News from the Picturedesk

Should I be worried about my carbon footprint? I am more worried about Deep Vein Thrombosis. London to Australia for a days shoot,leaving Tuesday, shoot on Friday, fly home Saturday and back in time for Sunday Lunch. I was on another job when I agreed to this. ‘Australia you say – yeah bring it on!’. I should of said ‘yes as long as I fly business and I want a weeks holiday in Sydney’. I left the departure gate in London at 10.30 am on Tuesday and arrived at gate 10 in Melbourne on Thursday at 11.45am – looking like a Neanderthal man walking like Quasimodo. That’s 40 hours of travel. 28 hours sitting upright in a chair and over 12 hours hanging around airport terminals. United airlines were once good at the long haul trip, they now suck at it. Economy now has 30% more seats so the leg room is non-existent and the food is not fit for a detention centre. LA to Sydney – 15 hours stuck on a plane and the in-flight entertainment is a projected screen 12 rows away. I have gazillions of airmiles with United but I was not allowed to upgrade as it was a ‘cheap’ ticket purchased by a record company. I could go on and on about how bad United airlines are but I am trying to put it all behind me.

The job itself went great! Fantastic shoot with an ace band.

United 0935 London Heathrow to Los Angeles

United 0835a Los Angeles to Sydney

United 0835b Sydney to Melbourne

Thankfully I wasn’t there to shoot the ‘Mobile Homos’.

70 hours of travel and 28,000 miles for a day down under. Never again! What with the Maiden tour, various other trips and a quick visit to Oz my air mileage so far this year is over 100,000 miles. I better plant a tree in the garden!

Fantastic few days with Duff McKagan’s Loaded touring Scotland – well Glasgow and Inverness. Duff is one of the most easy going and normal rock stars I have had the pleasure of hanging out with. Up on the banks of Lock Ness was just beautiful. Did some pictures with the band that looked really good with plenty of atmosphere. It really didn’t feel like work at all.

Above: Duff from the PR company (2 Duff’s can you believe it?) and Jerry Ewing compare what happens when you eat a curry every day followed by a couple of Kebabs!
Below: That is me posing next to the statue of Jerry Ewing that is perched on the banks.

No more curry!

I know it is sacrilege to ignore the single malt when in the highlands but we stuck to the Jack!

Archie isn’t even a month old and he has done what many rock n’ rollers aspire to do all their lives!

I love Hammer for this.

This was supposed to be a really straight forward shoot. I have shot DragonForce a few times before and I enjoy their company. I arrived at Holborn studios to shoot the band to a set brief. The magazine I was shooting for wanted a Police line up shot of all members against a white wall. It was supposed to be simple until the band decided they thought the idea was ‘a bit cliche’ – they had a point and I let them know it wasn’t my choice of shoot either. When Herman pulled his trousers down I decided to say ‘f**k the original brief’ and got everyone to do the same. The final shot used shows a certain look of defiance and also shows their distaste to being told what to do by the music press. They are a seriously talented band but don’t want to be taken seriously and can you blame them?

Out now is a ten page article on me me me in this months ‘Digital SLR Photography’ magazine. It is a great feature on everything that went on this year touring with the greatest metal band on the planet. If you want to know what it is like to travel over 50,000 miles around the world photographing the band on their private plane as they play to over 1 million fans get it now (in the shops sept 10th)! Try not to be too confused with all the different ‘digital pornographer, slr photographer mags etc on the racks in WHSMITH. The magazine is called DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY.

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What with making babies and being away on tour it has been a very busy and exciting year. The last week I would rather put behind me though. After my son was born we came home from hospital and all was just beautiful. However, after 24 hours at home my wife Jo noticed that Little Archie was very quiet and she felt something was not right? Even though a midwife who visited earlier in the day told Jo ‘not to worry’ and ‘stop being a worried mum’, mothers intuition kicked in and we raced back to hospital – fortunately it was the right thing to do because his blood sugar levels had dipped dangerously low. He was rushed to intensive care and the following few days were very scary. Thankfully after a week of worry and nail biting he is home and all is just fine. The Doctors and Nurses in Epsom Neonatal Unit are not just great at their jobs they are Saints and Angels. I am forever in debt to them!

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I have received lots of emails requesting more pictures of Maiden and Bullet for my Valentine. It has been tough with the Maiden pix because everything has to remain exclusive with Maiden – so I can only upload pix once they are out in the media. I have some killer stuff that will go up soon from the Twickenham and Gothenburg shows so check back soon. Also we are putting together a book on the whole tour – but that won’t be published for a little while – I’ll keep you posted on that one.

More Bullet for my Valentine pix will go up soon – Just finished supplying pictures for the bands 2009 Calendar – which looks very cool and I have a ton of pictures from this years Download festival taken on-stage looking out on the mosh pit which I will publish here soon. Was supposed to be out on tour in the US with them but baby catching duties took precedence!

Over the next few weeks I will be uploading more pictures to the gallery section on the main site www.picturedesk.co.uk I have all the galleries ready to upload – just have to wait for a couple of things to publish and then will unleash all.

This is me standing on the roof of the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg. Can I join the Beastie Boys please? I am wearing my favorite offensive T-Shirt – ‘Combined Union of Non- Theatrical Stagehands!

PHOTO CREDIT: Johnny B

Now I am back from touring duties and slowly getting back to normal (?) the blog will be busier from now on so check back soon!