I didn’t realize just how behind I was in posting updates to the site until I saw how far back I had to predate this post.  The wedding in October followed by the honeymoon (the subject of this particular post) and Danni finally moving her things into my our home not to mention my continued work on my 365 project have kept me rather busy.

But enough excuses.

We spent an amazing week at Coco Palms Dhuni Kolhu resort and couldn’t have asked for better weather, food, drinks or anything!  The island itself was accessible only via a seaplane from Malé and the entire landmass was circumnavigable (my big word for the day) in about 30 minutes.

We spent most of the week lounging around on the beach (as was a honeymoon requirement), snorkeling (Danni’s new love) or simply gorging ourselves on the amazing food offered from their kitchen.  And when we weren’t doing one of those three things, we were taking photos of Danni in her many wedding dresses at various stunning locations around the island.

We also managed a couple of boating excursions during our week.  The first was an early morning outing to do some dolphin watching.  I’d expected to see a couple of dorsal fins here and there, but what we ended up seeing were about 200 dolphins in several pods splashing around and doing their morning hunting.  Most of them were too far from the boat for my longest lens (85mm) to really do them justice, so no great photos but it was a great experience (apart from Danni getting sea sick of course).

The other trip was a gifted private sunset cruise for two with champagne and canapes that was bought for us by my good friend Robert.  It was a lovely little motor around the island that didn’t go so far out as to encounter any big waves (and thereby make Danni ill again).  The sunset was one of the weeks best and all the better for enjoying it aboard a private boat with my new wife.

It was definitely difficult coming back to dreary London after being spoiled so fully for a week.  We can’t recommend the resort enough.  If you get a chance, take it!

There are LOTS more photos in the gallery.

So, this year was my second attempt (first attempt here) at an all night photo shoot throughout the streets of London.  The plan was to all meet up on one of the shortest nights of the year, stay up all night and end up at Westminster bridge to try and recreate a few of the iconic images seen in the opening sequences of the film 28 Days Later.

We all met up around 7:30 (baring a few stragglers) on the south side of Tower Bridge for a few sunset photo opportunities.  As I have about 200 images of Tower Bridge already, I took a couple of snaps and then spent most of my time chatting with the other folks.

After everyone arrived, I set up a couple of lights and made everyone pose for a big group photo before we started our slow trek to Westminster.

The POTN Gang
L to R: Matt, Steve, Brett, Paul, Neal, Angus, Bonnie, Scott, Me

Our walk took us from Tower Bridge to Westminster Bridge via the Gherkin, Bank, St. Pauls, Smithfields and Holburn before finally catching a bus from the Strand for our final leg of the journey.  We were running short on time to catch sunrise at Westminster, so we’ll plan a bit better next year I think.

While the sunrise we had wasn’t brilliant, it did provide some terrific light at Westminster which enabled me to get the photo I’d had in my head for a few days prior to the outing.

We were expecting the area to be completely quiet, but London being the city is it there was still a fair amount of traffic and quite a few people heading home from a long night out at 4:30 in the morning.  Still, there were few enough people that we got the shots we wanted without having to photoshop anyone out of the scene.

Definitely a great night out and worth the red bull shakes I had the following day.

As always, there are a few more shots in the gallery.

At the beginning of the year I spent quite a lot of time flat hunting for a place that was not only big enough for two people, but also close to Danni for the interim while we weren’t living together.  Because Danni was still in China for a lot of this process, all I could really do was to take photos of the flats and send her the agency listings to get her opinion.

I viewed a lot of overpriced dives (as well as a few really overpriced nice places) before we finally settled on my current flat in Brompton Park Crescent.

This photo shoot was inspired by one of my 365 project photos.  I went there a few weeks earlier to get this shot, something I’d been thinking about since moving and finally got around to doing.  I was impressed by the cemetery as a whole and decided I needed to come back and shoot a few more spots that weren’t specific to my project.

These were all shot in the middle of the day, but I played with the settings to keep things dark and added a flash to a few of the shots where needed.

More photos of my new neighbour can be found here.

I was out shooting with my good friend Rob and a few others this past weekend in Grays.  Ordinarily our shoots involve buildings, scenery or light painting but today was a bit different.  One of our fellow POTN members had set up a day of shooting with a few lovely models (are there any other kind?) for a Trash the Dress practice shoot.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept and don’t like following links in blogs, it generally involves a wedding dress or equally elegant gown and a setting you wouldn’t normally wear such an outfit in.  In today’s case, we had the sunny Amy and Natasha modeling a couple of eBay wedding dresses out on some estates and a beach in Essex.

The day started off slow as we (the photographers) were all more or less new to this type of shoot and we were tripping ourselves up trying to get different light synching methods to all work together.  In the end, we stuck to my trusty pocket wizard Plus II’s and just shot everything in manual.  After that, it was just a question of trying to figure out where and how to pose the models, which for me is the trickiest part of a shoot like this.  Fortunately, both of the girls had done this before and didn’t need a whole lot of direction.

Setup shot by Rob Bridgens

The main event of the day was to end up down at the beach to shoot a bit of a paint fight in front of the wreck of an old lightship called The Gull.  Rob and I snuck in a few more final shots in the dwindling light while everyone else waited patiently.

The paint fight itself was a bit chaotic; 6 photographers and a videographer all vying for a better vantage point while simultaneously avoiding paint splatter is not conducive to an organized shoot.  It was fun (for the girls especially), but there were lessons to be learned for the next attempt.

In the end, I think everyone walked away with some decent shots and picked up a few new skills or ideas which was what the entire process was about.

Thanks again to Steve for organizing it all.  Also thanks to Razvan for taking the videos of us shooting all day (and for holding light stands as well!).  The first video of our daytime shooting is available here and the second video which covers the paint fight is here.

There are a few more photos in the gallery.  It was hard to pick my favourites to post in the blog this time, so check out the rest!

No, I haven’t misspelled the old practice of map making.  I’ve been in a photographic slump for quite a while now; nothing seems to spark my interest or make me want to haul out my equipment and search for inspiration.  Maybe it’s the cold, wet weather we’ve been having?  But then, that’s the reason I bought my light tent so many months ago and it’s hardly been out of it’s case.

Maybe it’s something else.

Regardless of what it is, I’ve decided that it’s time to fix it.  Last night the boys were on the receiving end of my new found vigilance.  I’d say they were unhappy about it, but the only way to get a cat to stay in one place is to bribe them with treats.  A couple of Temptations and a few pinces of cat nip and it was time to pose.

There’s a couple more, including a set up shot in the gallery.

ps: after almost a year, my Week 4 photos from Tibet are online now.