It only seems like yesterday I was choosing which Uni’s to apply for and get prospectus’s from, and now, I am finished! three years of hard work, graft, sweat and tears… (yeah right, it’s been the biggest doss of my life)

Hopefully I will pass and get a degree, which will no doubt come in no use in my life. But I have had an incredible adventure in photography at University, finding myself as an artist…. My mates call me the most literal thinker and photographer they know. But whatever, it’s what I am good at, I think?!

Anyway, here is a screen shot of our degree show page and my personal image for the show. Have a look at some of the other artists on the pages, there is some incredible work on there and some very talented people leaving UCA this year, who will hopefully all go onto pursue careers in photography or the arts.

My Final Major Project is due in on Tuesday, and I have been working hard to get it to the standard I want and ready for exhibiting. Here is a selection of the film stills from some of the interviews, might give some idea of what to expect from the final film! Enjoy TA X

Photography is my passion, I really am obsessed with it and I never plan on giving it up! I recently shot some of Britain’s most notorious football hooligans in Nottingham, you may remember a photo of me looking a bit scared standing next to a giant of a man, that man was Cass Pennant, who in the 70′s and late 80′s was a part of the most notorious football firm in British history, the ICF Firm, which stands for The Inter City Firm, which attached itself to West Ham United F.C. I met up with Cass in Nottingham and met some of the most feared men across Britain. Some having spent a decade in prison. It was a real experience shooting them and one I’ll certainly never forget. get on www.dansakal.co.uk for all the photo’s NOW! Enjoy Ta X

Today, I had the fantastic opportunity to shoot a really amazing charity called City Year, I won’t try and explain what they do, as below gives in great detail the tremendous work these youngsters do for the community. It really opened my eyes and show me that their are a lot of people out there that really do care about the community, and not necessarily the community they live in, most of the guys and girls that were at the school today were from various different parts of London. It was truly a great experience to be around such a great bunch of people!

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City Year is the leading youth and education charity in London. We are the only coordinated opportunity for full time volunteering within English schools. No other movement for social change offers young people the chance to volunteer full time for a whole year in inner city schools. City Year is special because we believe young people can change the world. City Year recruits talented and passionate young people that are driven to make a difference. We then harness that passion to act as a catalyst to transform the lives of children and the young people themselves. Young people that join City Year dedicate a year to volunteering full time in schools as tutors, mentors and role models.

City Year is the only youth movement that delivers a combination of breakfast club provision, one-to-one tutoring support, enforcement of school behaviour policies and fun after-school clubs – all rolled into one. City Year is different because we strive to achieve a ‘double-impact’. We aim to have a transformative effect on the lives of the children that we work with, but also the lives of the volunteers that volunteer with us. We are committed to developing the skills and confidence of the young people that join us. All of our volunteers benefit from our Leadership After City Year development programme. This includes more than 300 hours of professional training and support across the year and the opportunity to carry out work shadowing days with our corporate sponsors.

Find out more about the incredible work City Year London do for the community by clicking here

I was searching through my computer for this set of images I shot a couple of years ago, As I really wanted to put them on the blog for everyone to see as I really liked the shots especially the edits. I have also just received the original prints back from Uni today and it re-ignited (Excuse the pun) my passion for this set of images! Hope you like. TA X

I recently shot for Thomas Codd London, an up and coming brand in Chatham Kent, The images were used on ASOS, the first time I’ve been published on ASOS, so I am pretty pleased with that! click Here for the link to the page! 

I had the fantastic opportunity to shoot Cass Pennant today in Nottingham, I won’t be putting any of the final images up till after my final project has been handed in as I want to keep them for then. I will say however that, they are by far the best portrait photographs I have taken to date. I also caught up with a few of the other big names in the 70′s firm’s today and interviewed them. I will be putting together a short documentary film about them which I am currently working on… and it’s almost 3am. Good night for now! here is a shot of me and Cass Pennant from today!

Today was an exciting one, I had the fantastic opportunity to photograph the up and coming designer Tom Codd’s latest line. The style is so exciting! It was fantastic weather and we roamed the back streets of Chatham to find some interesting locations and backdrops and got some really great images! Click here for the whole shoot! Here is a link to Tom Codd’s website, where you can buy any of the styles you see on here! Enjoy TA X

On Sunday I had the oppertunity to shoot a very impressive young, up and coming band in Stoke By Clare. The boys are all really talented musicians and were looking for some promotional material to help boost the name. I was more than happy to help them out as it was a nice experience for me as well and one I really enjoyed. Here are a couple of the edits I have been working on so far. Enjoy TA X

LATEST NEWS!

