The quote above, often attributed to the Duke of Wellington but also to General Rommell in World War II, has probably been around since time immemorial*. Whoever said it first, it has always served me well when shooting on location, so when a financial magazine asked me to shoot the co-founders of a specialist fund management company in the West End I made a point of arriving an hour earlier than required in order to recce the area. One of the things I’ve always loved about London is how you can discover new places even after thirty five years of living here and I must have walked past the entrance to this tiny alleyway in Covent Garden a hundred times and never noticed it. Of the two or three locations I’d found in the vicinity, this one got the immediate approval of John the art director when he arrived - a single portable softbox provided the light, as well making it almost impossible for anyone else to pass and with a few variations on the theme, the job was over in fifteen minutes.

Fact of the Day: Time immemorial actually means any time before the accession of Richard the First in 1189