T15:20:00.000Z

Last Thursday I went to the Northbank Restaurant, tucked under the Millennium Bridge for a networking lunch with Business Junction and took my still quite new Leica M9, this time with a 15mm Voigtlander F4 lens along for the ride.

I photographed some views of the bridge, us being warmly welcomed by Tracey Howes of Northbank Restaurant, for what proved to be an absolutely delicious lunch with some great wine and a good bunch of people to network with. I left with one request to quote for a photoshoot in the City and at least four new contacts who might lead to new business for me or prove useful as referrals to colleagues who might need their services.

On the way back to the tube station I photographed a lad practising jumps on his skateboard, and shot two moody views of a bridge over upper Thames Street. More of these pictures can be seen in a slideshow.

Chartwell Partners Breakfast Club - Eurozone Discussion 30/3/2011

2011-03-30T12:54:00.000Z

In what is becoming a regular monthly habit of mine, I wended my way to the RAC Club at 7.45 this morning to attend the Chartwell Partners Breakfast Club this time with three former British Ambassadors: Sir David Madden, (Greece, 1999-2004), Sir Stewart Eldon, (Ireland, 2003-2006), and Dame Denise Holt, (Spain, 2007-2009) who discussed the future of the Eurozone. The discussion was moderated by Robin Niblett, Director of Chatham House.

It proved a fascinating discussion exposing levels of complexity, between national, european and wordwide, social, economical and political issues that left me gasping. All the speakers showed great knowledge and understanding of the matters discussed and Robin Niblett, chaired and questioned and summarised matters deftly and with great skill.
I took my Leica M9 with the wonderful Noctilux F1.0 lens and was able take pictures without disturbing the speakers or the audience.

You can see more pictures in a slideshow.
On collecting my coat from the cloakroom I snapped this scene which caught my eye, because of the light

and later a view from a bus, as some balloons in a tree whizzed by! caused a pleasant juxtaposition of colours and shapes.

Haunch of Venison

2011-03-23T19:09:00.002Z

Yet again, after having a meeting in Piccadilly I headed for the Haunch of Venison Gallery in Burlington House behind the Royal Academy because I am always sure there will be some great new art, pushing the boundaries and for a snapper like me, an added bonus, they allow photography, which is very rare in the art world.

Work by Korean artist Meekyoung Shin was on show

I continue to get to know my new Leica M9, (this time with the 21mm F.2.8 Leica lens) and am finding its controls better, with ISO rating and adjusting EV values now easier to do then on the M8. The full frame chip produces beautiful quality images and gets the full potential of my lenses.

Later on my way home I photographed a car near a cherry blossom tree, then photographed a bunch of flowers at home with the 135mm F.2,8 frog eye Leica lens I also got recently but second hand and love the quality of the images it produces.

You can see a slideshow with more images from the gallery including work by German artist Susanne Kuhn.

Some pictures that will make you smile

2011-03-11T09:20:00.000Z

Some funny pictures all sent to me by a friend.

Cranfield Trust Reception at 2 Temple Place 8/3/2011

2011-03-10T10:44:00.000Z

As a Cranfield MBA from the year of 1977! I joined the Cranfield Trust soon after it started and have been able to act as a consultant on their behalf to charities, a few times. The work its many members do for an astounding range of charities and societies is wonderful and gives much satisfaction to the participants.

I was invited to this years reception in the beautiful surroundings of 2 Temple Place the base of The Bulldog Trust. I offered to bring my cameras a Fuji Finepix S5 pro with Nikon SB800 Flash & A Gary Fong Lightsphere II diffuser for flash photography and a Leica M9 and to take some pictures of the event, whilst participating in the conviviality and you can see more of what I saw in a slideshow.

Peter Mandelson – The Third Man at the RAC Club 7/3/2011

2011-03-10T10:12:00.000Z

I was commissioned by Chartwell Partners to produce a visual record of an event they organised at which Peter Mandelson shared his insights about government and power and the ups and downs of party politics & his views on David Cameron's Coalition Government, and the outlook for the global economy in conversation with the BBC's James Landale. He also signed copies of his book, The Third Man which has just been published.

About two hundred invitees came along and listened to a sometimes spirited dialogue between James and Peter and ended with questions from the floor.
Chatham House Rules prevailed.

One can see more images in a slideshow of the event.

1st moments with my new Leica M9

2011-03-04T15:50:00.001Z

This week I finally picked up a Leica M9 to replace my beloved M8 - why? Because its full frame, 18 megapixel and with a succession of tweaks to the design, that makes it the digital Leica M they should have made in the 1st place.

It has been a busy week and I did not have that much time to use it but here in a small slideshow you can see some of the 1st results.

It bodes well for the future.

A book signing with Elliott Erwitt

2011-03-02T19:33:00.000Z

I have been a fan of Elliott Erwitt's happy and often funny style of street photography for as long as can remember, so when the Atlas Gallery just of Baker Street invited me to an exhibition of some of his work and the opportunity to buy and have a book signed by him as well it was an opportunity too good to miss.

My day started with a commission in the morning at the RAC Club in St James's, so my journey with my Leica M8 started there, with my concentrating on some of the fine architecture and gardens, along with a nice juxtaposition of a model of a superyacht with the street relected behind it, some colourful street scenes, then Elliot signing books for someone else, then me and being very warm and welcoming in the process.

Then in baker Street Station on the way home, a surprising poster of Gorbachev (who seems to have adapted well from KGB communist to capitalist!, alongside a mosaic of a Sherlock Homes scene and finally my three Elliott Erwitt photo books of Museums, Beaches and Dogs, safely home, with their special signatures.

All presented in a slideshow.

Getting tickets for Gigs and Events

2011-03-02T12:56:00.002Z

I like going to all sorts of concerts and events and often its a hassle getting tickets and its easy to end up paying too much.

I've just come across Stereoboard and it looks like a neat solution, which I will try out the next time I feel like a night out, with an opportunity to take some rocking images while I'm at it!

BNI Big Breakfast with talk by Dennis Turner Chief Economist at HSBC

2011-02-18T16:02:00.000Z

This morning over 400 business people, members of BNI, the networking organisation met in the leafy surroundings of the Hurlingham Club in Fulham, London for the Big Breakfast for a bout of networking and talks on a wide range of issues.

Undoubtedly the star of the day was Dennis Turner, Chief Economist at HSBC who "is one of the UK’s most fascinating and lucid commentators on economic movements and theories, Dennis regularly speaks at events for the finance community. He started his career in Whitehall and remains an influential advisor within UK government." http://www.financialdirector.co.uk/author/profile/1378/dennis-turner

He gave us a lucid, fascinating and often very humorous account of this recession and its possible development for the years ahead. He said everything without referring to any notes, whilst displaying an extended range of the dreaded Powerpoint slides that actually complemented what he said, often changing the slides whilst keeping eye contact with us and never losing sync with what was on the screen. His example of using the word "average" of a person with their head in a hot oven and their feet in a freezer, being on average - comfortable, had us in stitches.

Some of the points he made today were also raised on http://network.hsbc.co.uk/video/Tips-Surviving-Challenging/Dennis-Turner-Chief/1700002150

He really is one of the few economists I would queue up to hear again and will make sure I record on Sky+ if I hear he is going to speak.

I took the pictures with my Leica M8 which goes with me everywhere.

A shoot in Scotland

2011-02-16T12:34:00.000Z

I have now started and progressed quite well in editing down over 3,200 images I have taken over the last year of "a year in the life of" an estate on the Borders in Scotland. I am working on bringing them down to about 800, before beginning to design and layout a book of around 400 pages, showing the changing landscape and gardens, farming activities, building maintenance and development and most wonderfully, the hunting, shooting and fishing.

Today I have been working on scenes from several shoots, and am just so pleased with the images that I have to share some of them on this blog.

The completed book will be given to family, friends and all the amazing people who work on the estate and who make it all look so beautiful and work so well.

