Pearson

Some of the board of directors at Pearson, photographed at their offices in the Strand for their annual report.

War Horse - The Final Farewell

The curtain call of the very last performance of War Horse at the New London Theatre. It has run for eight years and won 25 major awards. Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo (pictured), it tells the story of Joey, sequestered into the British cavalry during World War One, and his owner, Albert, who enlists to bring him safely home.

The Jersey Boys

For the first time since the show opened in 2008, all of the Four Seasons have been replaced. I was commissioned to shoot the new cast in rehearsal at the Piccadilly Theatre. 

Sky Garden

Something a little different - I was commissioned to refresh images at 20 Fenchurch Street (the "Walkie Talkie"), both of and from their lovely rooftop Sky Garden. It's well worth a visit - and it's free (but you do have to book). 

Avada Kedavra!

Bees

I covered a series of pubic events at Victoria for Land Securities. The most interesting of which was a beekeeping session. Actually, even 'fascinating' doesn't do the lives of bees justice - they are incredible little creatures. Anyway, there's a happy colony at St. Ermin's Hotel‎, living on a balcony space, making honey and generally having a good time.

From the archives

I'm going through a bit of a phase where I'm reassessing my portfolio - there are a large number of images I like, yet which remain on my hard drives because they're not as strong - or didn't feel so at the time. Or perhaps it's just that I already have something similar in my portfolio. Here's one such picture. Usually I prefer a naturalistic look to my work, but going a little bit further and away from my usual ways of processing, this gets a new lease of life. And all of a sudden, I like it. 

Kaspersky - Alex Moiseev

I was commissioned to take a series of portraits of Kaspersky Lab's Europe MD, Alex Moiseev.  

Melanie Stephenson

Professional sprinter and Diabetes UK ambassador, Melanie was invited by Medtronic to try out its groundbreaking insulin pump.

Photivation

Photivation

/fəʊtɪveɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

adj: photivated, verb: photivate

(1) Feeling of enthusiasm for photography, usually after being reminded why one took it up in the first place. Leads to a period of energetic and enjoyable productivity.

I've been teaching a bit lately ("Photography and Instagram"). I had wanted the focus to be on the photography part, especially as I don't - didn't - use Instagram. That's not because I didn't take photos on my phone, it's just that I took them for myself and didn't share them. And, to a degree with Instagram, as a photographer, something felt uncomfortable in the way a fairly average shot could look pretty awesome by playing with a few filters, without any need to understand them.

Anyway, I started using Instagram (@alexrumford) - I needed to understand it better for these classes. Happily, it took no time at all to get to grips with.

And I've been surprised with the change in me. While I'm still extremely reluctant to upload most of my photos, while out and about I find myself looking more, noticing more, taking more in. It's just as when I was younger, when I used to have my camera with me all the time, and would go off single-mindedly for hours doing photos. I couldn't get enough of it. I haven't done this in years. To be honest, it's not the sort of thing I would want to do now (I prefer to set up portrait shoots if I have spare time). But I have missed the feeling of photography for its own sake. There's still an audience, but no brief, no expectation, no pressure. I can shoot what I want, when and how much I want.

Taking my own photos without sharing them - though I still do this - is just not the same. Taking photos with a view to putting them on Instagram - yes, to be noticed and enjoyed, but also to be judged by an imagined audience - it's a different, stronger motivation and feeling. This 'photivation' is, I hope, feeding into my regular work.

Normally, enthusiasm sparks from viewing others' portfolios, meeting with photographers or seeing exhibitions. There are lulls between these opportunities - I'd like to think that I'll be able to keep a higher level of enthusiasm going. 

I have no doubt in less productive times I'll dig out and upload some older photos (I have no problem with this). I have lots of images which live and get old only on my hard drives in dusty cupboards, shots which aren't good enough for my website, nor with enough 'behind' them to justify including in a blog post. Instagram is the perfect tool, place and reason for sharing these, and even though these aren't strictly new images I'm uploading, it's the same buzz I'll get when I share them.

Noma Dumezweni

Noma has been cast as Hermione in the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child which will open in July.

Creating a portfolio

Squarespace has kindly added a 'cover page' feature to their offering - something I've always wanted. Therefore, I've spent far too long this week sorting through my galleries, choosing what would work best for an opening slideshow. 

My rules were:

- have no more than about 15 images. To be honest, few would ever watch through more than about six.

- only to have wide images (to fit the space). And for those to be cropped, only those which work as 3:2. 

