The Public House, the pub, with maybe the church, was once at the centre of every English community. In my parent’s generation most men, and sometimes women, would have ‘a local’ a place to go and chat with friends about their lives, their troubles, or at least how poorly their football team were playing that week.

In this notebook, I write all my notes related to film developing. “Why are you showing us this Nigel?” you might be saying. Well despite having this great little book with all my notes and despite having been developing film on & off for 30 years, careless people can still f**k it up.

About eight years ago I went to a wedding as a guest, I wasn’t the photographer but I was hoping to get a few good shots for the happy couple (they’ve since divorced, but we’ll gloss over that). I knew the venue was going to be dark so I took a few rolls of Neopan 1600. In the end, I only shot one roll, but I truly hated the results, big ugly lumpy grain. I disliked it so much l’ve not shot it since I still have the remaining rolls of in my refrigerator.

This could almost be a pitch for a reality TV show. Take an event photographer from the UK, drop him into the middle of a North Carolina forest and get him to photograph a rodeo. OK, maybe not, but it did go through my mind.

For some time I’ve wanted to blog more. I used to write regularly, and although I don’t find it easy, I do enjoy it. Like everything it needs to become a habit, if you fall out of the habit, it’s tough to restart.

“Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, come to the community and share the gospel”. I’m sitting in the small very busy office at Sanctuary, the night shelter for the homeless in Gravesend, talking to Steve Nolan. Steve and his wife Lorna are the unpaid Project Managers for Sanctuary.

I’m not sure what I expected but it wasn’t this.

Steve Nolan is showing me around Sanctuary, a night shelter for the homeless. He and his wife Lorna are the full-time Project Managers for the shelter.

I’ve, possibly foolishly, started a 365 project for 2017. If you’re not familiar with the concept it’s a project some photographers undertake to free themselves from the confines of what they have to shoot and allow themselves to play a little.

For me visiting a new city follows something of a regular pattern. For the first few hours, I don't like it, wherever it is. That's pretty much a given. It could be the holiday destination of your dreams - I won't like it. They could be scattering orchid petals in front of me on the street - I still won't like it. Period.

One of the pleasures of going to a festival is the opportunity to see so many different bands in the same place at the same time. In the non-festival world, unless you live in the middle of a big city, going to a gig involves quite a commitment and no little expense. Yes, you’ve laid out quite a bit to get to the festival, but if you’re lucky, by the time it rolls around that pain has receded a little and you can convince yourself this music is basically free!

About this time last year I attended a concert by the Multi-Story Orchestra who perform, you guessed it, in a multi-storey car park. The orchestra is part of a wider arts project, Bold Tendencies, who have taken over the car park in the centre of Peckham, south London. During the summer each year Bold Tendencies host a series of talks, concerts and art events.

For the first time, I decide to rent some gear for a shoot. In the past, I'd always managed to borrow what I needed or get by with what I had. But there's only so long you can live off of the generosity of others. Conventional wisdom says you don’t buy the gear you’re only going to use occasionally. It’s better to rent what you need.

I was going back through my pick of the shots I took for Lux Lisbon trying to decide which I prefer. I love this picture, it isn't technically the best shot and it's probably not the one most people would choose, but it works for me. What it does is embodies the mood of the night.

It's great to get to shoot a high energy live gig, but even better when it's a band you like, so I was more than a little chuffed to get to shoot Lux Lisbon's largest gig to date at the Scala, in London.

Beyond getting to see some new bands I like to start Record Store Day with a vinyl release to search for, even if my track record in actually finding it isn’t great. In the past, this has included Radiohead’s 2011 12” release of 'The Butcher and Supercollider' and in 2014 Tame Impala’s, 'Live Versions'. You guessed it, I didn’t get either.

I had the opportunity to return to the Lee Valley velodrome for the last meet of the Full Gas Winter Track Series. The previous meet had to be abandoned following a serious accident, so it was good to see a full evening of racing. I’d been so inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s iconic shots at the Vélodrome D’Hiver,

A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to shoot one of the Full Gas Winter Track Series events that take place at what was the London Olympic Velodrome, now the Lee Valley Velo park.

I have a great fondness for small-town America. That eclectic mix of industry, commerce and residence rarely fails to entrance me. One of my longest-held ambitions is to take a few months out and complete a long-term documentary photography project in a small American town.

If you're interested in photography it's likely you know this photograph. What you may not know is the story of the people behind it; Edward Crawford, who's throwing the tear gas canister and Robert Cohen, the photographer. The story is told in a recent episode of the excellent Criminal Podcast.

Having read recently read Kevin Mullins' article detailing how he set the custom film profiles on his Fujifilm X-series cameras I was keen to give it a go on my new Fuji XT1. Although I've been shooting with my X100s for some time it's mainly been in RAW.