Bentleys & bling in Knightsbridge

2011-02-14T09:33:00.002Z

This weekend, whilst shopping and lunching in Knightsbridge, I took my Leica M8 and set out to photograph "quality" and some of the things I saw, included two very different Bentley Continentals and some window displays with a touch of bling.

In South Kensington, these errant balloons caught my eye, along with a plane heading for Heathrow.

That's what I like about photography, the mixture of finding what your looking for, and stuff finding you! Life's like that too!!

Black & White Photography with my Leica M6

2011-02-02T11:23:00.006Z

I recently spent a few days in Scotland photographing more aspects of the "day in the life of" a Scottish Estate assignment, and decided on impulse to take my Leica M6 to use alongside my workhorse the Leica M8. I had not used the M6 for ages, and found it a joy to use, slightly smaller, quieter and knowing one had only 36 shots up the barrel so to speak, meant one was more composed when using it.

On returning to London, I decided to stock up with some Black and White Film and went off to Calumet in Drummond Street, where i found the film cabinet, now stuck forlornly in a corner with rather a sparse set of films to choose from! I bought 5 packs of Ilford XP2, all they had and resolved to have the M6 with me most days and see what caught my eye.

I have created a slide show of Black & White photography with my Leica M6, out of the 1st of these films to be developed taking photographs around Fulham and at the Saatchi Gallery and scanned and am pleased with the results so far.

I look forward to the rest and to stocking up with lots more film as one can now plainly see the writing is on the wall for film in the longer term, though enthusiasts will try to keep it going as long as possible.

A year of events photographed in 2010

2011-01-06T10:08:00.003Z

Though the majority of my work is in private and corporate portraiture and architectural and interiors photography, I regularly cover events in both formal and informal ways using a Fuji Finepix S5 Pro and a Leica M8 and have put together a slide show of some of the events I did photograph last year.

These include the launch event for the Boiler House Event space at Battersea Power Station, Designer Breakfasts, At Abrahams,

A gilding master class by Rodrigo Titian, a Triibes Seth Goldin meetup at the Royal Festival Hall,

The Music Publishers Association AGM, The Thinking Hotel 24 hour workshop,

The British Quality Foundation Awards and the Change Play workshop - variety is the spice of life.

and a wedding in Surrey,

A Christmas Tale

2011-01-05T16:03:00.000Z

Every year at this time, I take short walk around my patch of Fulham to photograph with my Leica M8, a Christmas Tale. It is the sad story of thousands of trees that a few weeks earlier were the centre of lavish attention, spruced up and decorated to the nth degree, sheltering presents for the little and not so little children everywhere, the focus of Christmas Eve and Day with carols and giving.

Then a short while later rude awakening, unwanted and thrown into the bin or out into the street.

You can see more of these pictures in a slideshow of the Christmas Tree Tale

24 Portraits taken during 2010

2011-01-04T16:36:00.001Z

I thought I would start the year with a look back at last year, 2010 with a series of slide shows covering commissioned portraiture, photography of places and events and finally private work and street photography. I have selected images that I like particularly and not necessarily those selected by the clients as part of their final order of images.

So here is a slideshow of 24 Portraits including this self portrait taken when setting up the lighting for a photo shoot.

More snow in Fulham

2010-12-20T11:19:00.000Z

Winter continues with a vengeance in the UK and as a photographer, I cannot resist popping out and seeing what catches my eye of the snowscape on my doorstep in Fulham and capturing it with my Leica M8. Many of the shots taken with a recently acquired Leica F2.8 135mm lens, which is magic.

From a bicycle outlined in snow, to the snow covered street - uncleared or salted after two days, to a feral cat it all can be seen in the More Snow in Fulham slideshow.

Snow ........ in .......Fulham

2010-12-03T16:16:00.000Z

Yup, we all know snow has fallen all over the country, causing chaos, delays and disruption everywhere! But that gives one time whilst doing one's errands locally to take the trusty Leica M8 and try to capture some interesting visual notes of it all before it turns into sludge and memories.

From X marks the spot,

to a dog bursting with energy running back to its owners.

and a motorbike covered in snow, there are visual treats everywhere!

So I end the day with a slideshow of snow in Fulham.

Change Play Business @ the ICA Co-designed by Own-It and The Thinking Hotel ®

2010-12-01T12:27:00.003Z

I was privileged to be part of The Change Play Business event, the turnaround game co-designed by Own-It and the Thinking Hotel ® and which took place on the evening of the 29th and all day on the 30th of November.

About 40 people came together to work collaboratively in innovative ways, to re-thing their business, create new ones and simply recharge their minds and spirits.

As usual I took along my Leica M8 with a variety of lenses from the Voigtlander F4 15mm to the Leica f2.8 21mm and my fabulous £1.0 50mm Noctilux lens and took lots of pictures.

From the opening drinks with a welcome address by Sylvia Baumgart from Own-It and the LCC and Maria Ana Neves of The Thinking Hotel and Monika Hestad and Olga Casademunt, followed by a movement game, then a talk by the guys from The Future laboratory.

The following morning we re-invented common objects by playing Rethink led by its inventor Lili Larratea then a number of other exercises and I attended two talks one on transmedia by Jo Roach of Somethin' Else the other by Antony Mayfield of icrossing on Market dynamics which were both eye opening.

You can see more pictures on the slideshow of Change Play Business

Rodrigo Titian creates some armchairs

2010-11-17T09:27:00.001Z

Rodrigo Titian and his team at Titian Studios have been commissioned to create a pair of armchairs by a client based on an antique sofa design. I was asked to photograph them at an early sage of their creation and will return in two weeks to photograph the finished pieces in all their glory. It is a labour of love and involves an impressive range of skills.

You can see more pictures from this shoot in a slideshow.

photographing scarves and hand bags for dagny.d

2010-11-08T12:47:00.001Z

I recently spent half a day photographing a beautiful range of scarves and handbags for dagny.d which is a business dedicated to hunting out highly original, handmade Italian fashion accessories. The beautiful handmade Italian scarves are hand woven in Tuscany by Stefano.

The Italian leather bags are made close to Florence by Alessandro and Leonardo.

My pictures form the core of those used on the website designed and developed by Mike Parks of Art Parks, which was launched on the 5th of November. If you like beautifully designed and made scarves and hand bags, made with wonderful materials and an eye for detail look no further, go to dagny.d!

Andrew & Dagny Denison with two of their scarves!

Winter light on the New King's Road

2010-11-02T14:15:00.000Z

Last weekend, as the clock changed one began to notice the a change in the quality of light as autumn turns to winter and as photography is all about light, I took some time to look for it in its various guises and capture some images with my Leica M8.

I started in the New Kings Road and then walked through Parsons Green to the Fulham Road and simply snapped at what caught my eye.

You can see more of these images in the Winter Light Slideshow

Supermarket dog

2010-10-27T17:47:00.001Z

I snapped this wonderful dog the other day with my HTC Desire phone, he waited apprehensively outside Waitrose in Fulham Broadway for its owner and was as camera shy as any of us!

I must say I am impressed with the detail the HTC camera got!

I then tried something different and comped two of the images together, a technique I am getting really excited about, and which results in an intriguing image this time too!

BiG Ben by The Time Proof Association

2010-10-25T16:48:00.000Z

The fundamental problem with time is that it produces a lot of crap. We're not just another group of activists out there bulldozing our way through everything to get what we want. No. We are true believers in our cause. And we believe in everything that is durable.

Discover the new video by Team Proof Association, featuring Big Ben

The Time Proof Association believes in beauty and the sense behind all things that stand the test of time. We are against fads and "here today gone tomorrow", banal, superficial fashions that take away our most precious possession; time.

The "Red" Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London

2010-10-18T08:42:00.001Z

Whilst visiting Kensington Gardens to see Anish Kapoor's sculptures, I spent some time with my Leica M8 chronicling the 10th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Jean Nouvel, which serves as a cafeteria and is red, red, red.

