Projects...

Presently

I've recently turned my attention to getting my work onto Print On Demand (POD) Products and have opened a Zazzle Store to that end. Cards with sentimental messages seem to be working best for me at the moment.

To help promote my work and to leverage my sales commissions and royalties, I have written a Google Gadget that flexibly displays store items, suitable as an alternative to the Zazzle Panel for when space is short.

Most recently I have created a promo page here dedicated to promoting the best of the best of Zazzle gear in various categories, again with a view to leveraging the effects.

I've also completed a second promo page, this time with the theme "Pretty Pink Princess". Pink is so popular amongst kids and what daughter hasn't thought of herself as a princess?
 

 

Cool Graphics

Most recently, I've been working on some cool graphics for various products for my Zazzle store. Check out where I've got to....

 

Fun Horror gear 

I've completed working on my spooky t-shirts, cards and gifts. See the selection shown below. There's demons, devils, vampires, witches, monsters and skulls See the entire Fun Horror collection...

  

On Hold

Even though I've started work on my second photo essay, "Urban Ugliness Volume II, it has taken a back seat to other more pressing aspects of my work—marketing my work both on- and off-line. This is proving successful, with a well-followed blog, more galleries hanging my work and good publicity.

The BBC wrote a feature on my first photo essay here on their Devon website. As a result, they commissioned me for a 12-photo essay titled "Plymouth - Intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character", to feature in the relaunch of the BBC Devon website in September. This in turn resulted in a two-slot radio interview, again for BBC Devon.

See the first essay as an on-site video slideshow.

The second can be seen either on the BBC Devon site or, set to theremin music by Gordon Charlton aka Beat Frequency, as a high definition video on YouTube.

In the first, the photos explore, as the title suggests, those urban areas (all taken in Plymouth) that are suffering from neglect, decay or dereliction or where industrial ugliness holds sway. As the project has progressed, I've come to admire the beauty in that ugliness and hope to have captured some of that in my work.

A little background

Plymouth is a city with centuries of naval tradition (see the MayflowerSteps site), and so a lot of the images come from around the docksides and cargo storage / processing areas there, some from the presently derelict areas of Millbay Docks and some from a disgusting creek sandwiched between Billacombe Rd and Breakwater Road. 

 

The primary cargos brought to Plymouth are china clay, fuel oil and fertiliser, with ores and aggregates, too. Plymouth is also a fishing and leisure sailing port, so the industries around these are covered as well (boat yards, quays, moorings, abandoned and rotting hulks etc.) 

 

Yachting and leisure

Of course, Plymouth is also one of the yachting and leisure boating capitals of the world. Many international races either set sail from or finish here. The upcoming waterfornt redevelopments planned or in progress are seeing a shift from commercial to leisure use - watch for an increase in berths, new marinas and waterfront villages. 

 

Observations

One of the things that I've noticed while working on this photo essay is that many fine old buildings are featured, now derelict, that will be razed and rebuilt. At the rate it's happening, it won't be long before there's none left...

 

And with today's approach to architecture and building design, I'm sure we will lose a lot of the character that makes and has made Plymouth what it is today. So this portfolio will also unintentionally form a historical record of those last buildings and lost spaces for future generations.  

 

Planned

At some time in the not too distant future, where my serendipitous approach to themes and subjects runs out of steam, I intend to do some monochrome studio work on flowers and other inanimates.

  

...and once that's done, I think I want to explore the more traditional landscape photography.

 

I'm also keen to do some further work with models both in the great outdoors and in urban spaces. If that interests you then get in touch - but only locals need apply. As payment I'd provide a portfolio of the final prints, mounted and signed.

See some of my work wth models so far...