2025: A look back: January - March pt1

2025 was epic creatively, so here's a whistle-stop review of my favourite images.

Festive greetings to you all. Over the coming days, there will be a post a day looking back at what was an interesting year for me creatively.

2025 was my first full year of retirement. I was finally free of holiday allowance and work commitments. Free, within the limits of a lifestyle budget, to shoot what I wanted, when I wanted and with whom I wanted.

As there are so many shoots to go through, my plan is to put it into multiple parts. I hope you like!

These posts are public so, if you're not already a member, you can sample some of my imagery. Members get anywhere between 14 and 30 images per post from the shoots, as well as info on the background to the shoot etc.

January

In November 2024, I managed to have my first accident in our new house's kitchen, taking the end of my left thumb off with a super sharp kitchen knife. Ironically, with what would have been the last chop of my food prep!

This meant my planned shoot with Olga Solo had to be re-arranged. So it was at the end of January that we finally got together in the Northern Quarter of Manchester.

February

Feb saw me hot foot it up to Bathgate, close to Edinburgh, for my first visit of the year to Barrie Spence's place, Pavilion Photography Studio.

I had a half-day shoot with Polish model Caterini there. Her trademark is her 450 pose yoga/art nude set, which we methodically went through as the first set of the day before moving onto a range of fashion and other looks. A very long day, but one that was fruitful, image wise.

As a chunk of retirement money also dropped around this time I bought my first Leica, an SL2-S, which I paired with Sigma Contemporary glass as I definitely didn't have Leica money for lenses!

I was also very heavily into planning the whirlwind European tour that followed in March, so needed a shoot to see how to use this amazing bit of kit.

So it was that I had my first shoot with Holly (Ivory Flame) at Phil's awesome studio in Derby: The Boardroom. Shooting entirely natural light, we managed to squeeze a few looks into a 2-hour shoot on a studio day Holly was holding.

March

March was one of my busiest months with 8 shoots, 7 of these were on the road trip.

The trip started at Aura Studios in Northampton, en route to my channel crossing. A chance to shoot again with Holly, and a half day to explore further the work we'd generated at the Boardroom.

From there it was a hop across the channel and into Antwerp for the first of two visits to Zilverbeek Studio, the home of Raf Van den Bogaert. A fabulous space with a really hospitable, generous host. The first day of shooting consisted of two shoots. The first with Kira M.

And then Maya (There's Something About Olive) in the afternoon.

A quick drive into the Netherlands found me in Utrecht for a first shoot with Emma Helena, in her then home town. We were the last people to shoot in a lifestyle studio (it has since relocated).