Sometimes, though, a job comes along that on any level is a real mix of work and fun – and pretty much everything we do at the Crazy Bear in Oxford fits that category. You may have noticed we work quite a bit at this iconic venue – it’s true, we do – but this is the first of their Garden Parties that we’ve been available to shoot. Actually, I have to be honest here, we deliberately reserved the date nearly a year ago to make sure we didn’t get booked up (we would have photographed last year’s had we not already been shooting!)

Well from a photographer’s point of view (and from a guest’s I suspect – everyone did appear to be having the most spectacular time!) this was an amazing event to attend. The highlights are too numerous to mention in detail (I hate writing blogs that are just long lists) but a few bits are worthy of note.

The Robbers (the resident band for the day – usually with Eddie Jordan who was, unfortunately, missing as he had the slight distraction of a Formula One Grand Prix to attend!) were thunderingly good. I love a good band and these guys really went for it – during three long sessions! Kid Creole and the Coconuts were utterly brilliant – exactly as I had hoped from my memories of the eighties. Camp, kitsch, sexy, funny, slick. Unbelievably slick. I know they were working with a backing track but nonetheless. And besides, the Coconuts themselves were always going to be good value! Jaki Graham can still punch out a melody or two – and loved playing to the camera which always makes our job that bit easier! And then there was the unusual – a couple of young lads doing some freerun/Parkour which, frankly, every parent in the venue would normally be banning their kids from doing for fear of serious injury! A burlesque stripper/keyboard player (I never though I’d be typing that) and Pyromantic Angle Grinder for which words escape me. Though, thankfully, I did manage to get some images that help explain! More music from Ben Motague (awesome – his new album is out in a week or two I think) and, the icing on the cake, a pole-dancing burlesque ballerina. I kid you note. Physical agility, gentle sensuous dance and a large dose of sex appeal. And a pole. See what I mean about having a great job?

All of this was under-pinned by the usual incredible food and drink (I know the queue for food was long but completely worth the wait – particularly if you engineer a good quantity onto your plate!) all in a venue that I absolutely love working in.

Anyone else fancy my job? Thought so!

Here are a few of the images, but the rest can be found in our client albums section.

We first met Tortie and her amazing furniture over at Bucks University when we photographed their Furniture: Design & Craft graduate work. Well, Tortie’s designs have gone on to win her the title of BDC New Designer of the Year 2010 – one of the most prized awards there is for a new designer!

So, firstly, congratulations to Tortie – who is a) really lovely, b) incomprehensibly talented and c) very photogenic. A good mix in my opinion.

We took some more pictures for her press and PR releases – only this time we stepped outside to capture the images (well, her work is very organic and so it seemed appropriate somehow!)

I loved it. Beautiful furniture and an unusual location. Oh, and good company too – Dr. Lynn Jones from Bucks University, a long-time friend of ours and one of Tortie’s course leaders, also came over and it turned into quite an impromptu social event. Which is, I think, how photography should be!

Cheers
P.

PS. If anyone would like to talk to Tortie about her furniture, her email is tortshoare@gmail.com

Yup.

Call me old fashioned but there are few places I find quite so convivial. So comforting. So British. There is nothing quite like finding yourself on a lazy afternoon with a well-pulled pint and a roaring fire listening to the background chatter of one of this nation’s greatest legacies. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: The Pub.

That being said. I do lament the smoking ban in pubs and bars.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I have never smoked and, not withstanding a suitably apocalyptic midlife crisis, I probably never will. But the smouldering presence of tobacco smoke in a public house or bar always seemed somehow, natural.

I know, I know, I love not going home smelling of everyone else’s smoke and not having to wash my jacket every time. I love not having a sore throat. And I love being able to actually taste my beer.

But, and here’s the thing, I’m a photographer.

And I miss the light.

I used to get so excited about that familiar smokey, hazy, drifting light. Some of my favourite images have been captured so simply with nothing more than a basic camera, a good quality 50mm lens (the staple of all 35mm photography until the new digital formats emerged), some window light and a creamy pint of Guinness. And just a smidgen of tobacco smoke. Sigh.

Still, I digress slightly in that I meant to write about one particular pub I photographed recently: The James Figg pub. The pub (previously the Abingdon Arms) has been in the middle of Thame ever since I’ve lived here but was old and tired (not in a good way) and so it was with some excitement that I was asked by Peach Pubs, who also own The Thatch, amongst others, to create some images of their newest pub for its website and to cover the inaugural night.

And I was right to be excited. What they’ve done is pretty much perfect: a good English pub serving great beer and great food (of the pie’n'chips variety at least).

And I’ve been back since for a quick half and it is still fantastic. The service is truly friendly and hospitable and the place was seemingly full – both of people and of atmosphere.

But, sadly, still no smoke.

Ah, well it’s almost certainly for the better. I just need to find new ways of recreating that wonderful light!