For this feature I had the opportunity to re-visit Black and White photography which was nerve- wracking for 2 reasons. One, I hadn’t done much B+W work since specialising in plants and gardens over 12 years ago, and certainly none on a professional basis. Secondly, I had never really done much portraiture and certainly not in the creative way required for this feature.

Now, B+W is where my photography started and I certainly had years of practice in the hobbyist sense. Being aware of the previous B+W work in Country Living and knowing their style was my starting point in thinking I could do this. However, I also needed to be able to stamp it with my own style.  Armed always with a few ideas beforehand, the wonderful thing about creativity is that, presented with the subject, environment and the light at the time, it just happens.

We started very early as the day was forecast to be bright and sunny, so not much time. Peter was an excellent and patient model and given the quickly changing light, had to frequently wait while I sorted my exposure issues out.

By the end I was exhausted. The light had run faster than I could but figured the worst case scenario would be a re-shoot. Thankfully, all were fine and even better when converted to mono.

As scary as it was, venturing into new photographic territories has fired up my enthusiasm for trying different things and I am currently looking at other areas to develop. Being kicked out of the comfort zone was both terrifying and amazing. More please!