I believe a productive shoot isn’t about rigid planning , it’s about some basic preparation, trust and knowing when to seize the moment.

This post walks through my workflow when shooting with a model, based on a half-day studio session with London-based model Saida. The images below are just some of what we created together.

I put this post together as I often get asked how I shoot and the honest answer is I have a few simple rules and let my instinct fill in the gaps. Read on to see those steps and how Saida and I made the images you will see in this post.

Photography has always been a mix of science and soul. This post is about what happens when you strip the first away and leave only the second, a simple black backdrop, natural light, and the quiet dialogue between photographer and subject.

I don’t think I’ll ever know which came first, but I have always enjoyed black and white and strong contrasty images. The two go together hand in glove. Part of that has to be down to my formative days, printing in my darkroom when you brought your own photographs to life and that, for me, created a bias towards black and white images. But I was also working in the industry assisting other photographers at a time when black and white photography was a singular art form and the models were treated like royalty. The nineties were chaotic, but looking back they were also golden. Plus the decade had a great backing track of some of the finest music.

When I first picked up a camera, I thought the hardest part would be the technical side. It wasn’t. The real challenge was learning how to *see* people, not just photograph them.  

This guide shares my approach to photographing people authentically, building trust, creating a safe space, and capturing genuine moments.

These thoughts come from my experience photographing a wide range of people, models, actors, celebrities, and just "normal" people alike.  

I’ve also included a selection of photographs taken yesterday with Oliva Linz from Ukraine. It was her first day in the UK, and we were complete strangers, with only a handful of hours to get to know each other and be creative. Although we had chatted briefly before the shoot and agreed on the studio location, none of the images we made together were planned. Everything was created in the moment. The aim is to share my approach in context, alongside some recent images.

Digital photography and the nature of an image going no further than a jpg, be that on your website or on social media, has created a fast food attitude towards photography. Too many times have we scrolled past an image that has taken hours or even days to create. I hated the idea that my images were trapped in their digital form.

But when I started printing again I found that my attitude to the way I composed and framed an image had changed. I was being more considered with my approach given that I wanted to print the end results. In the past I would shoot slower, mindful that there are only so many frames left on the roll. That necessary delay waiting for the film to be processed and printed made you appreciate the time you had to capture the image in the first place.

So knowing that I am going to go home, invest time in editing the images but also invest time and money into printing them has caused me to once again be more considered with how I take the images in the first place.

A tutorial on how to create the perfect one light setup for hard lighting. This post contains portraits, behind the scenes photos and a walkthrough of the kit and the settings I use to achieve great results.

I first used this set up when working as an assistant back in the 90’s. It was a common way to do castings, a simple white wall and bare head positioned above the model would provide a consistent way to showcase the talent.