The pothole killer.

 Gloucestershire Highways booked me to photograph their new weapon against potholes. They are on the way to filling in an additional 22,000 potholes by the end of this year, thanks to six extra ‘find and fix’ gangs and the use of a ‘JetPatcher’. The JetPatcher machine blasts out hot road material at high speed to deliver a suitable repair in double quick time.



Phil Vickery MBE

I had the pleasure of photographing Phil Vickery when he visited one of my clients showroom . We spent some time discussing his mashed up ears, apparently when a rugby player has them operated on to look better, they don't work as well. The body adapts to interpret
sound with the damaged shape and struggles to adapt if the shape is suddenly changed, so Phil is sticking with his. I wish I did a close up pic now, but he would have thought that was a bit weird.
 

Phil Vickery MBE  former English rugby union tighthead prop and member of the England squad in the Everhot Cooker Showroom.

Npower's new CEO Paul Massara

I had the pleasure of photographing the npower board last week . They were in Cheltenham meeting some of their customers and finding out what they could do to improve the customer experience. Before the job I thought I'd try and guess who the boss was, but to his credit I didn't spot the new CEO Paul Massara, he mucked in with the customers and seemed completely relaxed and at home with them.




Emergency Response Practice

I was booked to photograph search-and-rescue teams, on both land and water, responding to a fabricated mid-air collision between two aircraft at the Cotswold Water Park.

It was very interesting to see how the emergency services work together. I was especially impressed with the new generation of paramedics called HART (Hazardous Area Response Team ), who now go to the casualty wherever it is rather than waiting for the fire brigade to bring them out.














I love black and white, so I always give my clients the option of mono or colour and often both. I always shoot the job in colour as it gives me the optimal digital file so I can keep the quality at the highest possible level for both colour and b&w. I was asked by 'Iris' an automotive paint distributor in Warwickshire to photograph the staff in an imaginative way and I think that b&w was perfect for the job, although I gave them both.

Gloucestershire hosts national public protection event

Recent flooding has once again shown how important it is for Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service to work closely with other services and the voluntary sector. This type of support means fire services have the ability to rapidly increase capacity during large scale incidents. Resilience can only be achieved by having robust national mutual aid arrangements.
Through Chief Fire Officer Jon Hall, who chairs the National Resilience Board, Gloucestershire is at the forefront of developing and implementing this sort of arrangement. The Strategic Holding Area at Strensham, during the floods in November, was rewed by staff from GFRS in conjunction with Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) National Resilience officers. This served fire services across the South West.
By leading on this agenda, Gloucestershire has been instrumental in creating the new National Framework for Fire & Rescue Services and continues to manage the arrangements that make it possible.
The new community fire station at Gloucester South hosted a National Resilience Capabilities Day on Thursday. The venue was chosen due to the superb facilities it offers. It played host to senior members of government, local authorities, fire authorities and other 'blue light services' with the principle guest being the new Fire Minister, Brandon Lewis.

Violinist Nicola Benedetti

I was delighted to be asked to photograph 25-year-old newly crowned best female artist at the Classic Brits and the youngest ever to close the Proms, Nicola Benedetti. She has played the violin from the age of four, practising for up to three hours a day by the age of eight. At 16, after studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School, she was named BBC Young Musician of the Year and offered a record contract with IMG, rumoured to be worth £1m. But that's not what made my jaw drop, her Stradivarius violin is worth £10 million!

Tony Benn opens union HQ

Last week I was commissioned by Unite to photograph veteran Labour politician Tony Benn open a Bristol building named in his honour. The former Bristol MP opened the refurbished Transport House in Victoria Street with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey. It was a bit of a scrum outside the building and it was quite a job to clear the background to grab this shot. Luckily one of the guests at the ceremony was happy to hold an off camera flash for me to light the picture.

Fire Garden

I had an unusual job last night, as a contractor for the Arts Council I often get some interesting arty assignments. Yesterdays was a bit trickier than most as it was in the dark with 4000 people getting in the way! Here's the brief:


Salisbury International Arts Festival presents Fire Garden at Stonehenge for the London 2012 Festival

As the sun goes down over one of Britain's most iconic World Heritage sites, French outdoor alchemists Compagnie Carabosse fan the flames of our imaginations with an elemental Fire Garden at Stonehenge.






The Duchess

I've been helping Sudeley Castle with pictures for their quincentenary of Katherine Parr ad campaign. So it was lovely to be asked to photograph the Duchess of Cornwall when she visited the Castle in Winchcombe. I'd never photographed her before and I found her as chilled and relaxed as her husband.
The castle is the former home of Queen Katherine, the last wife of Henry VIII, and she is buried on site at St Mary’s Church.
The Duchess visited the castle in her role as patron of the Queen Katherine Parr Quincentenary Festival, which marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Katherine Parr.









BBC Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry

Yesterday I was photographing business leaders who were in Gloucester to talk about ways to help prepare school leavers for the working world. This was all very interesting, but the highlight for me was a speech from former winner of the BBC's The Apprentice Michelle Dewberry telling the seminar how she had left school at 16 with the goal of getting pregnant and moving into a council house. She talked about how her life as a teenager revolved around visiting her boyfriend in prison. 


Since The Apprentice, Michelle has established two online businesses and also works as a digital consultant. She is a weekly pundit on Sky New's Sunrise programme and her true passion is helping people to get their career on track, to support this, she is a ambassador to the Prince's Trust.

Diário de Notícias

I was ever so chuffed to be asked to do a feature for the Portugese national daily paper the, Diario de Noticias. The story was about young Portugese professionals leaving the country to start life in the UK. This lovely couple Marco and Marta flew here the day after their wedding and got on their feet by working in McDonalds. Three years later they are living in Bristol and are successful freelancers, Marta as a Graphic Designer and Marco as a Web Designer.




Super Fast Car

Just got back from a magazine shoot all about this super quick Subaru, the chap who owns it was up until 2am this morning cleaning it and left his home in Chester at 6am to meet me in Ledbury. I haven't done a job for a motor magazine before and I was a little apprehensive, but it turned out to be really good fun. When I left school I did half an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic before jumping ship to take up another apprenticeship as a photographer, so I enjoy talking about engines.

Although nowadays I'm much more interested in vintage motorbikes, mainly because I understand how they work and they don't have any computers on board.










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