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there's an amazing show running at the union theatre in southwark for the next 3 weeks called bare - it's beautiful and the cast blow my mind.

there was a particularly sunny sunday a couple of weeks back, so we headed out of the rehearsal room to make some portraits of ross william wild, michael vinsen and lilly-jane young who are playing jason, peter and ivy.

these guys make my life really easy when it comes to making photos. show shots to follow.

the 50 hour improvathon is the craziest of all crazy things to do....

"A 50-hour non-stop improvised comedy soap opera in twenty-five 2-hour episodes.

The finest improvisers from all over the world will meet in the 'Roaring Twenties' for an epic odyssey of romance, mystery and adventure.

After many hours without sleep, performers are peeled back to their ‘lizard brain’ resulting in a wild, uncensored and euphoric playing style that you will never see anywhere else in the world."

i photographed 30 of the 50 hours this year and it was bonkers, wonderful, off the wall fun. i love photographing improv, it's like extreme theatre photography. it happens once, it doesn't have a plan and if you miss it, well you've missed it.so you best have your wits about you, which isn't easy on no sleep, i don't know how these guys get up there every hour and perform.

check out the website at www.improvathon.co.uk for more information and a who's who of everyone involved.

"Open the door to a world of secrets.

There's a door to a garden which has been locked for many years, the key buried and all but forgotten...

When Mary Lennox is orphaned, she must return from India to live with her distant uncle in Yorkshire. With a blossoming friendship with local boy Dickon, Mary begins to take an interest in the mysterious house she now lives and is entranced by the garden...but can she unlock the secrets that are held within?

A little bit of earth… allows love and happiness to grow.

From the producing team behind The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Arts Theatre) and The Children of Eden Gala Concert (Prince Edward Theatre), Aria Entertainment and Knockhardy Productions bring the three times Tony Award winning musical The Secret Garden to life in an intimate concert at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington."

Directed by Matthew Gould

Musical Direction by David Keefe

Produced by Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Matthew Hopton for Knockhardy Productions

Casting by Benjamin Newsome

Stage Manager and Lighting Tom Kitney

LILY Zoe Curlett

ARCHIBALD CRAVEN Alexander Evans

NEVILLE CRAVEN Martin Dickinson

MARTHA Rachael McCormick

DICKON Jordan Lee Davies

MAJOR HOLMES Ross Barnes

ALBERT Robert Dalton

MAJOR SHELLEY Matthew Ronchetti

LT PETER WRIGHT Wesley Dow

MRS MEDLOCK Amanda Goldthorpe-Hall

MRS WINTHROPE Pippa Winslow

ALICE Natalie Douglas

AYAH Mona Goodwin

ROSE Joanna Eliot

CLAIRE HOLMES Fiona Finsbury

BEN WEATHERSTAFF Freddie Davies

Mary Ana Martin

Mary Olivia Hallett

Colin Tyler Fagan

Colin Zac Donovan

i hate dreary grey winter skies, who doesn't? so the minute the sun breaks through i'm outside...

...a few weeks back i just "had" to photograph someone in the light that was outside my window, so i gave my friend david a shout and we went to find some sunshine by the river, and some crazy backgrounds in the tunnels under waterloo. it was cold but it was clear.

here's the results....

"Well you're the real tough cookie with the long history

Of breaking little hearts, like the one in me

Before I put another notch in my lipstick case

You better make sure you put me in my place

Hit Me With Your Best Shot!

Come On, Hit Me With Your Best Shot!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot!

Fire Away!"

august was when everything changed. halfway through august i left my job to set up a brand new sound studio with a long term colleague. that kind of meant that there was 3 months to run around with a camera, including a fabulous 10 days at the edinburgh festival with wonderful friends new and old. the brilliant showstopper guys found me a bed and i took loads of photos. i thought they deserved their own panel....

midnight cabaret and as you like it and austentatious and self criticism and bat boy and cross-tentatious and hand over fist and holmes & watson and school of night and shakespeare for breakfast and showstopper and spelling bee and sue harrison and this is soap and treasure island and trodd en bratt.... all interspersed with a whole lot of royal mile wanderings.

life back in london during august involved promo shots for musicbox - a great little improv group, tim mcarthur and the promo portraits for rent @ greenwich theatre - these are some of my favourites shots from the whole year and really shaped how i felt about everything.

