The Icebreakers
These chaps gleefully stripped off to their trunks, did some breathing exercises and went for a meditative dip in the frozen weir. Utterly bananas, but admirable. With the strong hoar frost, I couldn't help but notice the visual similarities with the famous macaque monkeys who look so serene submerged up to their cheeks in the hot springs in the mountainous North of Japan.
Hurst Point Lighthouse //
Whilst shooting at Hurst Castle on the Hampshire coast, I noticed that the nearby Hurst Point Lighthouse was being repainted with a new coat of brilliant white paint. I wandered over and asked one of the painters who was taking his lunch break if I could take a quick portrait of him. Gavin as his name turned out to be kindly obliged.
Alice // Bristol
Alice - a University of Bristol student photographed for the Financial Times
Historic Conservation // English Heritage
It's rare that the most memorable part of a commission is the temperature. That's not to say that this commission at Goodrich Castle wasn't otherwise memorable, it definitely was, but this was the coldest outdoor portrait shoot I can remember in a nearly 20 year career! At points my fingers stopped responding to all brain input... David and Amanda are made of sterner stuff, they are historic conservationists whose task on this bitterly cold March day was to scale the 50 metre side walls of Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire, removing invasive vegetation and repairing damaged stone work. Covid lockdowns didn't come with many perks, but there is something very special about wandering around these historically significant sites with nobody else there. Be gone crowds.
Wild Swimming // Royal College of Nursing
I am a recently converted cold water enthusiast, albeit more of the sitting in an ice filled agricultural water butt in my bathroom type of enthusiast. We're a bit landlocked here in Wiltshire. I met Olivia at the Clevedon Marine Lake not long after sunrise on a bitingly cold April morning. The water temperature, having had little chance to warm since winter, was still in single figures. Unperturbed, Olivia strode out into the glacial waters, no squeaking or squealing heard, just a calm confidence. Olivia took to cold water immersion in the depth of the pandemic to help her cope with the severe anxiety brought on by the stress of working on a stroke dependency ward during the height of Covid. Exposing yourself to very cold water has an extraordinary effect on well being. I'm not sure the research is there yet to understand the physiological responses fully, but I can attest that there is some sort of magical reaction going on. The effect on sleep alone is particularly notable, I never sleep better than when I've had a cold dunk. The rush of endorphins is intoxicating and it is curiously addictive.
