Christmas Wrap-Up

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones we used to know.."
Bing Crosby may not have been the first to recognise the effects of global warming but I bet he was the first to sing a song about it!

Well, it may not have been a white Christmas here in jolly old England but Evelyne and Elliott are now in Montreal and, as you can see, it's pretty damn white there now..


They flew over to Canada on Boxing Day to visit her family and friends. It was Elliott's first plane trip and it went well from what I'm told. It has to be said that our travel genes seem to have been passed on to Elliott cos he looks very at home on a plane...



It's been strange having the house to myself (I had to stay in England to shoot 3 weddings in 8 days) and I've been suffering from a little man flu since Christmas Day too, but I'm trying to keep myself occupied with work, magazines and Sky+. Before they left we had a great Christmas. Sunday saw lots of friends come over to the house for a little house party. Plenty of good food and drink was had by all and some people even took the trouble to bring a present for Elliott which was really nice. He loved all his presents too, even if he probably wasn't sure quite what he was playing with most of the time! For some reason, everybody left the party really early (maybe our entertaining skills aren't as good as we thought!) but it gave us the evening and all day Christmas Eve to chill out and enjoy our first proper family Christmas.




Unfortunately, late on Christmas Eve Elliott got quite a nasty fever and by Christmas morning we were considering having to take him to hospital but thankfully he started to improve again in time for his big trip. My parents and my brother changed their plans and came to visit us in Birmingham because he wasn't well and, in the end, we had a fantastic Christmas Day.

The weddings this weekend were challenging again due to the fading light and some rain but I had a great time at both events and came home with plenty of great images for both couples. At the Saturday wedding I took some inspiration from my Yervant and Jerry Ghionis DVDs and used my video light for several of the portraits. I have to say I'm over the moon with the results and I think I may well be a video light convert. It's so much more flattering than flash. As Evelyne was away, my good friend Bianca assisted me on both weddings and she was a star, even stepping in to help the brides with their hair as she's an ex-hairdresser. She's also a great photographer and it's good to get coverage of the day from slightly different angles.

At the Saturday wedding one of the guests told me I'd inspired him to get back into photography again. I'm not quite sure how I inspired him but I'm more than pleased to have had an effect.

After being unwell and then having two weddings in two days, both of which saw me getting home after midnight, I'm still feeling less than 100% so I'm doubting a hardcore New Years Eve party is on the cards. It's my first NYE off in over a decade though so I'm looking forward to just going with the flow and seeing where things take me. First though, I have to go over to see Alex & Steven to show them their wedding photos. Here are a few from their day...







I hope everybody had a great Christmas and I want to wish everyone a happy, fun, adventurous and prosperous New Year.
Cheers
Steve



ps. I almost forgot to mention... Envy & Other Sins won T4's Mobile Act Unsigned competition! Congrats to Mark and all the boys.

March of the Pigs

It's amazing how much stuff is out there on YouTube now. I met Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails recently and he told me that he now has no need for channels like MTV as he can put almost anything he likes on YouTube. Yesterday I found one of my favourite scenes from one of the best TV shows of recent years, The West Wing. I think everybody should memorize this speech for the next time anybody brings up the subject of the Bible...



Reuters have announced their pictures of the year for 2007 and there's some incredible images in there. Check it out HERE

The family shoot at the weekend went well and I convinced the kids to get out in the fresh air to get some photos at nearby Moor Hall. They enjoyed it too and despite the fading light we came away with some great pictures..


On Sunday we took some time out with our friends Emily and Stef who brought their little girl Imogen over to visit a local farm which was holding a Christmas Fayre. There were animals for the kids to see as well as carol singers, stalls and that bloke in the red suit again. It was cold but nice & christmassy and Elliott got to meet his first piglet..



After shopping for our Christmas Party (and spending far too much!) I was out last night to see one of the best gigs of the year featuring Job For A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder and The Red Chord. All 3 bands were amazing and I got some great pictures. You can see my review of the gig HERE.
Here's some photos from the gig..

The Black Dahlia Murder


The Red Chord



Job For A Cowboy

Mobile Act Unsigned

My friend's band ENVY & OTHER SINS have been on a rollercoaster ride with Channel 4's "Mobile Act Unsigned" programme but have now made it to the final where they stand the chance of winning a million pound recording contract.

Please check them out and lend your support by voting for them to win the competition. Unless you prefer their competitors, Revenue, of course!

Click Here to vote for them to win!

