How tall are you?

I am rather tall – 6’4” or 193cm. It’s great in a crowd but I do hit my head on things fairly often. I also have to be careful when using very wide-angle lenses – I’ll often crouch down slightly to avoid unpleasantly distorted perspectives.

Is it just a quick snap?

Many people expect me to turn up, shoot two or three frames and be done. I always aim to provide my clients with a good choice of photos. Although I can work quickly, this can take time, especially when using lights (also called a flashes or strobes).

What does that do?

This is a softbox. It helps create a soft, diffuse light without hard, unflattering shadows. The flash inside is triggered when I take a photo.

Why do you need that, it's sunny?

Most people love a bright, sunny day. If I’m photographing people outside it can make things tricky. Bright sunlight creates very harsh shadows which nearly always look bad. It can also cause people to squint. To counteract this I’ll often use a light (also called a flash or strobe) to fill-in the shadows. Sometimes I’ll just use a reflector which can achieve the same effect.

Where do I look?

More often than not I’ll want my subject to look straight down the lens, but sometimes I’ll want them gazing wistfully at the light or off-camera. I’ll let you know!

Where do I stand?

X marks the spot!

Have you photographed anyone famous?

My mind usually goes blank when I’m asked this!

I make a distinction between people I’ve taken photos of and people I’ve photographed. The former is when I’ve taken photos of people without interacting with them – reportage or record-of-event. This includes several members of the royal family, film and pop stars including this photo of Angelina Jolie during Live8 at the Eden Project.

I say I photograph people when I talk to them and pose them for portraits. These include sports people, actors, television personalities. and authors such as Michael Morpurgo, pictured here for a newspaper feature.

What's your favourite subject?

I consider myself lucky that my career is so varied, so I don’t have a particular favourite. What I would say that environmental portraiture is something I enjoy the most – that is, portraits of people in their environment. This probably comes across in the galleries.

Do you do weddings?

Occasionally, but only if you ask very nicely!