This shoot was a bit unusual for me – me, my camera, and one lens. No lighting kit, no rucksack full of lenses and gizmos. I have to confess, I was a bit off-colour at the time, so I think that had a major role in my decision to “travel light”, but nonetheless, I am very glad I did.

It was a dull and drizzly Saturday afternoon, but we made the most of it. Everything was shot with natural light, not even a reflector in sight. James wanted to go for a bit of a 60′s “mod” feel, and he’s a big fan of the retro look, so everything was shot at least with the intention of being output in black and white.

However, I didn’t keep everything in mono… Check out some of the images below. I’m very happy with what we came back with – a refreshing change in approach for me worked out!

For those that don’t know, Bob Books are a manufacturer of photo books which can be created by anyone. Unlike other photobook manufacturers, they offer a range of photographic books aimed especially at professional photographers.

To accompany my current exhibition (more on that coming soon), I produced a large format book in collaboration with Bob Books. This is an 82-page, 12″ square hardback book, with (unique to Bob Books) a layflat binding that allows you to place images across a double page spread. It’s absolutely stunning, and was one of the centre pieces of my exhibition opening.

Later this week, on September 8th, I’m going to be talking about the book, and how I put it together (and perhaps a bit of background about some of the images in there) – at Bob Books Photobook Month event in Glasgow.

It’s being held at Streetlevel Photoworks, which is part of Trongate103 in the Merchant City. It’s on from 5.30pm, and will feature a Photobook Workshop, a bit of a talk from me, some book production Q&A and lots of books to look at!

I’m really excited about this opportunity, and thrilled to have been asked to be the speaker in Glasgow.

Above image credit: Copyright George Monaghan, Monapics.com.

As you can probably tell (from the above picture of Hollie and family), the book was a pretty hot topic of conversation on the opening night, and I had a lot of comments about it – good ones thankfully! I’d really like to hear what you thought, so please leave me your comments below.

Yes, I know we’ve had a site refresh – and I know some will wonder why.  There are many reasons, not the least to make our content more accessible to platforms beyond desktop – so we’ve ditched Flash and gone to HTML5 all the way.

There’s a lot to update you on, as our website updates have been lacking so far in 2011.

So much has happened, and it’s about time we fed back to our clients, supporters and friends just what has been going on this year.  So watch this space for lots of updates!

We’ve got a lot still to do on this site, so don’t think what you see is all there is… much more to come!