It certainly lives up to its name and you can see more of the photos in my Red Pavilion slideshow.

Anish Kapoor in Kensington Gardens and more street comps!

2010-10-18T08:31:00.000Z

On Friday I decided to take myself off to Kensington Gardens and see the Turning the World Upside Down exhibition of four of Anish Kapoor's sculptures in Kensington Gardens, organised by the Royal Parks and the Serpentine gallery.

As usual, I took my trusty Leica M8 with the 21mm F2.8 lens and a 90 mm F2.8 lens and tried to see aspects, that perhaps others miss, to celebrate this wonderful artists work, which you can see in the Anish Kapoor in Kensington Gardens, slideshow.

I also used this as an opportunity to try more of my current obsession, street photography composites (comps) in which I take a rapid sequence of shots, then merge them into a Muybridge type sequence in Photoshop, like a mini movie in one frame.

In a way I think I am developing a new genre of photography, which needs a new catchy name, which has as yet eluded me - street comps? one frame movie? please help me out and make some suggestions.

CREOpoint London Members Breakfast 6th October

2010-10-13T17:07:00.000Z

On 6th October I attended the CREOpoint London Members breakfast meeting held in ERM's super offices overlooking the Gherkin. I was asked to take along my camera and you can see the resulting slideshow of pictures taken with the Leica M8, which can be seen on the CREOpoint website.

Find more photos like this on CREOpoint

We had an excellent talk on the new CRC regime and Jean Claude Goldenstein demonstrated some amazing analytical tools for seeing who are influential people in the worldwide real estate business via their online presence including websites, blogs and of course social media. The latter now being evermore important.

The Broadway Bar & Grill Launch Event 6 October 2010

2010-10-08T15:18:00.000Z

A few days ago, I got a pleasant response to one of my tweets, in the form of some really positive comments on my website and photography from Max Hepworth-Povey the new manager of the new Broadway Bar and Grill on Fulham Broadway along with an invite to their launch event organised with top PR firm Neil Reading PR on 6th October.

So that evening along with a few hundred other lucky Fulham denizens I turned up to sample the delights of a newly redesigned space and an amazing charcoal grill imported from Madrid, along with bottle twirling bar men and chefs.

as is now usual I took my trusty Leica M8 and you can see more of what I saw and captured for future generations! in a slideshow of the Broadway Bar and Grill launch party.

From TV screens showing "Some like it Hot" to grilled peach Mojitos and meltingly fine and tasty grilled steak the night slipped all too quickly by!

A Global Brilliance day on 1st October 2010

2010-10-03T16:09:00.002Z

On Friday, I was privileged to take part in a Global Brilliance Workshop in London organised by Manisha Dahad, Founder of The Centre for Social Brilliance who also was one of the speakers. I was asked to chronicle the event and did so with my trusty Leica M8.

With a unique ability of visioning the new untapped potential in individuals and society, Manisha has always worked in innovative ways within organisations and communities bringing new social and business ideas to fruition. From engaging in large transformational programmes as a Management Consultant with IBM, to designing and delivering social leadership programmes along with Save the Children and other charities, she weaves a core thread of social consciousness in each initiative.

A visionary, speaker and film-maker who wants to connect brilliant potential around the world, also created a short documentary highlighting the spirit and sparks of magnificence in two young children living in the slum communities of Mumbai in India. www.igniteall.com,

Other speakers included: David Goodfellow, Founder of the Kindness Offensive, Neishaa Gharat, International Ambassador of Project Crayons, Mumbai, India, Soleira Green, co-founder of the Visionary Network, Manisha Dahad, Founder of the Centre for Social & Global Brilliance and Jackie Thoms of Brilliance Xponential along with our Brilliance Coaches will help us dive into the paradigm of brilliance.

David Goodfellow, Founding Member of The Kindness Offensive
www.thekindnessoffensive.com

David Goodfellow is a founding member of The Kindness Offensive, a London based group who are the world’s largest performers of random acts of kindness. Since they began in 2008, TKO has given away over £2 million worth of goods, including 35 tonnes of Christmas presents in one day! With a technique they’ve termed ‘phone whispering’ TKO has collaborated with businesses and brands to kindly give everything from 25 tonnes of non-perishable foods to hundreds of thousands of pancakes plus luxury tents, medical supplements and huge amounts of chocolate.

Soleira Green, Co-Founder of the Visionary Network
www.transformingourworld.com

Soleira Green is a global visionary and co-founder of the Visionary Network. She's passionate about visionary creation, transformative working, global collaboration and social brilliance. As a writer, speaker, trainer, coach, networker and event host, she works passionately for a vibrant new world where everyone is empowered to contribute their unique genius in leaderful new ways.

Jackie Thoms, Founder of Brilliance Xponential www.brilliancexponential.com

Jackie ‘s vision is to explode brilliance in the world by creating a global network of people that know their own brilliance and can see other people’s brilliance to create a massive impact on how people view themselves and the world. One key aim is to move people from seeing the problem in a situation to seeing the potential and having the knowing, confidence and sense of self to take action and steps to work with the brilliance they see.

Jackie has an MA in Psychology, a Masters in Marketing and is a leading brilliance and visionary coach from the Coaches Training Institute and The Visionary Network.

Neishaa Gharat, Creative Catalyst, Project Crayons & Karma Ventures www.projectcrayons.org

As a creative catalyst, Neishaa brings her creative, entrepreneurial, designing and marketing experience to both businesses and charities to transform the way organisations and societies co-create a better world.

Over the last 15 years, Neishaa has been involved in the charity Project Crayons founded by her family with the aim of bringing positive change to the local community in Mumbai ~ a transformational and humbling experience that changed her perspective of life. Project Crayons empowers the lives of children, youth and women living in unfortunate circumstances through health, education and rights. As a catalyst for Project Crayons she aims to raise global awareness and enable collaborations to co-create sustainable models of inclusive growth.

With a degree in Visual arts, she co-founded and pioneered the concept of design & communication studios in India and worked with many global brands. She was titled 'Shining Woman Entrepreneur' by the leading knowledge based publication Readers Digest. Having moved to London, she now facilitates 'globalization' of brands and provides brand positioning, consumer insights and marketing services for companies entering the Indian market through her consultancy Karma Ventures.

You can see more of my pictures in a slideshow.

The Centre for Social Brilliance is now looking for 12 special social adventurers from around the world to join us on an exciting adventure of social brilliance for 7 days in the bustling city of Mumbai, India between 13th-19th of November this year!

This adventure is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with people from around the world on a social brilliance project with our local charity partner Project Crayons in Mumbai.

If you are interested in taking part or would like to contribute in any other way or find out more thencontact Manisha T: + 44 (0)1462 620944
E: info@socialbrilliance.org

Magical Luxury Tour - Saville Row

2010-09-30T10:14:00.000Z

I spent yesterday morning with Karen Toms of Tyrrell Marketing Consultancy in Sackville Street, Bond Street, Dover Street, Cork Street and Saville Row, studying the luxury product/service buying experience as part of her service to me of developing my marketing plan in the luxury sector.

As usual I took my Leica M8, this time with a 21mm F2.6 lens and captured some aspects of this interesting, vibrant part of the world.

One thing that became more and more obvious as we interacted with a variety of smart businesses, both well established and relatively new, was how pleasant the process was - no hard sell, pricing only coming into the picture very discretely only once the craftsmanship and care that had gone into every item was apparent and the desire was there for a new acquisition. A lot of what influenced you was picked up directly, through seeing crafts men - and women at work, careful use of architecture and interior design, showing by example, restrained carefully lit displays.

You can see more pictures in a slideshow, which ends with a quiet moment in The Haunch of Venison gallery in Burlington House, one of my favourites, but currently between main exhibitions and then a train arriving at Earls Court Tube Station.

