How I ended up photographing 17 cats in two days A while ago I photographed a cat in mid-air. Which, as it turns out, is not the sort of photograph everybody has lurking in their portfolio. So when cat food company KatKin was planning its Unleash the Kitten campaign and wanted photographs of cats in…
Better phone photographs: clean lenses, winter light and vertical panoramas Sometimes the things that make the biggest difference to a photograph are surprisingly simple. Here are three worth trying next time you reach for your phone. Start by cleaning the lens Your phone spends a lot of time in pockets, bags and hands. A dirty…
Why I don’t photograph just one thing I was told many years ago that I should specialise in just one genre of photography. I ignored that advice. I think if I’d only been photographing one thing for all these years, I would have become rather bored. Variety keeps me interested, and being interested is a…
Getting three generations together for a family portrait The hardest part of a family photograph is often managing to find a date when everybody can turn up. That becomes even more interesting when several families, grandparents and pets are involved. Our multigenerational sessions have included as many as 27 people. So if you’re wondering whether…
Five ways to take better portraits—even with your phone As I can’t always be there to take photographs for you, I thought I’d share a few things that can make a real difference to portraits of your family and pets. You don’t need a professional camera to put them into practice. 1. Get down to…
Remembering Dylan We lost Dylan very suddenly in August 2026, aged eight and a half. He’d been part of our family since he was a puppy, as well as being a regular presence at the studio. If you’ve visited over the years, there’s a reasonable chance you’ll have met him. He was considerably better at…
Photographs become more important with time We take more photographs than ever, but most never make it beyond a phone or a computer hard drive. Others have already had a much longer journey: old prints, albums, slides and negatives passed down through the family. Perhaps you’ve inherited your parents’ family archive in a cardboard box…
Families being families One of the things I’ve always loved about photographing families is that the best pictures are rarely the ones where everyone is sitting perfectly and looking at the camera. They’re usually the moments in between, when people relax, forget about the photography and start behaving like themselves. Your family, rather than an…
Holiday photographs that capture how it felt When we went to Lake Como and Samos, we had two rather different holidays. Como involved lots of exploring. Samos involved rather more lying down. Looking through the photographs afterwards, I realised that very few of my favourites were the obvious photographs of either place. Of course I…
Wilf the greyhound: an award-winning portrait We’re known for some rather quirky pet portraits at Origin Studios, so it was particularly pleasing when a photograph of Wilf the greyhound received a Gold award in the British Institute of Professional Photography’s January 2025 awards. Character comes first One of the things I enjoy about photographing dogs…