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

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.

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

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

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

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!!

A Christmas Tale

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

More snow in Fulham

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

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 ®

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

Winter light on the New King's Road

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