Photos taken on my way to the Designer Breakfast on 23rd September, then ...

2010-09-24T20:43:00.000Z

I decided to take my Leica M8 to this months Designer Breakfast held at BBH's offices and chose to start snapping as I emerged from Piccadilly Circus Underground Station and keep snapping all the way to Kingly Street.

Knowing I have an assignment coming up involving compositing three shots to look like one for a client, I decided to have trial run on the street and several quick fire sequences of people passing in front of interesting spaces. Back at the office, firing up Lightroom 3 I exported the sequences to layers in CS5, then aligned the layers and used the rubber tool to reveal each position of the wandering folk on the layers above them - voila - magic!

Sebastian Conran, proved a fascinating and entertaining speaker

and with my appetite for design whetted, I headed off to Borough market for sustenance, the Clerkenwell for a Business Junction networking session, continuing to snap on the way.

You can see some of the resulting images in the slideshow.

The Thinking Hotel 24h workshop

2010-09-10T08:20:00.001Z

After our two day prototyping weekend in the Loft this SlideShare Presentation summarises brilliantly what we did and what came out of it, using lots of my photos taken at that event and taken from my photoarchive.

The Thinking Hotel 24h workshop

View more presentations from Monika Hestad.

Juggling at the Circus Space

2010-08-23T14:24:00.001Z

I recently attended a networking lunch organised by Business Junction at the Circus Space in Shoreditch the only world class facilities for circus training and production in the UK. We started by all having juggling lessons and not just on one's own! then went on to lunch. I shot these enterprising networkers practicing during that lunch period with my Leica M8.

I made some good contacts and now need to juggle my diary to fit everyone in!

Haunch of Venison Gallery

2010-08-20T17:23:00.001Z

On my way back from the wonderful Leica Shop in Bruton Place, where I left a lens to be serviced, I popped into my favourite London gallery, the Haunch of Venison in Burlington House off Bond Street.

As usual it had an eclectic selection of thought provoking, stunningly crafted work, which one is free to photograph, which is a rarity in the world of museums and galleries.

As usual I snapped away with my M8, this time with the 35mm F2 Summicron and got some great images. Afterwards, I popped into the Royal Academy of which I am a friend and saw the Summer Exhibition, which had a small number of works that made an impression on me, out of a huge display, none of which can one photograph.

However going upstairs to the Sackler Wing to see the Sargent and The Sea Exhibition I could not help but notice the interesting sight of peoples feet on the glass stairs forming avatar like representations which I felt I could photograph.

You can see more of the images in a slideshow.

British Weather Photographer of the Year 2010

2010-08-19T16:51:00.000Z

    I have just learnt about this super competition for amateur photographers to find the British Weather Photographer of the Year



    and as there has been a lot of it about, even in August - drizzle, rain, storms, wind and even some sunshine, there should be no shortage of opportunities for some great shots!









    To enter the competition, participants must submit their photos capturing British weather to the Lloyds TSB website. The overall winner will be picked on the basis of flair, technique and originality. The entries will be judged by a leading panel of meteorologists and photographers.



    (All images are from a continuing commission to photograph "a year in the life of" a Scottish Estate on the Borders)

    The competition will run from April 13th – September 30^th 2010. Take a look at entries submitted so far: http://www.lloydstsbweathercompetition.co.uk/category/

    You must be a UK resident in order to take part in this campaign.

    A chance for amateurs to shine. As proud sponsors of Channel 4 Weather, Lloyds TSB created this competition to find the best amateur photographer of the British elements.

    Judged by top professionals and experts in the field of photography and weather, 12 finalists will be chosen for the flair, technique and originality they use in capturing British weather.

£100 weekly prize too

All visitors to this site can vote for their favourite photographs, and each week the one with the most votes wins £100.

See your shot exhibited

    The photos taken by the 12 lucky finalists will be put in a public exhibition for a week before the overall winner of £10,000 is announced.



    Lloyds TSB

    British weather photographer of the year



    Go for it - and good luck!



    Sponsored Post

A Greek Cruise

2010-08-17T11:27:00.000Z

In July I was privileged to be invited by friends to spend 10 days on their 36m rented motor yacht, joining it whilst moored at Milos and going along the Peloponnese coat to Zakynthos, seeing many pleasant sights on the way.

I have put up a slideshow of some of the things we saw, concentrating on views from the boat and one or two trips on land.

We did see some extraordinary seascapes and the social life on board and fine cuisine made for a truly memorable experience.

Everything was photographed using my Leica M8 with a variety of lenses and processed in Lightroom 3 which now has some amazing digital noise and colour noise suppression filtering which came in useful with the low light stuff.

Hanging pictures for the LIP Annuale at the Viewfinder Gallery

2010-08-11T18:23:00.000Z

The Third Greenwich Annuale 2010
The Greenwich Satellite Group of London Independent Photography (LIP) returns again to Viewfinder Photography Gallery from 12th August to showcase its exuberant collection of photographic talent and enthusiasm.

The Viewfinder Photography Gallery has now moved to 46 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Greenwich hospital supports the Viewfinder with this temporary gallery space until mid-September, 2010: “Greenwich Hospital is always keen to support new talent in a variety of creative fields and we are pleased to support the Viewfinder in exhibiting emerging photographers. We wish the exhibitions every success.”

As a LIP member I turned up with a bunch of other LIP volunteers to help its director Louise Forrester hang the pictures in advance of the Private View on the evening of 12th of August.

My picture is taken from a series of a current commission which chronicles "a year in the life" of a Scottish estate on the borders. It shows a shoot in progress at a critical moment - for the bird!

As usual I took my Leica M8 and took a number of shots as the work commenced, then just got on with the job.

Runs August 12 – September 12, 2010
Private View August 12th, 7-9pm
Open Thur-Fri, 12-5pm; Weekends & bank holidays, 12-4pm

The Thinking Hotel - Prototyping weekend @ The Loft in Soho

2010-08-09T13:57:00.002Z

On Saturday, between 3.30 and 10.30pm and on Sunday between 10.30am and midday, I popped in and out of the The Thinking Hotel prototyping weekend event at the Loft in Soho which started midday Saturday and went on with barely a break until midday Sunday.

Initiated by Maria Ana Botelho Neves and assisted by Monika Hestad and a slew of other helpful people it was an enjoyable and uplifting experience.

Over the period, maybe 50 or so people contributes in a variety of ways, using a mind boggling range of techniques, games and systems to develop the business plan and aims of this exciting new concept to provide spaces, techniques and methodologies for thinking and creativity.

At one point several left the space to seek inspiration locally and discovered the Soho Hotel, which is a fresh example of how some hotels are developing to cater for specific needs.

I took my trusty Leica M8 and you can see how I saw the event during the periods I was there in a slideshow.

There were a truly amazing bunch of people there, with a wide range of interests and skills all giving of their time and knowledge to create something new, which is to be shared with people all over the world in a variety of ways.

Musical Publishers Association AGM 25th June 2010

2010-06-29T09:07:00.002Z

For the 2nd year running I covered the MPA's Annual General Meeting, which is a lot more fun than its sounds. Firstly the people who attend are the denizens of the music world, who create the music we all listen to and the music publishers who propagate it to performers and all the people who channel the fees from performances in all medias to the performers and composers and songwriters.

Secondly, once the work of the AGM (approving, minutes, accounts, re-appointing auditors and officials etc.) is done there is always a music based game based on advocates for particular songwriters and composers, which this year, surprise, surprise was based on the World Cup and very amusingly so!

Using two camera's, a Fuji Fine pix S5 Pro and a S3Pro with Nikon SB 800 and 600 Flashes both kitted out with Gary Fong Lightsphere II diffusers and a variety of wide angle and telephoto lenses, I photographed the pre AGM arrivals and coffee/biscuits socialising, the AGM itself, the World Cup based competition and prize giving and the post event drinks, canapes and table football in the basement. Gary Fong's diffusers are a marvel and give studio quality light on the hoof and I could not live without them.

