I’m heading north at the end of next week to continue my project to document deep-sea fishing trawlers. Just getting up to Lerwick is a distance of 670-miles, 450-miles of that is by road: it’s a good job I enjoy a road-trip. Now, if everything goes to plan, I leave the Isle of Man of Friday, get to England at midnight, drive all night and hit Thurso Bay in Caithness for a late breakfast in Scrabster. North of Scrabster is […]
Categories: photojournalism
I recently had the pleasure of photographing a fantastic model from the west coast of Ireland, Roseena McNair, who was visiting the Isle of Man for a couple of days. Roseena has a beautiful natural look and wore no makeup at all. I’ve done no skin retouching, whatsoever. I see the work of photographers whose models have the appearance of having been dipped in wax; they have a kind of Madame Tussaud’s look to them. When confronted, they’ll insist that […]
Categories: model, Photography • Tags: fashion, model
‘The skipper, Barry, had been asleep all afternoon, he’d have slept longer, but he hadn’t been to the supermarket to get stores for the next trip. Maud pointed out, not for the first time, that there’d been four crewmen sat round in Scrabster all weekend, doing nothing, when they could have been grocery shopping. Barry brushed his wife off and pretended it wasn’t an issue, but really, having to go via Asda was a massive pain in the ass. A few years […]
Categories: photojournalism
Every Easyjet short haul from John Lennon to Schipol is invariably the same – loud and unruly. On our flight, the stewardess stopped the safety demonstration halfway through because everyone was talking and announced that the cabin crew would not continue until there was complete silence…so, a bit like being on a school trip, except not obeying orders on this outing gets you added to the International ‘No Fly’ list. There’s always a collective excitement on the flight to Holland […]
Categories: Photography • Tags: amsterdam, fuji xf10, holland, street photography
“You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.” – Steve Case, Co-founder of AOL I’m experiencing problems with my inner ears at the moment, which explains the extreme seasickness I’ve been encountering. So, until it’s sorted out, I’m concentrating on a land-based project to document people who live in less than conventional homes, such as caravans, van conversions, boats, […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analog, analogue, black and white photography, Ilford hp5 400, pentax 67, vanlife
‘Tuesday 19th February – I slept through the steam down to the fishing grounds, and woke-up heaving. I only just made it outside, but while I’m feeding the fish with the two waffles I managed to grab on the way out of the house, I work out that we’re south; southwest of the Chicken Rock lighthouse, to be more accurate. Michael wants to play a game that he calls ‘The Wet Challenge.’ – the rules, as far as I can […]
Categories: photojournalism • Tags: black and white photography, fishing boat, irish sea, isle of man, trawler
At 3.45am, from Peel breakwater, I could hear the wind, and through the faint sodium street lights, I noticed sizable waves collapsing onto the beach. The human psyche is a strange and mysterious thing because I already felt sick; I was still sitting in my car. I washed two sea sickness tablets down with half a can of Red Bull, checked the BBC weather forecast on my iPhone one last time, and headed down to the Genisis. I’d packed the […]
Categories: photojournalism • Tags: isle of man, nikon, nikon 28mm 1.8G, trawler life
I think a few people read my last article and assumed I was ditching film photography to pursue a digital path, but I can assure you this is not the case. If anything, I feel more invested in the analogue medium since using digital again – I don’t want the sterile detail of a 30-megapixel RAW file, I want film, with all of its inherent imperfections…I just expect those imperfections to be perfect. When I read this excellent Johnny Patience article […]
Categories: film photography • Tags: 35mm, black and white, bronica, Ilford HP5, johnny patience, pentax
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reviewing my ongoing fishing boat based project and I’ve concluded that it isn’t going the way I want. I’m not unhappy with the images I’ve made, so far, I just feel that the photos aren’t connecting with people or conveying the story I have in my head. There are a few reasons for this, and if I’m honest, most of the issues I have are down to me. From the start, I got […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: photojournalism, trawlermen
All the images here were made using a Bronica SQa and 50mm 3.5 lens. Film stock is Ilford HP5 400 pushed to 800. I made the mistake of putting 4 rolls of film through an untested camera, I got the negatives and realised that the rollers on the film back were jammed and dirty, which has scratched the emulsion quite badly. I’ve given the camera a good clean, so hopefully this has sorted the issue.
Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 6x6cm, analogue, bronica, bronica sqa, Ilford hp5 400, medium format, square
