Saudi Air Force

Sifting through old photo's and found this one of me after a video shoot flying with the Saudi Air Force over Jeddah. I have very few pictures of myself as I'm always behind the camera, never in front. Taken about 1980 I'm guessing. No Health and Safety in those days! I remember placing my feet on the 'copters skids and just hanging out the door with the camera as I filmed. I think someone had hold of my belt, just in case, but that was it. Was I scared? Hell no, loved every second of it! I notice that those large 80's style aviator shades I was wearing are now back in fashion ... The second picture is 30 years later, and I'm not sure I know who this is.

Shape & Form

And these two lovely shapes & forms illustrate why monochrome is so effective over garish colour. The top picture is a classic film noir type of image redolent of the decadent twenties. The second image is contemporary and far more assertive and challenging in its approach to sensuality in an image. Both are highly charged sexual images that have no need for colour, although the bottom shot does have a slight 'wash' of colour, it's  still essentially monochrome. Colour would have been a distraction. And I for one, would prefer not to be distracted while appreciating these shots!

Islamic Wedding

(click to view larger)

Yesterday, one of our friends son was married at Regents Park Mosque and afterwards we all enjoyed a Middle Eastern feast at a nearby restaurant. Many delicious mezze style dishes and an enthusiastic and happy atmosphere gave everyone a really enjoyable time. The infectious jollity of the Egyptian brides family and friends thorough the ceremonies was inspirational to the good atmosphere.  The bride is the top picture, exhibiting that beautiful characteristic of women from Egyptian decent, huge pools of darkly luminous eyes. 

Photographed using the Nikon D90 + 18-200mm all in available light.

Super Moon

It seems that the Moon is at it's closest point to the Earth in two decades. So I wandered outside at Moonrise, and on the horizon it does look impressive. I placed the camera on the roof of a car and took this shot. I'm checking my hands, they seem to have grown a lot of hair ... I used to be a werewolf, but I think I'm ok noowwwwww oooooo.

Stick Insects and Real Women

My eldest likes watching America's next Top Moron. I mean, model. Gangly girls who look as if they might break a leg, an arm and several ribs if they sneezed. 

Compare them with this girl, Holly, a professional model based in Oxford who works for a number of talented photographers who, and in no small part down to her wonderful assets, get their pictures regularly published in 1x.com. And she's everything these so-called super-models aren't. She's not tall, she's not skinny and she hasn't got the classic face structure that Dior might like. What she does have, is a beautiful and natural body which is a photographers dream. Well, any man's dream for that matter!  

And another thing, the images the pro-photographers on the TV show produce are uniformly bland and predictable mush. Make-up and themes in stereotypical poses shot on high end digital Hasselblads' to produce over-lit plastic pictures. Watching Super Expensive Top Photographer Rankin re-create (badly) some classic glamour shots on the box had me rolling around laughing. He really hadn't a clue how to use lighting on the Jane Russell poster re-creation despite an army of sycophantic assistants. Rankin? Who do you think you are? David Bailey? Come back David, all is forgiven!

   (photo by David Bailey)

Animals

This is our cat, taken a few years back. I have never once managed to get a really good picture of her. Like all cats, she doesn't do as she's told. Walks away, looks away, turns around - anything but look towards the camera I'm holding. It's worse than photographing kids. She's 21 this year, which is very old in cat years.  I must have another go soon, at least I have no hair left to lose ...

This is a little Silverfur monkey, photographed in the wild in Borneo using the Nikon D90 and 18-200mm. A lot easier than photographing domestic cats ...

New Baby Boy!

(click image to view larger)

My youngest, Laura, last week had the scan to discover the sex of the new baby and it turns out it will be a he. So, it no longer is an 'it' and is provisionally called Jamie. Stuart, his father, was hoping for a boy as he's very sports orientated and is looking for the next Wooney I think, while Laura was kind of hoping for a girl to be all girlie with. But they're both happy as long as he's got all the right number of fingers and toes. 

After much cajoling and some threats, she allowed me to take some portraits of her albeit under much duress. The very last shot taken was the best as I finally caught her unaware wearing a natural smile. (The top one in black and white) Naturally she hates them all. Still, in years to come she will look back at this young woman and wonder how she could ever have thought of herself as anything but pretty.

Taken using natural light on the Leica + 35mm.