Part of the process of developing as a photographer is to work on personal projects and force yourself to try something different.

Such was the case when I approached a good, and extremely talented, friend of mine who had recently gone solo with his jewellery design and set up his own business.

Asher Freeman is probably one of the nicest people I know. He has an amazing sense of drive, and his energy and passion for his work is at times all-consuming.

Most of all, he is a free spirit. Of all my friends he probably has the most apt and fitting surname.

I wanted to create a set of images in his studio that had a very definite “industrial” feel to them.

As such, my emphasis when shooting was on contrasty light and detail. My intention was to work towards black and white processing, with a high level of detail and grit worked into the post-processing.

Asher’s studio is the kind of place that a guy could get lost in, not because of its size, but because of the tools, gadgets and paraphernalia relevant to his profession. From a photographic point of view I had a ton of material to work with, and I’ll admit that I’m pleased with the items I chose to shoot.

As an exercise in trying something different, I am completely satisfied.

I am a great believer in good karma, and I feel that to believe in the power of good karma one has to become its agent at times. As much as I enjoyed the shoot and the opportunit y to create and edit images very different to what I normally do, it was the opportunity to catch up with a good friend over a good single malt and create images for him to use as a favour that made this exercise matter to me.

Good on you Asher for heading out into the scary world that is running a business on your own.

I have no doubt that your skill and passion will lead to amazing success in the years to come.

P.S. Thanks for an awesome whisky!