Kicking off with the disappointment.  Ecuador is off, AJ and I reached the decision earlier today.  Following a change in constitution, and an increasingly anti US stance, travelling in the country is becoming fraught with danger, and just doesn’t appear to be worth the risk.  Don McCuillin or Robert Capa I am not, nor will ever try to ape, so I’ll leave the really risky travel to the experts.  It’s a shame, and we’re now reviewing options.

Last Sunday was spent in the company of a wonderful family, as we reviewed the results from their Lifestyle Shoot in early September.  We got a wonderful set of images of them as a family, and I think, or hope that George and Issy realise that I could have continued photographing them all day long.

This Sunday is another Lifestyle shoot with another lovely family in Wiltshire, where if the weather holds out I think we’ll go all grungy and edgy in an industrial estate for part of the shoot.

Finally, yes underwear….Taking unrequited corsettry (is that a word?) back to shops when you’re missing knickers (not me, the unrequited underwear) is a task for any man to stand up straight and be counted..I was told to return with the briefs, accurately described to help me hunt them down by a curious shop assistant.  The underwear was purchased, but not ultimately used for a shoot we did at the Park Resort in Wick, near Bath.  My thanks to Louise and her team for letting us in, and my thanks to the shoot team, Colin, Becky, Chloe, and to Lianne and Hannah, for making me go back to the shop!

Two for the price of one, but both very expensive...The corsets...

George and Issy enjoy a private joke, probably at my expense

Well, I could throw in a hatful of excuses, but you’d all see through it, and the truth is that there are no excuses….Just the old chestnut of tomorrow never comes, but it does, straight after every day.

September was a whirlwind of shoots and planning for more shoots.  The final Little Miss Muffet images had to be put on hold based purely on priorities, as we went through a number of studio shoots, lifestyle shoots and a further trip up to Fleetwood to complete the photography of the soon to be world famous crooner Howard Wing.

A lot of planning and shoots were focussed on building towards ‘The Art of Seduction’, which is the robertdann PHOTOGRAPHY take on boudoir photography, due for launch early 2009, and we WILL post more details as the approach and business gets finalised.

The last few weeks has seen me meet with future wedding clients, and discuss shooting them in a boxing ring together (we keep saying we don’t do ‘ordinary’ weddings!). I was shocked that the garage I recalled my Uncle Jeff working in when I was a child, is now an elaborate shed…Sorry, Jeff, workshop.  We’ve done a wonderful fine art nude seminar with Trevor and Faye Yerbury.  We got Howard jumping off a derelict bandstand, and looking all moody at 2am at a bar, and we tried to book part of a marina for a wedding shoot; and the next weeks show no sign of normality…Whatever defines normality.

Finally,  I had a couple of weeks of artistic madness playing the tortured artist, before all that know me finally beat some sense into my dense skull….Can’t wait to do it again next year…Yes, its a yearly thing, probably.

So, November will see the studio being partially redesigned, whether I like it or not.  We will be on a commercial shoot in the Netherlands, and hopefully in Ecuador on a further commercial shoot, and getting some great travel images to boot.  There will be more lingerie ( the studio seems to be permanently strewn with bras and knickers), more client meetings, commercial recces, some industrial photography, and a lot of designing - albums, websites, promotional materials and advertising - and some carpentry for good measure.

The next week will see the Little Miss Muffet images uploaded, two further entries in the Blog on shoots, and some further news on ‘The Art of Seduction’….Well, thats the plan, but you know it may be December!

I'm sure this was a garage when I was 10!