Dan Sakal Photography has now become D&A Photography, starting of a new partnership with Antonio Gizzonio & Myself. Both of us are working our way toward Fine Art Degree’s at University and the old saying; “Two heads are better than one”, see’s us merge as a company. We have completely redesigned our logo, as you can see below and are working towards a new website. We recently shot a wedding together and both realised that we work really well with each other and the number of wedding guests that commented on how good we were was actually quite amazing.

We shot a great wedding in Chelmsford and hopefully everyone will enjoy looking through the photo’s, which go online tonight! Hopefully this will be a really great partnership and one that is successful in the long run. Check back for updates on the new site which should be launched in April sometime!

TA D&A 

Yesterday, Antonio & myself travelled to Chelmsford in Essex to photograph the lovely Leah and Craig at their wedding day. Antonio and I got some absolutely stunning photographs which will be online soon! Keep checking back, but in the meantime here is one image from the day which I really liked. Enjoy TA X

I’ve not really had time to test out my Tilt Shift lens yet, and I really wanted to give it a go, I’m shooting a wedding at a venue in Great Henny and this is the a really beautiful place to shoot as there are lots of fields and greenery. Although I have made this image quite dark and obviously in black and white. Still getting to grips with it, but starting to understand it better! Enjoy TA X

This afternoon, I had the fantastic opportunity of shooting Reece Keating, an up and coming boxer who has won all of his fights so far by knock out. He is as dedicated to his sport as I have ever seen anyone be. His gym is a dingy, dark building on a work site and you can almost feel the history when you walk in. The place is falling apart leaking everywhere, and Keating himself even told me he took a swing at a bag recently in training and it swung into a picture frame smashing it to pieces! Having said all that, the place is perfect, secluded on the outskirts of Colchester, filled with everything a boxer could need. I had the chance to shoot Keating during one of his sessions and more photo’s will be up later tonight. Enjoy! TA X

It’s always fun to photograph couples, because in most cases they bounce off each other really well and the photos are always fun to take. Click here to see a gallery from a recent Couple Shoot

I love to photograph golf, the action, movement and skill involved with it is really exciting, I can’t play it myself, nor do I enjoy watching it on T.V. But to photograph it is really interesting and something I love to do, I love freezing that moment and capturing the ball in mid flight. Click here to view the full gallery.

I was recently asked to photograph and produce a calendar for Kent University’s Football Team in aid of charity. Having never photographed a calendar I was unsure as to whether I would be able to do a good enough job, and when “naked” was thrown into the equation I was even more reluctant. But, as the title reads, I will try anything!! So we arranged to get some of the players together, one, very cold afternoon (at least that was some of the boys excuses!) and we did a whole load of different shots, and produced a calendar. Here is my personal favourite shot from the day!

Last summer I photographed Jaquie & David, quite possibly the most fun couple I have ever had the privilege of working with. From the first meet I could tell they would be up for a laugh, and I could see just how much these two were crazy for each other. Jaquie is a beautiful lady with the biggest smile I have ever seen! And David, well David is just a charming, funny guy who never stopped smiling all day long! It was the perfect day for a wedding, you could almost say it was too hot! But we cannot dare complain in England as we never know what weather mother nature will send our way! The day went perfectly and their were tears, smiles, laughing and dancing. I can say that it was an absolute pleasure to photograph Jaquie and David’s wedding and I hope they are as happy now as they were on that special day. I hope you enjoy the photo’s as much as I did taking them! TA XFor all the images from Jaquie & David’s Wedding Click Here.

This is an image I took during yesterday’s football match at Kent University, this guy comes and watches all the home games. No one knows his name, he never talks to anyone and he rides a bike to and from the matches. I am almost certain he is a lovely guy, but this image seems to evoke a darker side to him. I really like the expression on his face, caused probably by the wind and rain that is crashing into his face. Enjoy TA X

On a spur of the moment thing, I decided to join a pal out in South Carolina for a few days, we have a friend who is studying abroad and so we both booked our tickets last minute and went. I should have taken a lot more photos but being hung over everyday and being busy eating to excess, we were kept busy. I did manage to shoot a bit and these are some of the shots I have had a look at. Hope you enjoy! TA X