London Rent Survivors

How do young people survive in London with rent being so high? www.comparethemarket.com asked me to shoot 3 case studies of people who use some ingenuity to get round paying out massive amounts in rent....

Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, 26, PhD student and teacher

"About a year ago I bought Toad Hall from some friends. Before that I lived in a flat in zone 3, but couldn't afford to do anything so I would just sit at home. With the boat it's the opposite, I'm out all the time and I've even been able to go on holiday for the first time in a long while." 

Emily Sanne (left), 25, data executive in Mile End, East London.

"I share a four-bed house with five friends, including my bed mate Erin. Even our friends had their doubts about us bed sharing at first, but they are totally on board with it, now they see how well it works. Our room is in the basement and there isn’t a lot of space as we have two of everything plus a double bed".

Oscar Thompson, 26, painter/decorator, various campsites in South London and beyond.

"I first decided to buy a campervan to run away and join a commune. I really liked waking up and walking straight outside into a green environment first thing in the morning. When that dream fizzled out, I moved back to the capital where I’ve found having the van really useful when money is tight and I’m between rents"

Game Face

Behind the scenes shots of top British tennis lady Heather Watson being filmed for The Telegraph as she tries out new IBM Watson emotion recognition software.

Off Grid On Osea Island

A few moments captured from last week's fabulous Off Grid event on Osea Island. It was billed as: "Bringing together 100+ people from media, technology, marketing, creative and design for 36 hours to listen, discuss and debate “Have ideas become cheap? What is the relationship between Innovation and Creativity? and relocating them to a private island just outside London, with big skies, fields, beautiful buildings and a beach and creating a format of curated talks, workshops, discussions, activities, walks and talks some music and you have Off Grid" Which sounded good but it was even better and was rounded off by Mark Kermode's excellent rockabilly band The Dodge Brothers. I'm already booked in for next year!

Nice tweet from Mark Kermode and interview with founder and organiser Jeremy Hill in Metro below...

@jamesroyclarke @offgridsessions lovely picture!

— Mark Kermode (@KermodeMovie) June 13, 2016

Molly Mahon, textile designer for The Daily Mail. This is my usual set-up these days causing chaos in peoples homes with background and lights etc to create a studio style set-up.

On Yer Bike

A few shots from a recent assignment to get portraits of Olly Stevens and some reportage of his Belgium-themed bike shop/cafe, The Velo House. Olly was being interviewed by a Brussels based publication, Politico Europe about his views on the upcoming referendum.

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Guitar Man

My first shoot for The Sunday Times Magazine. It's in this week and it's guitar maker Simon Farmer with his vintage Saab.

I was pleased with this shot of trainee hairdressers at West Kent College in Tonbridge. I've been commissioned to capture some shots of their students in action to decorate the walls of their new buildings and this one seems to sum up the atmosphere with local ladies coming in for some free salon treatment.

"Relationship breakdown" and "evil texter", a couple of recent stock shots for Getty Images. A fun little shoot. Many thanks to comedians Phil Lucas and Julie Oliver for being such good sports.

Live Crib

Some shots from my annual festive engagement. The "Live Crib" Nativity organised and performed by the pupils of Mayfield School for the people of their local community. It's a great little event with a real life donkey and baby, even making this cynical old scrooge feel a bit Christmassy.

College Portraits

A few shots from an enjoyable ongoing project capturing marketing portraits of students from West Kent College. These first few, are from their land-based further education facility, Hadlow College.

Real People And Hand Made Food

Working with the good people at Hand Made Foods in South London who are expanding their empire from shops to restaurants, I've been shooting a great little project capturing portraits of their suppliers. All fascinating people with an obsession for great food. Here are the first few: Miles Irving, the forager, Dave Holton and Tim Jarvis, the cheese makers, Andy Rowland the beer brewer and Julian Pryke, the fishmonger.

Phil The Eagle Owl

This is handsome Phil, the European Eagle Owl who is owned by a friend and as I suspected, he turned out to be a great subject as he is used to having his picture taken by tourists at Canterbury Cathedral where he is occasionally on show.