I look forward to next year!

A visit to The London Water Tower on Shooters Hill regarding The Thinking Hotel

2010-06-24T10:25:00.000Z

On Tuesday 22nd, I headed off East with Maria Ana Botelho Neves founder of The Thinking Hotel project and Sarah Farrugia to meet Catherine Shovlin, owner of The London Water Tower to see it for ourselves and decide whether it might suit a planned prototyping workshop for the Thinking Hotel.

It turns out to be an amazing vertical house created by an Australian couple with around £3 million of building works with wonderful ground floor reception areas and a "secret garden" ideal for chatting in groups, five bedrooms each on a different level and a super top floor bar with surrounding balcony 130ft up with breathtaking views of London in all directions.

As we walked around it, climbed up and down it, stopping for a chat on the top deck, then a coffee in the garden, I snapped away with my Leica M8 and 15mm F4 Voigtlander lens and you can see the results in this slideshow.

Due to its very vertical nature, the space is only suited to certain types of workshops and events, but is absolutely fabulous for a super get away from it all break with family or a group of friends.

Definitely a place to tell people about who are looking for a unique experience in London.

Rodrigo Titian gives a Gilding Class for BAFRA at Titian Studio 12/6/2010

2010-06-14T11:08:00.002Z

On Saturday I was privileged to attend and photograph, a class on Water Gilding, by master restorer, Rodrigo Titian of Titian Studio to members of BAFRA, the British Antique Furniture Restorers Association.

The Studio restores a vast range of items and I first photographed some of the workshop areas with their multiplicity of tools and materials.

Then the class started with Rodrigo introducing himself and the studio and then a step by step display and explanation of all the processes involved in gilding.

Words like jesso, comp, rabbitskin glue, yellow clay, red clay were revealed as were the techniques and tricks to apply them. The sheer range of knowledge, skill and craft, with a need for sensitivity and aesthetic sophistication was amazing and everyone left, with copious notes and a need to practice their new skills.

You can see more pictures in the slideshow.

Reportage Style wedding photography

2010-06-04T15:30:00.000Z

I like photographing events reportage style, as I like telling stories.

Here in a slideshow are a selection of images of four weddings I have covered in this way.

at abrahams 'against the grain' 25th May

2010-05-26T10:36:00.007Z

On 25th of May at 6.30pm I attended at abrahams 'against the grain' - a creative forum and collaboration between Abrahams brand design consultancy and Claire Curtice Publicists.

at abrahams curated and organised 'Against the grain' and the V&A hosted the event which was illuminating and great fun.

The event was Chaired by Ben Lewis, art critic and film maker and Professor Steve Bown, of The Optimum Population Trust, Matt Parker and Dr Sara Santos of Maths Performance, Kate Tempest, poet and Margot Henderson of the Rochelle Canteen each entertained and educated us on aspects of their expertise in a way that time flew by.

As usual I took my trusty Leica M8 and snapped the goings on and you can see more images in the slideshow.

It was an entertaining and invigorating night with great food provided by Margot Henderson of the Rochelle Canteen.

Mike Abrahams is also one of the organisers of Designer Breakfasts.

Summer is here! A swarm of bees in Fulham!!

2010-05-24T15:30:00.001Z

We were sunbathing on our roof this weekend, when we began to hear a loud buzzing sound.

Looking up and towards our rear neighbours house, we quickly saw the source of the noise, a bee hive in the neighbours roof space and some very agitated bees!

They got noisier and noisier and we saw the neighbour phoning someone and looking at the swarm.

Little by little they slipped into the hole in the wall and quietened down.

We hope they get sorted soon.

Chapterplay » Blog Archive » Ted Hope: The Six Pillars of Cinema

2010-05-20T10:25:00.000Z

Chapterplay » Blog Archive » Ted Hope: The Six Pillars of Cinema

A really interesting talk about the future of cinema, which is in video, mobiles and much much more.

Outed a blog collaboration with Northern Creative

2010-05-11T09:29:00.000Z

This is a blog collaboration between Northern Creative and Photography by Lubo where Joanne Hartley writes in response to one of my images.

Outed

Outed from the playground by the boys from year twelve. The boys aren’t even using the swing! They’re just trying to bunny hop over the seesaw on their BMXs and scratching up the side of the slide on their skate boards.

Even though two girls try to emulate them by wearing the same clothes and trainers; they hate boys.

That ‘tom boy’ phase; uneasy about the complexities of the femininity that will follow, enjoying the freedom of their last remaining weeks and months of childhood before they begin to fret at the fringes of adolescence, these carefree days behind them.

Putting off the responsibilities that come with the gender they’ve been blessed with by denying it, a phase tolerated with amusement by the parents who allow their offspring the freedom to choose and to make decisions regarding their appearance, rather than imposing their own, to breed independence as suggested by the Guardian on Sunday magazine.

The parents worry only fleetingly about their daughters’ gender defiance, they’ve a vague recollection of an article once read somewhere that deemed this normal and seem to recall a phase of something similar themselves.

They needn’t worry at all.

These two young things will bloom and blossom into paragons of womanliness and retaining their friendship bond they will go out together to another kind of playground. This one will be made up of bars and nightclubs and flirtation and glints in their eyes. Thankful for their curves and they will enjoy the power that they now hold over the boys, perhaps the same boys who were once from year twelve.

I am always amazed and pleased at what Joanne sees in my pictures and has the extraordinary ability to put into beautiful prose.

Thinking about the Thinking Hotel - Visually

2010-04-28T15:39:00.000Z

I have been watching and partaking in the development of Maria Botelho Neves's ideas for the development of a Thinking Hotel on Linked in in a recent post she asked

Images for the website: I am looking for 6 fantastic images to be combined with this sentence:

WOULDN'T BE GREAT IF WE COULD HAVE THE BEST PLACE FOR THINKING IN THE WORLD, NEAR US, AND OPEN 24/7?

I have put together a selection of nearly 100 photos from my files based on the idea Thinking about the Thinking Hotel - Visually

I am not suggesting that the six images are there already, but they may help inspire others to contribute more on a similar theme, or to fill in the spaces between what I had to hand.

Haunch of Venison - Thomas Heatherwick, Rina Banerjee & Glasnost

2010-04-26T10:00:00.000Z

After leaving the Designers Breakfast and now filled with creative energy I popped into my favourite gallery, the Haunch of Venison in Burlington Gardens behind the Royal Academy where they always have really interesting, provocative artists on display and who, joy of joys allow photography, which is a rare flower indeed today amongst museums and galleries, only shared as far as I know by the V&A and the British Museum.

This exhibition was no exception with stunning works by Thomas Heatherwick, Rina Banerjee & contemporary Russian artists from the 80's on the theme of Glasnost.

You can see more of my impressions in the slideshow.

The building itself is beautiful with a spectacular staircase.

On leaving, I continued to snap away in Bond Street and Bruton Place.

Designer Breakfast with David Kester 22nd of April 2010

2010-04-26T08:29:00.002Z

On Thursday, off I went to the sumptuous, quirky offices of Bartle Bogle Hegarty BBH for a Designer Breakfast at 8am, looking forward to hear David Kester, chief executive of the Design Council talking about 'Design against crime' and 'Designing out bugs' which are Design Council-led projects to bring design into the heart of the public sector’s decision-making process. And the designers share the financial rewards as well as retain their intellectual property.

As usual I took along my Leica M8 and snapped the goings on, which I have put into a short slide show.

David spoke entertainingly and informatively for 45 minutes, using the dreaded PowerPoint slideshow to great effect and followed it up with a really useful Q&A with good questions coming from an expert audience.

Amazing Nike video using the arduino to make music by bending shoes!

2010-04-21T08:50:00.003Z

Learn how it was all put together

Another cool Nike ad with a surprise twist at the end!

