It’s often a bit of a challenge to create an original image of an iconic landmark.  Of course, the more unique they are the more often they have been photographed – especially buildings in the London financial square mile, which are often used  by print and broadcast media to illustrate financial business stories and features.

So I had great fun yesterday, for an hour or so, prior to a photo assignment at Lloyds of London, looking for a new angle to capture these impressive objects. Once you start looking, you’ll be amazed at the number of new variations on a well-photographed theme you can come up with.

For this photo here I was able to include two well-known buildings – I like the way it looks as if the ‘Gherkin’ is being squeezed out by both the Lloyds building and its neighbour. I also like the angle of view provided by the ultra wide angle lens I used. It encourages the viewer to look skywards – something of course visitors to world cities often do when walking between these towering man-made forests.

Wedding photography can be a real chore if  the bride and groom just want “traditional” Mills & Boon-type images – get me a bucket, quick … This is one of  the main reasons why I’m very selective as to which weddings I agree to photograph.

There was never going to be any chance of  Hannah and her lucky hubby Karl having a stuffy-type Big Day! It was – as my late mother-in-law from the Emerald Isle, would have said: “a real craic of a hooley”. My brief was to capture the spirit of the celebration reportage-style and highlight the fun and spirit of the occasion. I, as always, coerced a few groups for the benefit of future generations –  for the rest of my time I happily documented the day in all its detail.

My Press photography instinct proved too strong for me to ignore, posing up this shot with the bride and her elder sister – even better that her middle name is Eve!

Yesterday, with my photo jaunt to Derbyshire almost complete, we arrived in the valley where the industrial revolution really took off – now a World Heritage site, the  mill of industrialist Richard Arkwright. To be honest, my mind was focused on lunch rather than heritage when I arrived in the town of Cromford – it is now lovingly undergoing restoration by a dedicated group of volunteers. Obviously, once there, I had to take a photo for myself, so I then spent an enjoyable  30 minutes looking for an angle which portrayed the industrial mood of the Mill. Mills were by all accounts grim places to work, so I was determined to use the shadow to help bring some darkness to the image  - whilst excluding the many safety barriers and other construction at the location. The trade-off between losing my lunch break and producing this image was, I think, worth it.

So how important was Arkwright’s entrepreneurial genius and what is his legacy? Well, materialistically, the fact that I took this photo on a camera made in Asia, whilst wearing a T-shirt made in China and purchased in South Africa, then posted the photo on a laptop made in America, is in no part down to the mass mechanical  production line techniques first introduced in Cromford. The social implications of this cycle of change that Arkwright ignited, for better or worse, are even greater.

In most portrait situations I will usually  focus on the eye nearest the camera, then adjust my depth of field dependent on how much of the other facial features I want to have in focus. My usual choice of lighting is to opt for soft daylight. However, on sunny days it does no harm to go with the flow and use the full sun to your advantage – it can certainly add some vibrancy to the photo. I may also use some subtle flash fill-in – but not in this case as I like the shadow on the left-hand side of the face (also a flash may have caused my subject to stampede)! Another useful tip is to converse with your subject throughout the shoot – in this instance rather than chat about the state of the economy, we just chewed the cud …

Here’s a photo I took at dusk yesterday – 10 minutes previous to this I thought I had taken all my photos for the day and so had packed my cameras away. At the end of a long day photographing in the Derbyshire White Peaks, when this herd of dairy cows silhouetted their way across the field adjacent to where I was chilling out, enjoying good company and red wine! A mad dash for the camera and a quick lie-down in front some much bemused bovine and a glorious dusk skyscape was photographed – which just goes to show you’ve never stopped exposing until the fat cow moos!

The recent rainy weather  encouraged a large number of snails to venture further afield from the  damp and musky corners they tend to congregate in during drier times. Snails, although not welcomed by gardeners (have a look at my skeletal-looking cauliflower plants to see why!) can make interesting photographic subjects.

