James Brent – Builder

30th August 2013

I only had a few minutes to shoot James Brent this morning as he was right in the middle of a job. Big hands, I think he thought I was a bit deranged.

Tim Booth – Photographer

24th August 2013

After countless people mentioning it I thought I’d better do a shot of my own hands. This was just going to be a quick test, my camera balanced on a hanky and set on a 10 second self timer, but actually I’m quite pleased with it. The camera is my father’s old Rollie that he used for years, and even dropped in Aden harbour once. I took it to Africa on an expedition quite a while back and it still produced some fairly good, if a little erratic, images. The focus is all over the place and the shutter speeds are pretty arbitrary, but it still works and I’m very fond of it.

Sharon Bindon – Falconer

21st August 2013

The level of mutual trust needed to hold a huge bird of prey in your bare hands is quite extraordinary. Those talons are designed to rip through bare flesh with consummate ease, and yet the bond Sharon Bindon has with her birds is so strong that all she gets is a few inevitable scratches. I spent quite a while with Sharon and her birds at her centre after we had shot the hands image, and being so close to them, and being able to photograph them, was a distinct privilege. If ever you’re planning a trip to Cornwall, which is breathtakingly beautiful at this time of year, I strongly recommend you trying to arrange a visit to meet her birds.

Russian Steppe Eagle

Gary Markwick – Palmist

19th August 2013

A sixty something Gary Markwick looks considerably younger than I do, so either he’s doing something right or I’m doing something wrong. He has the most bewitching hands, fine fingered with deeply lined palms making them perfect for the straight on shot I was after. He took my hand after the shoot and told me I was going to win the lottery (not really, but it’s nice to dream). As well as reading palms in the flesh, he also reads them by email, and even Skype, my how the world has changed.

Helen Sharman, the first British Astronaut in space.

I drove up to meet Helen at Kingston University this morning. It was our second crack at the whip as the first time we met back in February it was pouring with rain and more or less dark. Oddly I saw James May in the car park, and no, I didn’t ask him if I could photograph his hands, that would have been a bit weird. Helen was very friendly and remarkably nonchalant about her trip up to the space station. Unlike the stories about astronauts who find it hard to acclimatise when they get home from space, Helen seemed very down to earth (couldn’t resist that).

Vincent Regan, 80mm, 1/250, f6.3

17th August 2013

Another portrait of my mate Vincent looking broody and menacing. The 80mm 1.2 really is a superb portrait lens.

Jo Webb – Dry Stone Waller

14th August 2013

Jo Webb has been laying dry stone walls around the Cotswolds for over 30 years, and she and I walked out to into the fields to find one she could get to grips with, so to speak. There is a wonderful sense of permanence to dry stone walls, they’re almost monuments, like mini Stone Henge’s threading through the countryside, many of them hundreds of years old. My original idea had been for her to put her hands through the middle of a wall, so that they emerged from the stone. Of course that wasn’t possible as dry stone walls don’t have holes in them and I’m an idiot. Still we managed to get pretty close to what I had in mind, and her hands were beautifully worn and textured from hefting stones about.

Swamp Circus Camp – 58mm, 1/500, f10

3rd August 2013

Very remiss of me, no posts for ages, that’s the summer for you! Spent last weekend in deepest Cornwall at a circus camp (my wife and kids leaping about not me, though I did attempt the high wire).

Jamie Double – Acrobat

Jamie has a fabulous look, curly tash and all, but it was the view from the back with his lobe stretching ear-rings that really caught my eye.