Chelsea Reserves 1-2 Arsenal Reserves, 15 February 2010

I was at Griffin Park last night to see the Chelsea Reserves narrowly go down 2-1 to Arsenal.

As Phil's excellent report describes, Chelsea had the better chances, but a combination of bad luck, poor finishing and a pudding of a pitch meant that we didn't capitalise on these and fell to two good strikes from an equally strong Arsenal reserve XI.

As ever with my Chelsea photography, I've picked a few highlights out for this posting. The link to all 50 photographs from last night's game can be found below:


Striker Borini's pace & power would cause problems all evening for the Arsenal defence. Unfortunately his finishing wasn't up to his usual high standards


Borini bringing the ball down before unleashing a powerful volley that smashed against the crossbar



Fabio curses his luck as the crossbar still vibrates


Gael Kakuta well markshalled by the Arsenal defence


Perhaps Borini's best chance - a clearer contact here would have rendered the arguments about whether this crossed the line irrelevant


Borini again, rounding the keeper before finding the woodwork for the second time of the night


Kakuta is tripped as he comes more into the later stages of the game

A full gallery of the nights photographs can be found here, or you can view a slide show if you prefer.

North London Photographer - Corporate Portraits

I spent a little time on Saturday with Xen, a solictor who is looking to polish up his website and to have some images that he can use to promote himself with.

We worked for around an hour and three quarters, using his lovely offices to give us some environmental context to the shots, before quickly heading to a local canal for a few outside shots.



As well as some very "corporate" shots, we aimed to show the solicitor as a human being and so worked through a variety of outfits and made subtle changes to the way we shot to make sure that he didn't (always) appear too intimidating!



Using his office meant that we were also able to get his logo subtly into some of the shots.



The photographs from the shoot will be returned on DVD to Xen within a couple of days, in both colour and black & white and ready sized for various uses - we really do make it easy for you to always look your best, whether that be on the web or in a wall portrait.



Oh, and incidentally, if you need a really good solicitor then let me know - I'll put you in touch with one of the best!



Daniel Davies Photography - Passionate about Perfect Pictures.

North London Photographer - Pet Dog Portraits

A break from a run of corporate work yesterday gave me a little time to get back to some portraits and a chance to capture Valerie, a young cross-bred Jack Russell/Chihuahua.

Valerie is completely deaf, which posed particular challenges in terms of getting her attention so that she'd pose for me, but with some perseverence we did, I think, hit the jackpot.

Working in a small bedroom, I used my flash on a ETTL cord, but switched to manual mode for both exposure and flash so that I could control the background to get these.



This first photograph captures a vulnerability in Valerie that I think is quite appealing. Her single visible dark eye staring hopefully forward shows the kind of trust that she has to hold for those around her as a small, disabled dog.


By moving the flash to fire behind Valerie, I created this lovely, near silhouette, which appeals to me as I think she looks almost Fox like.


Here by shooting from above, and feathering the flash so it illuminated her face but not the ground around her, I feel a sense of vulnerability along with a slight ridiculous note of the size of the ears of this deaf dog.


This final shot is a more conventional portrait and shows more dignity and a stillness, which is rare in a dog who is constantly reliant on her sight to sense opportunities for fun, love or even threats.


If you'd like similar images of your pet captured then please contact me by clicking here.