A stroll in Pimlico and Chelsea

2010-04-20T08:45:00.001Z

This weekend we finally had some summer weather and went for a stroll around Pimlico and Chelsea with as usual, my trusty Leica M8, this time with the beautiful 90mm F2.8 lens, which is great for picking out little details that your eyes pick out from the mass of distractions presenting themselves to us every minute of the day.

Here are a number of those things which caught my eye and you can see a few more of them in the slideshow.

A Day Trip to Hove

2010-04-14T16:36:00.001Z

Not ordinarily a title that sets the heart pounding, but taking my trusty Leica M8 with me as I went to visit a friend there, I came back with some surprisingly strong, lyrical images, taken on the train there and back and during a walk along the beach.

Motion

More motion!

Rest

Contemplation

You can see the full set of 18 images in a slideshow.

Some photographs of sheep, and a lamb being born this Easter on the Borders

2010-04-07T16:32:00.004Z

This Easter I spent a few days on the Borders on an Estate by the river Tweed (where I am currently commissioned to photograph "a year in the life of the Estate", which will be collated into a 400 page book, laid out and designed by myself and printed by Blurb.com to be given to the owners children and all the staff on the estate in due course) and took these "Easter" pictures of sheep walking towards us having seen our Landrover and thought - food!.

I also was privileged to see a lamb being born in a different part of the farm, a few minutes after its brother or sister? had arrived on this earth!

It is amazing to see the transformation from an apparently inanimate lump to a living breathing individual of a lamb with its own personality and relationships, developing all in a matter of minutes. The sequence of photographs ends with the shepherd and his two trusty dogs bidding farewell and driving off to yet another birth.

I photographed the lot with my trusty Leica M8.

Preview my photo book Mozambique with Blurb's new Widget

2010-03-16T09:02:00.003Z

mozambique by Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux (lubo)

The Boiler House Venue launch at Battersea Power Station

2010-03-10T21:25:00.001Z

I was privileged to be invited to The Boiler House Venue launch at Battersea Power Station last night organised by Industri Management. A huge new vinyl tent, lights, music, umpteen caterers, wonderful food, wine, cocktails and entertainment and loads of good looking people enjoying it all.

I took my trusty Leica M8, a 21mm F2.8 lens and snapped away. You can see the results in a slideshow.

A good time was had by all and this is a venue to watch.

A two minute interview in the new Hammersmith & Fulham Chamber of Commerce eNewslink, Spring 2010

2010-03-04T18:29:00.000Z

This week I am featured in the the new Hammersmith & Fulham Chamber of Commerce eNewslink, Spring 2010 which commences The Two Minute Interview: Photography by Lubo

Why not promote you and your business in one go. Our new two minute interview gives you the chance to promote you and your business to the membership instantly. Discover what makes our members tick, what they would do if they were Mayor of London for the day and how they intend to develop and grow their business.

Join Stefan Lubo of Photography by Lubo. who is a photographer of people, places and events - bringing their character into focus with captivating imagery. His experience ranges from having worked with HRH the Duke of Kent to the Igubi family of bushmen in the Kalahari Desert, from the directors of multi-national companies to the film crew making a feature film in the streets of South London. Check out his two minute interview - one of London's greatest photographers - well we think so.

Haunch of Venison Chiharu Shiota

2010-02-25T18:35:00.001Z

This morning I popped into the Haunch of Venison Gallery, temporarily occupying Burlington House behind the Royal Academy and very much enjoyed what I saw there, H of V seem to have the knack of getting very edgy, exotic artists doing really experimental stuff, that elsewhere I hate, but here I love.

Also to their enormous credit they don't mind people taking photographs and seem positively to encourage it, and most visitors who had a camera or a camera phone seemed to be at it.

I did not have my camera, but had my trusty Blackberry and took pictures of two works by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota an amazing room with a bed, amidst a vast web of string creating a tunnel through which one traverses and a room with a stunning architectural scale pieces created with window frames creating a cathedral style of space - magnificent. For more about the artist see this website.

On the way out I snapped this installation by some other artist - I think!

You can see more of my pictures in a slideshow.

Tomorrow I will try to go again, this time with my Leica M8 and capture it in more detail. Still I find the 2 megapixel Blackberry creates its own ethereal effect which I quite like, tweaked slightly in Adobe Lightroom.

A recent commission - Farrar - The Kensington & Chelsea Property Specialists

2010-02-11T18:00:00.002Z

I recently got commissioned to photograph all 28 Directors and staff of Farrar at their 152 Fulham Road, London SW10 9PR offices.

A 2 hour appointment was set up, and I arrived 10 minutes early and created a mini studio in the main office with a backdrop, my Elinchrom flash equipment and arranged it with a soft-box top left just off centre over the camera (a Fuji Finepix S5 Pro), and a small reflector with 20 degree round honeycomb on the right.

I then had each person for no more than 5 minutes, pointed out and corrected untidy ties, messy hair etc., established a quick rapport and got each one at ease in front of the camera and squeezed off between 3 and 8 shots. I was most impressed that all 28 turned up within the 2 hour time frame despite being in two neighbouring offices, visiting clients, handling queries and so on.

A selection from the resulting images which were to be delivered in Black & White were approved by the client and will shortly appear on a new website and be used in marketing materials.

You can see my selection of the 28 portraits in this slideshow.

BroadwayWorld INTERVIEWS: Actress And Model Abi Titmuss Of STAGE FRIGHT

2010-01-23T15:22:00.000Z

Hi Abi, and thanks for joining us. You're in rehearsals for Stage Fright at the Canal Cafe at the moment - how's it going?

Really well. I'm shattered, but it's brilliant, and we're having a lot of laughs.
So the cast is gelling quickly? .......read on.

Stage Fright - the flyer!!

2010-01-08T09:32:00.004Z

With the first night on 2nd February rapidly approaching, today

we reach an important milestone - the flyer is at the printers!

Using my photos from the rehearsal in a highly effective way, these flyers will soon be doing their bit to bring this exciting play to the attention of theatre goers throughout London.

Book now on

http://www.canalcafetheatre.com/EventPage.php?EventId=674

to avoid disappointment!!

Stage Fright the play with Abi Titmuss @ the Canal Cafe Theatre Feb 2nd to 20th 2010

2010-01-04T10:54:00.000Z

Stage Fright the play, starring Abi Titmuss, Sion Tudor-Owen and Alex Barclay, written by Lynn Howes based on an idea of mine and produced by Sonja Rein with Emma Taylor directing at the Canal Cafe Theatre in February has now started rehearsals. I have been taking photos for the production and publicity purposes a few examples of which I am showing here.

As you can see it will be an exciting play, which has already resulted in a strong recommendation in the Guardian. Abi has also been on Radio 2 this weekend. talking about the play as a guest on Michael balls show, at 1 hour 20 minutes into the programme.

Bookings can already be made at the Canal Cafe Theatre so book early to avoid disappointment!

Artisan No. 6 Lucy Churchill - Carver, Mason and Lettercutter

2009-11-24T12:50:00.003Z

As part of my Artisan project, photographing British craftsmen and women who excel in their sphere of expertise, I went to Cambridge to see how Lucy Churchill created tombstones that tell a story.

What I found was a marriage between the old and the new, designs first sketched in pencil, then re-created on a laptop, then modelled in plaster and measured in a grid and marked out and cut.

You can see more of the pictures I took in a slideshow

Salmon leaping in the Tweed

2009-10-20T11:35:00.007Z

I have just spent a weekend in the Borders in Scotland, photographing for a project that will chronicle a life of a farming, shooting and fishing estate over a whole year, starting with the fishing.

I am still sorting through 100's of images, but these two of salmon leaping whilst several anglers toiled away trying to catch them stand out so far!

To get them, I just had to stand there eyes glued to the viewfinder and try to react in time when a fish broke water.

