You're hired ..

There was a lovely piece in the Sunday Times last week about successful businesswoman Karren Brady, which was a coincidence 'cos I'd just added a picture of her to my new Studiofivefour website. I shot her at home for OK! Magazine, with hubby Paul Peschisolido and with their little daughter Sophia. The shock of it was that the 'little' girl has just started University! Eeek! Where did that time go? By the way, despite my staunch and unwavering modesty, I'm going to tell you that Karren wrote to the magazine to say my portrait of her was one of the nicest she'd ever had taken!..

Apprentice fans will also be amused to know that I once did some portraits of Sir Alan Sugar too, and I can tell you that what you see on the box is what you get on the day. That man does not do smiling! I smiled, though, when, covering his attendance at a Q and A in Manchester later that evening, we were waiting backstage for his big introduction. He lifted his hands and tried to put them into his jacket pockets but, as it was a new suit, they were still sewn together. I'll never forget having to snip through the stitches with my penknife, just seconds before he went on stage!..

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!