The Roman snail in the photograph posted here was making a dash across one of the windows in our home during the recent damp weather. What I like about this image is that we can view the muscles that it uses to move forward. As it was photographed ‘against the light’, I had a pig of a job getting the correct exposure  - I wanted to show the darkness of its muscles in the translucent white part of its body, which is called a sole or snail’s foot.I also wanted to show some of the detail in its shell – using a reflector to bounce back some of the daylight from outdoors was out the question as it would have produced a reflection on the glass. I manouevred the camera so that the white part was against a dark background (neighbour’s garage wall)  and the shell was against the backlit light-coloured plant – both backgrounds are out of focus. I then just had to wait until its two pairs of  tentacles were protruding – the larger pair have an eye on the end of each. It’s likely that the snail in this photo was trailing across the window looking for a mate  as they like to do that when it’s damp. Roman snails are  the largest of the UK resident snails, so a good subject to photograph. The downside about the detail in this photo is that the lady of the house blames me for the marks left by the snail and has tasked me to clean the window – a job I intend to get around to at a snail’s pace!

The one-day classic star in question was my dad – who not only moulded my passion for cycling. He also (along with my mum) got me curious about photography.

As my current youthful good looks confirm,  I was not around in 1950 and so am very grateful to the uncredited photographer who took the shots of him on his way to making a new endurance record. I took the portrait of him, which is posted here. Both of these photos demonstrate how our photographs become more valuable – priceless in fact – as time moves on.  One of my mantras I can never repeat enough is the fact that you can never have too many photos of the people you love. Digital  photography has made it a breeze to take and archive images on a regular basis – it also ensures we can back up our images to ensure we always have a copy in safe hands. I also have digital copies of the various magazines and newspapers which covered my dad’s epic ride. A few months after his ride, he was invited to meet the then King at a presentation evening in the Royal Albert Hall. The black and white portrait of my dad was taken using XP2 film up-rated to 800ASA. The version posted here is a digital copy of the original, which I hand-printed.

Never let bad weather deter you from getting out and about with your camera – just remember to keep your camera dry. With a compact you can keep it in a pocket until you are ready to take your photo. Rainy days – like the day we’re having today  here in Cambridge – give you the chance to focus in a different world – raindrops and water bring reflections and shiny textures of their own. Because of the way digital cameras record the world,  the colours in photographs are likely to look more vibrant than they do to the way you viewed the scene – so you may well end up with a better result than you first thought. It’s always worth taking a shot whatever your doubts may be. I took this photo posted here this morning on my way back from an assignment. I used my compact  (keeping my D3 bodies tucked up nice and dry in the camera bag) to capture a falling drop of water splashing into the puddle from an overflowing water gutter on an overhanging roof.

Being able to portray  a person’s personality is the key to any good portrait photograph. Candid photography – by which we mean unposed – is a very useful technique to employ when attempting such a portrait – it is a style of photography I tend to use on a regular basis. Producing a candid photograph does not mean that you don’t share any conversation with the subject – only that you do not interfere with their actions nor give any direction. The photographer needs to be patient and just observe what the subject is doing as they go about their daily task. You need to be ready to catch facial expressions and other ever-changing details which will help you create an interesting study. Photographing skilled people at work is a great time to produce a candid photo. Always look for ways to introduce points of interest in the photo – such as the bicycle in the photo here – without taking away from the main subject. I tend to use depth of field as a way to isolate my subject – but that’s just my preference when doing candid shots, My photo here shows professional storyteller and poet John Row, who was at work in Cherry Hinton Hall today as part of  ’Big Wednesday’.

Sometimes the composition and ‘storyline’ of a photograph will change during the process of taking it. Last night, this was the case with one of my photos whilst I was ‘parked’ on a motorway near Preston, in the North West of England, due to a crash.

In an attempt to make the most of a bad situation, I decided to take a photo of the Moon silhouetted behind an electricity pylon in the adjacent field. It was a great night for a Moon image because of the clouds in the sky, which help cut down the brightness reflected from the Moon. Having taken a few images, I decided that it looked fine as a photo exercise image but certainly didn’t offer a lot to me. I then heard the siren of an emergency vehicle in the distance and then a few seconds later observed the flashing blue lights making its way towards me along the hard shoulder. I presume the siren is employed to warn people like myself who may be wandering around in the dark! I made the most of the advance warning and framed up a photo, took a ‘calculated’ random guess that my camera settings were going to be within the correct parameters  - and then took this shot as the emergency vehicle passed by. The finished image is, I think, very pleasing, It is a photo of contrast between the speeding vehicle and the stationary ones, as well as the contrast between the night sky and the vehicle lights.

This photo is “Number 2″  for my ‘work in progress’ photo essay on the UkKroad network, which I wrote about and posted here on August 13th 2010: ‘The long and winding road’.