- no travel, and less performance. I mainly do other kinds of photography at the moment, so it's not really representative.

It's not quite a portfolio (a complete body of work), more a taster of examples. And it's seriously weakened where images are chosen by the predetermined wide layout. But nevertheless, it's as close as you'll get to an old-school portfolio from me.

I can't remember the last time I put a portfolio together*. These days, for general use on a website, you can have lots (and lots and lots) of thumbnails with little need for careful and tight editing down, and that's ok. More like a tumblr blog, where people can scroll down and view what they like. Where every job is a casual throwaway, nothing of more prominence than anything else. "Oh, this? This instagrammed picture of my coffee was from this morning. Next to it is yesterday's ad campaign for Nike. It's all the same. Whatever." it seems to say, nonchalant. 

Of course, I've tailored examples of certain kinds of work to show clients, but I feel the last time I *really* had to work on it was for my final NCE photojournalism exam, where different categories had to be crossed-off: Use of flash; Character study; Sport; Night; Studio etc. I never think like that now, in terms of areas of technical competence and understanding of a genre. That is, there are some areas I don't do - and wouldn't be very good at compared to the professionals in those fields - weddings, babies, sport, news, landscapes, to name a few. But I think I could do each of them them to a passable degree - well, some better than others at least. All the skills practised during the NCE, and those learned from the various shoots I've done over the past decade, they all feed into one another and overlap. For instance, I've never done jewellery (let's just say it's extremely specialised), yet I know roughly how it's done.

What I'm getting at is that each shoot requires a different combination of skills, knowledge, tricks and abilities. And many photographs, to the trained eye, reveal some of the challenges behind them. I have a few images which I really want to like, and to put in a portfolio, displaying as they do my creative, organisational, problem-solving or lighting skills which I'd be proud to put forward. But they never make it because that still doesn't necessarily make them a good image. It doesn't matter how easy a shoot was, how difficult to achieve or how complicated the setup. The only things that matter are: Is it any good? And could it be done better?

With this in mind, I hope my cover page sideshow ('portfolio') is representative of me, of the work I do, the work I could do, and the kind I'd like to do. To get there, you have to go back out to www.alexrumford.com.

---

*For anyone interested, a portfolio needs to have certain things, including:

- variety (you can't be a one-trick pony).

- flow (there needs to be a progression, something tying the shots together as a group, and from one to the next). In some ways, it means not having too much variety. The viewer needs to get a sense of who you are. If you're a bit this, and a bit that, you can do portraits and motorsport, travel and street photography, and interiors and landscapes, then, just, no.

- only your best work. If there's a flicker of doubt, then get rid of it.

Victoria

Victoria Street from the top of Westminster Cathedral:

Collabo

I was invited to East London Dance to cover Collabo, an annual collaborative and interpretative showcase between performers and choreographers. 

Danny Sapani

Publicity photos for actor Danny Sapani, who recently appeared in Penny Dreadful.

People, Places and Things

Actress Denise Gough, who is appearing in People, Places and Things, photographed for the National Theatre.

Romain Grosjean

F1 driver Romain Grosjean, who was being filmed for Microsoft Lumia: 

Egosurfing

I posted one of my photos of Julia Donaldson recently. I was thinking about when I've searched for my work online (photographers have to keep track of their images), and she always appears on page one. So I wanted to post three of my most Google-friendly* shots. 

For the past four years (at least), when I search my name, the image that's usually on the top line is (a version of) astronaut Tim Peake:

As for viral, one photo from a set I took of War Horse's star, Joey, among the poppies at the Tower of London (Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red) has been everywhere, with thousands of shares and likes on Facebook**:

Finally (drum roll...) my most "shared" photo is from 2006 of two Sphynx cats, Dream-maker and Felicity. They are not only beautiful, but they appear to be kissing. As such, it wins the Internet most days:

*By 'Google-friendly', I usually mean shared. And by shared, I mean infringed, a euphemism for stolen. 

**Alas, the value of a picture credit is zero.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

We took Sion Daniel Young, who plays Christopher Boone, away from the West-End's Gielgud Theatre for a shoot at Paddington Station. In the story, Christopher, who has Asperger's syndrome, makes a difficult journey to London by himself intending to see his mother, but is completely overwhelmed by the rushing commuters, the bustle and the noise. 

This Girl Can

Blue Rubicon commissioned me to photograph some of the ladies featured in Sport England's hugely successful "This Girl Can" campaign (www.thisgirlcan.co.uk), a celebration of active women. Here are a few from the shoots: