Hello readers,

First of all apologies to those who have been asking why I haven't posted for a while. Quite simply I haven't had time to keep you all updated with my chaotic life. I hope to try and remedy that now.... Be prepared as I may ramble somewhat:

Firstly,
I recently had the pleasure of a working for Becky Patterson and Iain Richmond of Black Isle stud in the The Black Isle, Scotland. Black Isle stud is located on a peninsular near Inverness, the Cairngorms acting as a backdrop to this wonderful location.
The brief was to photograph a selection of their astonishing horses in preparation for the launch of their new website.
I won't bore you with details of the 8 hour train journey to get there, but on arrival I was given a warm welcome by Becky and Iain, and after a fish supper and a guinness or three I retired for the evening. (sub note: I had thought about setting my alarm as to be up for the sunrise... However on realising that far north the sun came up at around 3.40am I canned that idea and decided sleep was more important)
The next day started early (ish) with location shots and images of the buildings and stables. Followed by a hearty breakfast and then onto the main order of the day... The horses.
One by one they were led to a schooling area and allowed to run and play whilst I tried my best to capture their poise and movement. Some of the more frisky beasts negated being actually in the schooling area with them, so I shot some from outside the perimeter fence, others were of a more placid nature and I could actually be in there with them. That said, I still firmly believe there is not better cure for constipation than having an Arab stallion run at you then swerve so close that you feel the wake in the air as it passes! Here's me having a poo and trying not to scream whilst Becky simply stands there with a long schooling whip, laughing and telling a leviathan of an animal to stop being a silly boy.... And it actually listens and does as it's told! The bond between these animals and their owners is something to behold.
Over about 13 hours I photographed, and I saw in each animal an intelligence and character that I only hope I managed to capture. As with any photography job north of the border weather is an important factor, and we were blessed with fair weather most of the day. The constantly changing light presented it's own challenges in a technical sense, but only added to what was an already fantastic shoot.
I have posted one or two pictures below (nearly 1800 were taken in total and around 500 were selected in the final edit)
Becky has a blog which she now promises to keep updated.. Read it HERE and you can also follow Becky on twitter HERE Once again, thanks to Becky and Iain for there gracious hospitality and giving me the opportunity to work with them. Once their website is up and running I will post a link.

Ok, next on the agenda is my mate Simon Hart, a brilliant poet and wordsmith. You may recall a picture I posted whilst talking about emotive subjects and Mr Hart created a poem based on that picture. You can read it HERE also take a look at his other work whilst your there. Simon is on twitter too and you can follow him HERE. 
Anyway, I decided to turn the tables and post a picture based on one of his poems. The poem he chose was this:

There is a pause before he starts,
Before the music he imparts
Leaves his fingers, a sweet refrain,
No expectation, there is no strain
To create perfection through the strings,
To force, amongst so many things,
The song, the frets, to have one voice
He’ll let it flow, he has that choice,
There is no need to narrow down
The tone, the key, the first clear sound.
He takes a breath, clears all thought,
Adjusts the strap so it’s not caught,
Closes eyes, feels it there,
Knows he does not need the prayer
But says it, one last time
Before he plays, and starts to shine.

I started by envisioning a scene which would do this piece of work justice and relate to it's content. I spent several hours creating a backdrop, lighting effects, spot lights, textures and numerous other photoshop mastery... The final result was appalling and rapidly ended up in the recycle bin.. Where did I go wrong? Easy... I simply overcomplicated it and tried to hard.
However, I did stumble across a picture I took whilst up at the aforementioned Black Isle Stud. One evening we were sat chatting and Iain pulled out an old guitar and I took a picture as he was playing. Side by side my photoshop monstrosity and this image have nothing in common. This picture to me represents a lot of what Simon wrote about and the relaxed atmosphere in which it is set adds a personal touch that holds pleasant memories too. So here is my offering to your exquisite words Mr Hart:

And finally,

My daughter seems to be taking an interest in photography and on a recent walk she told me she wanted to take a picture with my camera... This is nothing new, I could show you memory cards filled with pictures of ducks, her own feet, the sky etc etc..... However on this occasion she was very specific about the image she wanted to capture.  She told me and I set the camera up based on her specifications and let her shoot to her hearts content.  This is the final image she chose and I have got to say, it's pretty damn good.

"Daddy in a Tunnel" - by Grace (age 9 and 3 Months):

Well thats just about it from me, thanks for reading. Please leave a comment or I will hunt you down etc etc.

Final thought, should you have an idea for an image and you want me to have a go at creating it please just let me know.

Bye for now.

Matt