Using the Leica M8 and a 90mm F.2.8 lens made it slightly easier than using a DSLR as the rangefinders 90mm frame only occupied a quarter of the screen, so I could see what was going on outside the coverage of the lens. These were two successful shots out of maybe 20 taken over two hours or so.

Carlos Ulloa of El Blason 25/12/09 RIP

2009-10-03T18:58:00.008Z

I wrote this post on October 3rd 2009, about yet another lovely lunch spent at our favourite restaurant, with our charming host Carlos Ulloa. Little did we know that he was battling with cancer, which he very sadly succumbed to on Christmas day. He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him and I leave this post as a tribute to him and the wonderful people who work with him and to his family. Our condolences are with you.

The holidays now far behind us, it was off to the Kings Road for a walk and some window shopping, followed by a long lunch at our favourite haunt, El Blason a Spanish restaurant just off the Kings Road in Blacklands Terrace.

What makes it special, apart from the welcome, carpeting, panelling and well spaced tables, great food from a tapas snack to a full blown three course meal, a terrific wine list, plus brandies, vintage rums and much else is Carlos the owner, shown above on a previous visit and his team who make every visit memorable.

Today we had Jabugo ham, a wonderful paella, "Tocino de cielo" (Toucinho do céu) a sweet that is both Spanish and Portuguese, then espresso's accompanied by delicious Cardenal Mendoza brandy from Jerez. A great way to end the week and start the weekend.

A street with no cars

2009-10-02T14:19:00.006Z

The council decided to re-lay the asphalt in Marville Road in Fulham SW6 this week, so the night before, cars were banished from the street which presented such a strange sight, that out came my Leica M8 to chronicle the event.

The following morning the street was eerily quiet and empty.

The following day, the old tarmac was gone, stripped away.

This next shot begs the question "did something really nasty happen here?? - nah!"

A day later the new asphalt was down, awaiting white lining.

By the evening children played in the empty street.

Today the lines were painted back and await the return of the cars and normality!

The new road is strangely beautiful at night

Sardinia with a Leica M8

2009-09-22T10:52:00.003Z

I spent part of the summer in Villasimius in Southern Sardinia, on crowded beaches, but with heavenly water.
There was beauty and ugliness, but all in a wonderful light.

We visited Cagliari and all was recorded on my Leica M8 which seems to capture the quality of the essence of what is being photographed, helped by the astonishing lenses.

You can see more in a slideshow.

Photochopper

2009-09-14T14:45:00.005Z

I was lucky enough to be in the South of France a few weeks ago, roaring across the water at about 30 knots on our friend's boat going across from St Maxime towards St Tropez, when a helicopter which was photographing aerial views of activity on the water, spotted us and moved in for a closer look.

I started snapping away on my Leica M8 with 90mm F2.8 lens and it was a case of the snapper, snapped!

Artisan No.4 - Jonathan Woolston - Violin Maker

2009-07-17T14:43:00.003Z

A couple of days ago I photographed Jonathan Woolston, the violin maker in his studio in Cambridge for my Artisans project.

The level of skill, knowledge, passion and manual dexterity displayed was amazing, using a wide range of tools and devices, each of which left very little room for error.

What I had thought was moulded wood is in fact carved in a surprisingly vigorous way at times as shown by this flying shaving.

You can see more pictures in a slideshow.

Music Publishers Association - AGM

2009-06-29T17:52:00.009Z

The Music Publishers Association held its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 25 June and I was commissioned to cover it.

As stated on the MPAonline website “Reaching for the Stars” gave representatives of twelve different sectors of the music industry 3 minutes each to make the case for their ticket to join songwriters and artists on a shuttle heading for a new musical universe. Having listened to all speakers - see below:

Stephen Navin as Spock introduces the speakers

The audience of MPA members and invited guests voted for the six representatives who they felt had made the most compelling case for the importance of their sector in connecting songwriters and artists with music fans.

Voted on to the shuttle were the music publisher (of course), the broadcaster, promoter, educator, online service provider and record label. Left behind in the departure room were the collecting society, artist manager, trade association, tastemaker, record retailer, and the lawyer.

Whilst the votes were counted Daniel Ek, co-founder of Spotify, gave some clues as to his future plans for the service in conversation with Emmanuel Legrand (editor, Impact magazine).

Daniel praised the new streaming rates announced by PRS for Music in May as part of its new Online Music Licence and stated his opinion that “the future of the music industry is in an access model”. He also raised the prospect of a Spotify app for the iPhone. Asked to give his own thoughts on “Reaching for the Stars” Daniel responded diplomatically: “There are a lot of brilliant people in the music industry. There’s a future for all of them in different shapes and forms”.

Formal business of the AGM

Earlier in the afternoon the formal business of the AGM had included reports from Nigel Elderton (chairman, MPA), Stephen Navin (chief executive, MPA) and, in his capacity as executive director of the MPA’s subsidiary company MCPS, Steve Porter (CEO, PRS for Music) and much else besides.

A selection of the pictures appears as a gallery on the MPAonline website and others will be shown in IMPACT magazine.

A corporate photoshoot: for Car leasing made simple

2009-06-29T13:53:00.008Z

I recently completed a photoshoot for Car leasing made simple (Automotive Finance & Leasing Ltd), photographing their directors, staff and offices, with a brief to shoot both head and shoulders shots and images of people at work, with a look that reflected the professional yet informal style of working and quality office space that supports a successful business.

A clear brief from Paul Fagan, Sales & Marketing Director and with very helpful co-operation from all management and staff, made the shoot go easily.

South Kensington, light, mobiles & a bear!

2009-06-29T11:45:00.006Z

This Saturday, I spent an hour with my Leica M8 and a 21mm F.2.8 lens walking round South Kensington, along the Old Brompton Road, Gilston Road, the Boltons, marveling at the light and leafiness of it all!

Then someone drove by talking on the phone and the turquoise of the mobile, on inspection matched perfectly the ladies bag on the left, again with this luminous light.

A few minutes later, two men talking on their mobile created a slightly surreal scene.

The need to look where one is going, when having a camera in-hand made it self apparent with a classic banana skin, waiting to send me flying, and blackened by the sun presented itself on the pavement.

Later that day in a different part of town and by then, on the hottest day of the year, I sympathised with a bear! trying to entice recession bound parents to spend their cash in the Fulham Road, Polo Ralph Lauren store for kids!

All in all - a nice little outing for the M8 and me.

Eating at St John with the LondonEater

2009-06-08T13:39:00.005Z

Last week I had the privilege of trying out a new (for me) restaurant with Kang Leong, foodie, photographer and restaurant guide who tells all through his blog the LondonEater.

As Kang says "LondonEater is a London foodblog which writes about the best places to eat. It is an online restaurant guide which helps you keep up to date with the latest developments in the London food scene. New restaurant reviews are released every Tuesday and Friday. The Must Go List is updated on the 15th of every month and lists eight great places for you to try. If you love food, you’ve come to the right place. "

We went to St John in Farringdon which as Kang states in his blog is "currently the 14th best restaurant in the world. Opened by Fergus Henderson in 1994; St John restaurant at St John Road has since been awarded a Michelin star and is well-known for utilising offal and neglected cuts, in what he calls the ‘nose to tail’ concept."

His description of the restaurant and the delicious food we ate there is far better than anything I can write. I took my camera and captured some details of what I had. Marrow bones with Parsley salad - simple but delightful.

Roast pigeon with courgettes, was a bit too rare for my taste, but the simple but robust flavours blended well.
The apricot crumble was quite simply amazing, with a hint of bitterness from the apricots that adding zing to a sublimely sweet dish. Sharing the experience with Andy and then reading what he wrote about it was a bonus and confirms in my mind that he is a food critic and guide to watch out for.

Artisan No 3 Wes Maebe - Sound Engineer

2009-05-21T10:21:00.006Z

Yesterday, I photographed Wes Maebe at the legendary RAK Studios as the 3rd Artisan in my project to celebrate excellence through portraits of British craftsmen whose hands turn common stuff into something special. In this case - a massager of sounds!

