Newcastle’s City Tavern up for Heineken Award

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This month Heineken awards it’s very best pubs nationally for their best achievements. The City Tavern in Newcastle city centre has been entered for Best Newcomer. Lessee Dave King who has been in the bar and leisure trade for many years had taken retirement but returned to the business to start up Barhound to refurbish and re-open what once was LYH (legendary Yorkshire Heroes).

The ales are varied and they have their own house ale brewed by Caledonian in Edinburgh. The food offering is fantastic with a high ranking certificate from food hygiene standards and the decor is spectacular with views up and down the vault like centre of the building. If you are Newcastle based and doing some Christmas shopping over the next few weeks it’s a perfect quiet stop away from the bustle of shoppers and long shop queues!

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Sage Group Treasurer John Swift

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This month’s edition of The Treasurer features local Sage Group’s John Swift. Think Publishing in London who manage the design asked me to capture John at the impressive Sage building in Newcastle to assist the copy. The portraits were to reflect a relaxed and professional John with a variety of posed and in a natural working environment for a centre spread and cover option.

The challenge of corporate portraiture is finding good sources of light and making sure that the subject is relaxed. Commercial portraits need show the individual to be approachable and professional and reflecting character can also be a great addition to the image. John was really genuinely jolly and a willing subject which made the shoot run smoothly and enjoyably. The setting offered so much natural light that there were several options for backdrops and a few incorporating the strong Sage branding. Some shoots are tricky but this really was a dream! See the results below currently on The Treasurer website.

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The Big Cheese Making Kit

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Big Cheese Making Kit has been created by Ailsa Proverbs and her team offering an amazing product for those who fancy the idea of making cheese at home. It has exploded so fast that originally the kits had instruction manuals with quick phone snaps. With the demand increasing for Christmas from stockists such as Debenhams and Harrods, Ailsa wanted to replace the temporary shots with professional ones. I was commissioned to capture well executed illustrative photos of the key stages in the cheese making process for Halloumi, Goats and Mozzarella. As food and drink photography is one of my specialities I was delighted to get on board!

The day was lots of fun learning about cheese making as I worked and Ailsa’s beautiful new kitchen was a fantastic backdrop for the imagery. For anyone interested in these kits, have a look at thier website as they make a perfect pressie for any cheese lovers!  http://www.bigcheesemakingkit.com 

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Food Nation Photography Workshop

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I recently held a fantastic food photography workshop at Food Nation’s premises in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne. The team wanted me to teach them how to use their kitchens and prep areas to take great shots of their food on their phones and company camera. The idea was to experiment with different backdrops and available lighting to promote the food they produce at their cookery workshops.

The team cooked a series of recipes from one of their sponsor’s Jamie’s Ministry of Food all with different photographic challenges, whether it be shooting whilst food is steaming, eggs sinking into stews or colour corrections once plated up. We had a mass of props and once each dish was cooked we experimented with angles, colours and close ups to get new attractive approaches to photographic compositions.

We had lots of fun and the team took away great tips for their future social networking images. To view recipes, cookery workshops and general news here is their website http://www.foodnation.org

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The All Seeing Eye, Fluid Group Newcastle

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The All Seeing Eye opened two weeks ago by owner Oliver Vaulkhard of Fluid group in Newcastle. Heineken’s Star Pubs and Bars have invested in the refurbishment of what was The Blackie Boy’s rarely used function room upstairs. The historic features have been exposed with the roofs rafter’s, rustic red brickwork and 30’s satined glass windows creating a cool New York feel together with ornate Moroccan tables and velvet furnishings adding a laid back vibe.

The brief was to capture PR portraits of Manager Dave Walker and his staff along with photography of the bar interior design showcasing the large atrium, the light features and the relaxed low ceiling snug area. The lighting and colours created dramatic compositions perfect for PR & marketing photography for todays Journal to promote this fantastic new late night bar in Newcastle city centre.

The article is in today’s Journal on this link http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/popular-pubs-receive-240000-makeover-7120118

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