september saw production shots for rent @ greenwich, hindle wakes at the finborough theatre and up 4 a meet in southwark. 3 very different shows!

september also meant a, much delayed, return to new york - my favourite city anywhere. so brilliant to be able to finally show it to my mum.

october seemed to be all about brand new productions, 3 of which were lit by my best mate - it's very simple to make nice photos when ben's behind the lighting desk!

so here is the last maharajah at the wyndhams theatre, cross purpose at the kings head, old goat song at the lion & unicorn and steel pier at the union theatre.

and so we get to the end of the year, which was kind of full of the other kind of studio stuff, but i still found time to hang out at the savoy theatre on remembrance sunday for the 10th anniversary concert of our house and then some production shots for i do, i do at the riverside studios.

so that was 2012. one hell of a year. many thanks if you were part of it, here's to the next stuff. :-)

somehow, although this year has just whipped by, january feels so long ago when i look back at what we did. I thought i'd break the year into months, here's the first 6. :-)

january and february were all about the children of eden gala concert at the prince of wales theatre, the first london cabaret awards and making promo images for tick, tick. boom!

march brought a wonderful production of tick, tick. boom! at the bridewell theatre, the amazing opportunity to photograph the douglas adams 60th virtual birthday party at hammersmith apollo (i don't think i smiled as much as photographing david gilmore from pink floyd at hammersmith apollo), some rather glam shots at the green carnation for a new drag cabaret and finally promo shots for the mystery of edwin drood.

april included a trip into the oxfordshire countryside to photograph on the set of a short film called angie, we had the most beautiful sunshine. there was also promo portraits to be made of faith and rehearsal shots of a brand new musical called pierced.

during may i had the joy of photographing the delightful mr edward reid, some promo shots for his edinburgh show and subsequent tour. faith at the courtyard theatre needed production shots and i was introduced to the crazy world of the 50hour improvathon (can't wait for the next one in 2 weeks time - this time i intend to upload images as it happens). may also saw the mystery of edwin drood move to the arts theatre in the west end, such a beautiful show.

june got a bit busy.... bash was at the barons court theatre, i took a trip down to taunton to photograph some extremely talented final year make-up students, we made some crazy-colour shots at excursions - a music night on a barge on the thames. also my beautiful friend ilona invited me to photograph her hanging about at the museum of childhood in bethnal green. then there was jubilee - no, not the one on the river, the musical one by cole porter at the tabard theatre. I had the joy of photographing the wonderful west end live weekend for broadwayworld.com and then the month finished with a brilliant new piece of theatre called spinach, at the kings head theatre.

july felt quiet by comparisson but i got to photograph some very dear friends... sarah louise young at the union theatre and promo images for the magnificent school of night guys at the soho theatre. finally there was the live final for @westendproducer's search for a twitter star.

more to follow....

Just a few, very colourful, shots from our christmas party at Offset. I should do wide angle flash photos more often, I love these shots. :-)

10 years ago i fell in love with a crazy show by the name of our house, the madness musical. it's by far the best (in my humble opinion) of the shows put together with existing music. that paired with the excellent illusion work and a fabulous design made it a show that i saw several times in it's time at the cambridge theatre.

it's hard to believe that's 10 years ago, especially when you revisit it, as was done on sunday 11th november at the savoy theatre in a concert performance in aid of the help for heroes charity.

it was a joy to make these images, hope you enjoy this tiny selection of a wonderful show.

wendi peters & suggs as joe's mum & dad

chris carswell & miria parvin as joe & sarah

matt cross as reecie with chris carswell

alistair mcgowan as mr pressman

oh the our house brollies, loved seeing this again.

Director: Matthew Warchus

Production Designer: Rob Howell

Lighting Designer: Jonathan Rouse

Video Designer: Andrzej Goulding

Lead Producer: David Adkin

Producer: Tony Green.

Joe Casey - Chris Carswell

Sarah - Miria Parvin

Joe's dad - Suggs

Kath Casey - Wendi Peters

Mr Pressman - Alistair McGowan

Billie - Tameka Empson

Angie - Jenny Fitzpatrick

Emmo - David Fynn

Lewis - Jack Shalloo

Reecey - Matt Cross