We were joined by guitarist Elliott Randall, session musician par excellence and lead guitarist of Steely Dan and to be remembered for ever with his guitar solo on Reelin in the years.

A selection of images from the shoot can be seen in a slideshow. I used my trusty Fuji Finepix S5 Pro and my Leica M8 and Elinchrom lights along with some handheld Nikon flash and we were ably supported by Rob. Thanks to RAK Studios for letting us do it and to enryone involved for making it so much fun! cool music included!!

A very red flower - Amaryllis

2009-05-18T15:00:00.004Z

We recently were given an Amaryllis, which was about to blossom.

It now has, magnificently and I tried to capture some of its magic, using my camera hand held, as it was tricky choosing the right viewpoint and used the Nikon 85mm F.1.4 lens wide open to capture one detail at a time. On looking at the resultant images I then felt that I wanted the best parts of two different shots and thanks to PhotoShop's layers, blending options and Smart sharpening, I got the effect I was looking for.

Next time I will use a tripod and take advantage of the latest merge layers tool.

Battle @ Kruger Game Park

2009-05-08T18:01:00.003Z

An absolutely incredible film of a wildebeest calf attacked by lions, then a crocodile tries to take it away and then the whole herd of wildebeest attack and get the calf back!

Fact is stranger and more wonderful than fiction.

Artisan No 2 - Richard Wilson - Bowmaker

2009-05-08T08:39:00.006Z

I went up to Cambridge on Wednesday to photograph Richard Wilson in his studio, where he makes and repairs bows for a wide variety of clients and their stringed instruments. This was my second Artisan shoot, the first being the cabinet maker Keith Platt who is based in the Cotswolds.

Richard spent many years as a musician, traveling constantly before settling down, first as an apprentice bowmaker, and then setting up on his own, and now has twenty years of experience in this specialised and fascinating craft.

I learned that the body of the bow is carved from a single piece of really heavy wood (so heavy it sinks in water!!), which needs to be seasoned for years before use. The five main stages of the process are shown above. Other materials used are ebony, ivory, horsehair and brass.

Richard makes every element by hand mainly using a small plane and a tiny chisel/knife - it is amazing to watch.

I used both my Fuji S5 Pro and Leica M8, two Elinchrom Flash units, one with a softbox, the other with a honeycombe grid, supplemented by a small Nikon SB24 flashgun to give interesting highlights. I show more of the pictures taken in a slideshow.

Other Artisans, I am due to photograph include a Wood Restorer, a Violin Maker, a Stone Carver, a maker of Stained Glass, a rock music sound engineer ( yes! they too craft sound with their hands!!) and a master butcher.

I am seeking more Artisans, based in London and further afield, who are known and respected by their peers and all of whom embody excellence in their craft. Please do contact me if you would like to propose such a person. I plan on building up a portfolio of around twenty Artisans and then exhibiting at a central London Art gallery later this year, and publishing a book as a celebration of the excellence of craftmanship in this country.

Cornwall - The Eden Project & The Lost Gardens of Heligan

2009-05-05T11:24:00.003Z

This Bank holiday weekend we visited St Austell and the Eden Project on Saturday

and then the Lost Gardens of Heligan on the Sunday

and St Mawes in the afternoon.

a resting canoeist summed up the weekend! as does the slideshow!

Speedy service - The Wheatsheaf Pub Garden

2009-04-24T09:32:00.003Z

Yesterday, at 9am I got a phone call from the manager of a local pub, the Wheatsheaf, stating that I had been recommended by Bruce, the master butcher at the Parson's Nose , as a photographer who could take some interesting images of the pub's garden that were now needed, for promoting it, now that summer or at least spring appears to have started! Speed was of the essence!

I popped in to meet Ali, to agree a brief and was able to quote him my fee on the spot. Hands were shaken, and half an hour later, I came with my photo gear and took a variety of shots with a wide angle and a fisheye lens, to capture it all. The sun was shining and there were strong shadows, so taking and processing the pictures took some care.

By 3pm I had downloaded the pictures onto my computer and using Adobe Lightroom 2 and PhotoShop CS4 created a slideshow of my selection of processed images that best matched the brief, which I uploaded onto the web and fired off an e-mail with the link to Ali.

At 8pm I had a response from Ali who had selected 8 pictures which he needed as 300dpi tiff files at A3 size which were to be handed over to ProntaPrint on the Fulham Road for inclusion in a large poster to be put on a stand outside the pub shortly. This morning at 10 I delivered the DVD with 800mb of high definition images and left with the cheque.

Eyefully good for all concerned!

LIP Trial Greenwich Sunday 19 May

2009-04-22T10:33:00.006Z

The Laban Centre - an amazing building.

On Sunday 19th a hardy group of LIP (London Independent Photography) members gathered at the Viewfinder Gallery in Greenwich at 10am, where John Levett our host read out one of his splendid prose poems on a theme of of urban decay and renewal, which we were to use as an inspiration for a photographic odyssey around the nearby streets and riverscapes of Greenwich and Deptford, after which we would meet for coffee and a discussion of our adventures. On another day we would compare our favourite images and see how 12 different people would interpret a common theme in the same part of London.

I have made a slideshow of my take on the theme.

Weekend in Chelsea with my Leica M8

2009-04-08T09:43:00.003Z

I had my camera with me last weekend and snapped at various things which caught my eye: a purposeful pigeon.

A flower head on the pavement

A quirky scene of someone washing down the road with some interested spectators which I show in black & white and then colour with a different cropping.

Finally what I think is a wonderful bit of natural art, formed by a damp patch/puddle that thinks it's a poodle!! with a giraffe's head.

As usual I would value your comments.

Authors@Google: Joe McNally - Photographer

2009-04-02T16:46:00.002Z

Photographer Joe McNally visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "The Moment It Clicks." McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer, whose career has spanned 30 years.

I really like this talk, its full of humour, plus lots of tips on the craft of the photography business. Literally how to make a living in this game whilst keeping your sanity.

Designer Breakfast on 26th March @ the St Bride Library

2009-03-27T16:07:00.007Z

On Thursday I attended my first Designer Breakfast, mixing with an eclectic crowd of creatives intent on networking and learning useful things about how to run and grow their businesses.

This breakfast asked the question: How do you band together as a group of equals with a shared set of values and an eye on the big project? How do you organise in a way that is equitable, viable and rewarding? Amanda Tatham welcomed us and introduced the speakers.

Claudie Plen of specialist change consultancy Edge Thinking gave an interactive seminar that addressed the must-ask questions of successful collaboration today. She did so in an authoritative and engaging way, with lots of audience participation. We had to work! I came away with some useful ideas on structuring work collaboratively, with ticklists of issues that need to be addressed if planning to do so successfully and enjoyably.

Paul Richards then presented an example of such successful collaboration by talking about his agency, Be Like Water, a fluid agency of partner professionals united by an idea – creating better work in a better way.He is a man with a compelling use of language and one phrase remains with me - people are what they show they are and not what they tell they are.

Many people stayed on afterwords to discuss these and other matters further. I will endeavour to return next month's Designer Breakfast and thereafter as it really was a morning well spent.

Sloane Street one evening in London

2009-03-25T11:35:00.005Z

The other day, I walked along Sloane Street, at the Knightsbridge end, skirting Cadogan Gardens with my trusty Leica M8 in my hand and spotted the following:

Why is NO! the main thing said at the entrance to public and private spaces??

Here the lovely light caught my eye, nature, fenced off and lit.

On Sloane Street it self I was amused by "reopenig soon" sign at the Roberto Cavali store making me think "did the sign writer have a cold?"
Finally it all came together in this picture with beautiful colour and light in the mundane - Thank you Leica!

2009-03-19T10:54:00.001Z

This is a simply amazing video using Tilt Shift techniques and has really cool music as a bonus - Enjoy!

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.