Geraint Davies's Blog

Majorca

geraintdavies — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:18:56 +0000

I recently took a 5 day holiday in Majorca, staying with friends at a villa in Pollenca in the north of the island. As a rain god, I brought London weather with me but it only lasted a day and the rest of the time was blissful – 18 degrees and broken sunshine.

Majorca is an island I was completely ignorant of. I assumed that up until 1970 it had been populated by a few hundred Spanish, some donkeys and a bunch of hippies. Au contraire: 2,500 years of human habitation, amazing mountains and beaches, loads of towns and many buildings of architectural importance, as long as you avoid the abomination that is Magaluf (eerily empty when we visited it, replete with its many tattoo parlours, fish and chip shops and its crowning glory; the ‘Benny Hill Party Pub’).

However, despite my rant, the island is wonderful and I can’t wait to come back again. Here are some highlights taken with my lovely new Canon Eos 5D Mk2, starting with the front of Palma Cathedral.

This is a panorama composed of 3 photographs. We drove for nearly an hour on an horrendously windy un-tarmacked road up this mountainside.

The dome at the monastery at Lluc.

The villa we were staying in.

The Prendevilles

geraintdavies — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:25:35 +0000

I was recently commissioned (note to self: must get a better opening line for blog entries…) by Emma Prendeville for a family shoot. Emma was the bridesmaid at Paul and Kirsten’s wedding, which I photographed way back in early September. She and her husband Ed have a young family with a 2 year old son, Max, and a 6 month old daughter, Maya. We met at Cox’s Avenue in Sydenham Woods and we had a lark in the woods. Here are some of the best.

Firenzi!

geraintdavies — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:04:50 +0000

I’ve just come back from a delightful weekend in Florence with Kathryn. I’d never been before and was pretty darned impressed. We had a beautiful hotel in the Piazza Annunziata a few hundred yards from the Duomo. The streets are very narrow with Vespa vans and tiny electric buses traversing them. It’s far less bling and stressful than Rome, which was great, and although we were there from Thursday evening till Sunday morning, we only had 2 full days so we climbed the Duomo and did the cathedral, went to the Uffizi and just went from cafe to restaurant.

I would love to have stayed for another couple of days and done the Boboli Gardens and all the other museums, but I’ll definitely come back again. Anyway, here are some of my snaps.

Mel & Marti

geraintdavies — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:56:05 +0000

I was a guest at this wedding, which was between Mel (my girlfriend’s sister) and her partner Marti. It took place in Darlington, County Durham, on a beautiful Saturday in September. While the official photographer snapped away, I took some incidental shots. Here are some of the results.

Paul and Kirsten

geraintdavies — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:40:33 +0000

After having our pre-wedding shoot the big day arrived. I must admit to being nervous and only getting 4 hours broken sleep – hey, it’s an ominous task being a wedding photographer, and I obviously wanted to make a good job of it. So having stayed at my parents’ house in Wells, Somerset, I set off to Stawell just outside of Bridgwater on Saturday 4th September to start my day.

I love weddings, me!

Wahanda Pack-shots

geraintdavies — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:26:44 +0000

I don’t often do pack shots or still-lifes, but recently I ws asked to by a delightful company called Wahanda, who provide gift vouchers for spa and beauty treatments. I’ve helped out at friends’ shoots for this sort of thing, but I haven’t been asked to do such work for a long time. So, I converted the office into a studio and with lights and reflectors, a white Colorama and black velvet backgrounds, I set to work.

This kind of work is very painstaking and it took a long time to get things right. But it was a good aide memoire as to this genre of the craft, and I rather enjoyed myself! I used a variety of set-ups and styled all the shots myself (which I’m rather proud of).

Juliet Russell (Sense of Sound)

geraintdavies — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:56:24 +0000

Well, last March – the 3rd to be precise – I awoke at 5am and a beautiful lady came to my door. ‘Take me to the country and shoot me’ she said. So ever the willing, we got in my car, and before the sun came up we were in Kent way up the river Medway. The sun came up and the temperature never got above 1 degree Celsius.

Her name is Juliet and she is a singer. Moreover, she runs a company called Sense of Sound which provides backing singers to professional acts and trains people to sing. She’s incredibly talented and driven, and throughout the day I realised by how much! This woman has a vision and she doesn’t accept any half-measures. She’s a great lady and we’ve become mates through The Salon (which you can see in the archive of this blog) and throughout the shoot.

Here are some of the images from the day. The shoot was as exhausting as a wedding but great fun. My abiding memory is of getting chased out of town in Dungeness by the town militia. Well, we didn’t know we needed a permit!! Did you?

I love this shot – it could be from a Jim Jarmusch film:

How Pre-Raphaelite are these images?

Homes and Antiques Magazine August ’10

geraintdavies — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:38:02 +0000

I’ve just received a copy of BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine with the images of last October’s shoot in Pickering (which you can see below). A beautifully written article by Katie Hallett and all but 2 photos by yours truly.

I love shooting for H&A. They’re what I call Christmas shoots, as you never know what you’re going to get but it’s always good! Fantastic subject matter and wonderful locations.

Summer Holiday

geraintdavies — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:09:45 +0000

Kathryn, Dylan and I set of to Nevern in North Pembrokeshire, the land of my fathers. Well, my mother actually. I spent every Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays in this part of the world until I was 18. It’s a very special part of the world for me and I wanted Dylan and Kathryn to have the benefit that I’d had. Here are some highlights, starting with Dylan and Kathryn at Carreg Coetan Arthur in Newport. Julian Cope – thank you for The Modern Antiquarian!

A visit to Pembroke Castle.

My Uncle John: one of the great shed-owners of our time.

Cilgerran Wildlife Park, where Dylan went on a bug hunt and caught a grasshopper.

Dylan and Trystan, my cousin Melanie’s eldest. I don’t think he knows what’s hit him!

And this is the ancient 11th century Celtic cross at the church of St Brynach, Nevern.

I think I need another holiday to get over that one!

Stained Glass at The Bristol Royal Infirmary

geraintdavies — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:58:44 +0000

My old mate Stuart Low was commissioned by the BRI to design and install glass in the stairwell of the BRI. It’s a 70s brutalist building with little charm, and it needs all the help it can get! It was very awkward to photograph on the stairs, but I did my best. Deathly dull light also added to the list of problems, but exposures, mirror lock up, depth of field and Photoshop all came to my aid.

Here are the results.