EAST MIDLANDS FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL

Yesterday I was up in Melton Mowbray to photograph the East Midlands Food & Drink Festival. It was a great event and weather was fantastic so a great day was had by all. Aga were one of the sponsors and chefs Rachel Green, Arfan Razak, Stephen Hallam and Dean Edwards were on hand for some fantastic cooking demonstations. Above are a few of my favourite pictures from the event.

MUTANT CARROTS

I'm very lucky to photograph top hotels and restaurants as part of my job and I'm often asked to photograph food at its most perfect. So it's nice to photography something quite ugly as a contrast to what I normally shoot. And it doesn't get much uglier then these carrots I grew in my garden.

BACK FROM TURKEY

I've just got back from an assignment in Turkey shooting lifestyle food and travel photography for a magazine here in the uk. I've just edited down the pictures now before uploading them to the editor for their final choices which I shall photoshop. Before I do I just wanted to post one of my favourite pictures from the trip. It was a man minding his own business in his shop and he caught me taking a picture of him. Most of the time I immediately pull the camera down but I thought I'd carry on shooting while he was wondering what I was up to and got something I quite like. 

YEAH I WON!!

Last night it was the 2011 Travel Awards ceremony hosted by the Italian Tourist Board at the Vanilla club in London and I won the 'Best Travel Photography' section for my photographs on the Basilicata district of Southern Italy. The piece was written by the excellent travel writer David Gerrie. So very pleased for everyone who worked on the piece and the wonderful Food & Travel Magazine who I've been working for about 7 years now. Met some great people, drank a bit too much and beat Conde Nast Traveller Magazine which is also a nice bonus!

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR.....

I've just been told that I've been nominated for Travel Photographer of the Year by the Italian Tourist Board for this set of pictures that appeared in Food and Travel magazine. So quite pleased at the moment. The awards ceremony is in London on the 21 Feb at Vanilla so will be going along and keeping my fingers crossed. 

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

A couple of weeks ago I returned from a food and lifestyle photography commission from Charleston, South Carolina. I've been to a few America cities and must say that this was by far my favourite. It is steeped in history, it's very walkable and the food was just amazing. Needless to say, even though I was working, I had a great time. Below are a few of my favourite pictures from the trip. If you'd like to see more click here which will take you to the direct link on my website.

MUSHROOM FORAGING VIDEO

This is my new film and it follows on from my plum jam video I did about a month ago. This is a bit different in that it has a bit of dialogue with Nik Westacott from www.82fishbourne.co.uk who is my local mushroom forager as well as B&B owner, chef, outside caterer and local celebrity.

It was filmed with my trusty DSLR Canon which produces a lovely cinematic feel and something that is only going to get better with the new Canon 5D Mark III which is coming out soon.

I hope you like it.

HOW TO MAKE PLUM JAM VIDEO

I've always wanted to make plum jam. Considering I'm a food and lifestyle photographer it has taken me quite some time to finally get around to making a cooking video. But I didn't want it to be a dull one so I eventually came across the right project with a couple of friends who make jam and we decided to do this plum jam film which I hope you will like.

TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL IN STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

Ahhh, those magic words - what sells in stock photography? If only any of us know. Saying that, with a bit of research you can actually increase your chances of making a sale. Nothing is guaranteed but a little bit of research really does help. So I thought I was on to a bit of a winner with the above shot. I wanted to come up with a picture after reading a newspaper article on Asian's whose populations are getting fatter each year. It wasn't much of a surprise that the influx of western food and culture is making Asians larger. So an image of a chopstick and a french fry summed up what I was trying to say and, hopefully, make it a stock seller. It has been with Getty for about 2 years and hasn't sold once. So there you are - maybe not a good blog post if you want to learn what sells but at least you now know what doesn't!

PHOTOS OF HAMBURG GERMANY

I've only just returned from an assignment in Hamburg Germany. It wasn't a long job - only four days and it was shot for the December issue of the magazine which was quite challenging considering it was September! My brief was to make sure every shot I took made it look like Christmas. Very tough when the sun was shining for the whole job and most people were in shorts and T-shirts. But magazines work so far in advance these day that there are common problems for photographers. I think I did a pretty good job and when you look at all the photos it looks quite wintery. I even found a christmas decoration. CLICK HERE to check out the pictures.