Sun, Clapham Junction and Olives, what more could you ask for!!?!

Dani and Janet Signori make the best olive oil I have ever tasted.  I'm not far off believing it must be the best olive oil in the world!!  The Corte del Signori sells olive oil all over the UK, selling in various farmers markets in and around London.  Dani and Janet, husband and wife, are some of the kindest and most giving people I have ever met.  (Dani is also slightly bonkers - when I first met him he was wearing his ripped Ugg boots in freezing snow whilst concocting new and exciting adventures for how to finish refurbishing his idylic olive grove properties in Italy).


Dani asked me to photograph the Clapham market on Lavendar Hill.  As an event and portrait photographer I jumped at the chance to document his stall and the customer experience that he was offering.  He sells his award winning olive oil (judged 4th best in the country by the Daily Telegraph) together with honey, fresh bread, cheese and a delightful mixture of other delicious delicacies. 

The Corte del Signori's olive oil is also good for you!  Here's why:
- it lowers cholesterol
- lowers the incidence of heart disease and cancer
- and whilst I was at the stall, one of his customers swears by rubbing it on their skin!!!

York Wedding Photography

Albert Einstein said that "Imagination is more important than knowledge".  Who am I to question Alby, but even with that little gem, I felt that knowledge and imagination could be a great thing as a wedding photographer.  Instead of being a London wedding photographer for the weekend, I grabbed my passport, camera and cassette tapes to learn northern phrases and headed for York where I was scooped up by Hull Wedding Photographer, Andy Crozier.  Andy and I worked together many moons ago as portrait photographers in Canada.

I had a great day, learning about different ways of doing things, from little things such as coordinating the confetti shot to larger and more important things like always carrying a pen knife in your bag for whatever emergency arises.  Amy and Dan, the bride and groom, were really, really lovely people.  So happy and friendly (I think it's a northern thing). I've attached a couple of the wedding photographs I took on the day for you to take a look at.

Andy is such a great photographer and always has a great rapport with his clients so it was lovely to see him in action.  If there is one thing that I have taken away from the day, it's that being a wedding photographer is more than just taking photographs.  It's a about putting all the pieces of the wedding day together; co-ordinating all the parties, the reception staff, the caterers, calming the bride and groom, moving the day on at the right time, keeping guests informed and most importantly, knowing how to attach the wedding buttonholes!!!

Fitness Photography

 

www.alexharrisoncripps.co.uk/prince

Prince by name, body building Prince by nature!

I met Prince in the magistrates court in Kingston (no I hadn't been naughty - it was back when I was training to be a lawyer!) he was one of the security guards looking after a prisoner I was working with.  In his spare time he worked on his body.. and a lot of work he must have put in too!  To photograph muscles it is important to get your subject to warm up first to wake up the muscles to make them more prominent.  I felt guilty making him do endless press-ups, but he seemed happy enough.

These are just a few of the pictures I took in the studio that day.  We used a mixture of light sources, but I found that one hard light was enough to give him a mean angry face and defined muscles.  This kind of lighting wouldn't work so well for female portrait photography but it worked well with Prince's muscular body.  The problem is that Prince's character is so charming and quiet it didn't seem to quite suit him.  It was all I could do to get him to stop giggling and grinning!

Faye the beautiful actress!

Faye came to me to take some headshots for her acting applications and her agent.  She was such fun to work with, telling us hilarious stories as she was getting her make-up done and then being a great sport in front of the camera.  We worked on several different lighting set ups.  I used natural light from one of the windows for some of the headshots and then added a reflector for fill light.   We then moved over to the studio set up where I used a couple of soft boxes and a variety of backdrops.

It's all in the eyes for actors' headshots, and Faye's eyes were beautiful.  The most interesting thing about photographing Faye is that she looks so different in different poses, hairstyles and backgrounds.  Above is a selection of shots from the day, the rest of the photographs can be found here.

Interior photography for Hannah the yoga teacher and builder!

I met this very charismatic yoga teacher at a fair I did last Christmas.  She had more energy than most people I know put together, had a hilarious story about attempting to sell helium balloons on a windy day, which had me in stitches and knows her way around a car fuse box.  As well as her yoga business, she is also working as, well, a builder (I'm not sure if that would offend her interior design skills).  She needed some interior photographs for her portfolio so asked me to become a North London photographer for the day (a bit different from my usual portrait photography!)

She and Ash (her partner in business, life and crime (not real crime, I should add)) picked me up in their Land Rover, the genuine sort, not the Chelsea tractor sort, and handed me a coffee and muffin and off we went to this beautiful flat in Chancery lane. 


Interior photography isn't something I'd tried my hand at before, but I found it so calming.  There is none of the pressure of event photography and no need to rush, everything can be done in your own time.  I did miss the human interaction (that rubber ducky just didn't have any good chat!) but found the whole thing quite calming.  To top it off, Hannah and Ash gave me a beautiful green yoga bag that I'd had my eye on at the fair as a thank you.

Here is a picture of them hard at work.... their skill and dedication obviously paid off because their next door neighbours have asked them to interior design their flat as well!

Tikkis Mikkis in Paris!

Tikkis Mikkis in Paris armed with a couple of French phrases and a Nikon D60 (nice and light for travelling)!

Tikkis Mikkis became a Paris Photographer for the weekend of the marathon and photographed the marathon runners (well two runners in particular, known as G and F). The day was beautiful and I cycled around on one of the hire bikes that you can rent for an hour or two (called Velibs) gasping at sites such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

Photography in the Notre Dame Cathedral was a bit more challenging as there wasn't much light and I wasn't carrying a tripod. I took some slow shutter photographs whilst zooming in on the windows. We even had a mini Paris Tikkis Mikkis photography course in the Cathedral for G & F to have a go at zooming and rotating the camera whilst on a slow shutter. Digital photography is great for learning as you can see the instant results and learn what effects changes to different settings make. I've included one of the shots below as an example.

I want to Belly Dance....!

Fleur Estelle, international Belly Dancer, needed a London event photographer to capture shots of her show, Tikkis Mikkis went along to the University of London Union to document the event. I was completely blown away and had to keep reminding myself that I was there to take pictures and not just to stand in complete awe of the beautiful dancers. The belly dancing classes must be amazing to produce such a well choreographed event.

The Bedlehs, or traditional suits, were all completely individual and made the acts with more dancers seem even more impressive. There were all different types of belly dancing, from Tribal Fusion to Bollywood Fusion, from beginners to advanced. The finale was a dance by the three belly dancing instructors. They had the most beautiful silver fans to make a truly dramatic end to the show. Here is a small selection of the pictures I took. The rest can be seen on the Tikkis Mikkis site here.