Cutting edge ..

So I'm shooting all this cheese - hands slippy with brie, sticky with cheddar - when I decided it would look much better out of its packaging. I carefully reached into a pocket for my little pen-knife and took to slicing off the polythene with the blade. Then, bizarrely, I started to look at my little red knife and began to think just how much I use it when I work (Hey, gimme a break, it gets boring shooting cheese! Actually, that's a big fat fib! It was as challenging as hell; took almost five hours to get 11 shots .. and I loved every minute!) Anyway, back to my Swiss Army Knife! Yes, I thought, we're inseperable! I mean, here it was in action on a PR job - ripping through the wrapping - and yet it's invaluable at a Wedding, always ready to snib off that ubiquitous single dangling thread from the bride's or groom's .. er, threads! It trims card, opens envelopes with cheques in, and it's even handy when things go quiet on a job, 'cos there's never a bad time to cut your finger-nails and file the edges, is there? (I won't say anything about the tooth-pick!) The funniest use of the knife came, though, when I was photographing Sir Alan Sugar one time. I'd shot some portraits of him one afternoon, and was due to cover the Q and A session he was involved in later that evening. As we stood, backstage, waiting for the introductory video to play out, he suddenly decided to put his hands in his pockets. Well, it was a new suit, wasn't it, pockets all sewn up! His hands bounced hilariously off the stitching but we were straight in there, me and my knife, and I'll never forget having to unstitch Alan Sugar's pockets seconds before he went on stage at that seminar!