You can vote every day if you really want to. Votes close Thursday night.

Santa Baby!

Due to the footballer Steven Gerrard having his house burgled (and subsequently being all over the news), hits to this blog have taken an upturn as people Google his name and somehow end up here. So, for those people, hello and sorry to disappoint you all! :)

Back in the world of the other Steve Gerrard things have been kinda relaxed and non-work related allowing time for a little distraction on Facebook . For those not familiar with Facebook, it's a social networking site allowing you to interact and keep up with friends as well as personalizing your profile page with applications, personal info, photos and more. There are plenty of useless and somewhat annoying applications on there (but these can be removed or ignored) and many are extremely useful too, so yesterday I took time to add a few more applications of my own as well as deleting around a hundred so-called "friends". These were people that had asked to be my "friend", often due to my DJ career, when in actual fact I hardly knew them and in some cases had no idea who they were. So I decided a cyber-cull was required so that my "friends" really are friends.

As well as Facebook, there are various other networking sites that I'm a part of. These include Last FM, Linked In and of course MySpace. Each is different and useful in its own way but these days it seems that Facebook has become by far the most popular. I have to be careful not to spend too much time on these sites. They are demons for time sappage and I like to be more productive with my time these days.

Friday saw Elliott's first meeting with Santa and, unlike some other kids in attendance, he remained cool and collected and somewhat unimpressed by the man in the red suit. The party was a fancy dress event for kids held at the local primary school. Elliott dug out his smurf costume (Evelyne wore her Smurfette costume too) and we guaranteed some photos to embarrass him with when he's older..


Last night the three of us met up with Kerry & Dave from Fused Mag for a great Thai meal at the Bartons Arms in Birmingham. It's a great old pub which has played host to Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy as well as Ozzy Osbourne. Not at the same time of course!

Today I'm off to shoot a family who won a competition for a free family portrait session and a framed print. It's pretty cold out so it'll be interesting to see if I can coax them outdoors for the photos. Then tonight I'm DJing for the first time in a while at Island Bar in Birmingham.

Looking for the light

It's been an ambition of mine since I started taking photos of bands to have an image in Kerrang! Magazine. Last week saw that ambition finally realized with a full page picture of Architects. I'm pretty chuffed but I still aim to work with them on a regular basis if I can. They do have some fantastic photographers working for them already (Paul Harries, James Sharrock, Chris Casey, etc) but I like having a goal to work towards.

December saw Alex and Steven's wedding and I have to admit it was hard work dealing with the low light levels. Winter weddings are great but when the ceremony happens at 4pm it does mean that natural light is going to be hard to come by. Many photographers refuse to do weddings after October which is a bit drastic but it does mean thinking differently and often having to resort to additional lighting to guarantee the shot. I'm sure Jeff Ascough would argue with me on that one though!
I've got two weddings at the end of December and two more in January so I'd better get used to fighting to find the light for now. I do enjoy the challenge though and winter weddings do have a certain romance about them that you don't find in the summer.

Leila's parents loved the photos I took and are ordering some large canvases etc for the walls. This was their favourite image..


It's been a busy time with bands recently too, with some great gigs happening in Birmingham this month. One of my favourite bands, Powderfinger, played at the Academy, plus 3 of our friends have started a band called The Dark Hearts and they played their first ever gig to a bunch of invited friends on the same night. The drummer was the best man at our wedding.

Here are some photos...

Powderfinger


The Dark Hearts


Divine Heresy



Hacride


Holy Ghost Revival


I've started to review more gigs, including Holy ghost Revival, Divine Heresy and Machine Head, for the Fused Magazine website. You can check them out HERE. I also got myself added to the books at Terrorizer Magazine which is great news. I haven't done anything for them yet but, as they cover the more extreme side of rock music, I'm sure it'll be fun working with them.

Thanks to my friend, and fellow photographer, Claire Evans, we have discovered a great place to purchase bespoke hand-made greetings cards so I have finally ordered our Christmas cards. I took the image below especially for the cards and look forward to them arriving next week. Late as always, I know!


Evelyne and Elliott are off to Montreal on Boxing day for 2 weeks but at least I get to spend Christmas Day with them both. I'm looking forward to Christmas too. We have our (real) tree up in the living room and are having a Christmas party on the 23rd for our friends and family. The beauty of Facebook has made inviting everyone so easy.

Here's a quick photo of Elliott we took this month. It's already framed and on his bedroom wall.