Notions 59 - Retirement plans.

These are part of a series of 15 photographs commissioned by Clerical Medical Insurance, and art directed by Gerry Dunn. It was decided, with the vagaries of English weather and timing, that it would be necessary to shoot all 15 images in the controlled environment of the studio. I commissioned the professional services and resources of set-builder, Nick Simpson, to help design, and eventually construct, the sets required.


The Trout Stream was constructed using water tanks and water pumps to create the flow and to oxygenate the water for our 'model', a live trout. Early in the morning of this shoot, and after Nick had spent the night building the foundations of the set, the boulders arrived from Norfolk, as did the trout, the greenery arrived from Northamptonshire, and the lighting was provided by David Cecil's, 'Strobe Equipment' studio flash.

The following four images were lit with a single 5kw tungsten film light to create the effect of sunlight.






The grass (seen below) was force-grown turf (as used in the above 'Pimms' image) over a bank-holiday weekend using fertiliser, the studio heating turned up to max., and 'GrowLux' lighting.

Notions 58 - Music.

Art Director: Ted Vaughan, Copywriter: Tom Gattos. Advertising Agency: Ted Bates. Client: Yamaha Musical Instruments.

Potions 24 - Liquid Light.

Benson and Hedges Gold Award 1985, 'Energy' (Reference: British Journal of Photography 04th October 1985 Issue No:40)

Notions 57 - Age.