Moodboard’s Russell Watson with friends Paul Towse and James Threasher completed the assault course in around 3 hours!  "We turned up and it was snowing, we all thought 'This will be easy', how wrong we were, as we then found out!".

Tough Guy; The Worlds safest, most dangerous taste of mental and physical pain, fear and endurance.

Eight miles of mud, barbed wire, sub zero lakes, broken shards of ice and fire walks...

More than 5000 people from around the globe started the competition based in South Staffordshire on Sunday 31st January.

This competition sees people stretched to their physical boundaries as they clamber over nets, walls and even an electrified fence dubbed 'The Tiger'.

Russell said “Its cold, the water was so cold! So happy I've done it now tho!”
Paul commented “When I think about it now though I just keep thinking "How?" because I have never been that cold in my LIFE!!”

Smiling but secretly thinking "What am I doing here?"

This is just one of the 27 obstacles in "The Killing Fields"

As you can see, the water was pretty cold here, and I was nearing so close to the finish

Congratulations to everyone that ran on the day!

What projects have you recently enjoyed working on?

Christmas is always an exciting time in shopping centres as they pull out all the stops. We have to differentiate each Christmas’s marketing to be even bigger and better than the last year, so it really does mean the creatives are on top of their game thinking up original campaigns. Celebrities help build a great buzz and for Christmas just passed we organised Nicholas Cage to turn on the Christmas lights in Bath.

Have you seen a change in the way agencies use Stock photography?

In the last couple of years I’ve noticed a change in the way art directors produce campaigns. Before, an art director would draw out a specific idea. Now they work more with a concept or headline and then go through the stock sites to see which visual best works. They are more flexible with the visuals and are very open to other interpretations.  

Can you remember a moodboard image that was used in a recent campaign you were handling?

I remember using an image of a woman holding a camera in the snow. This was used in a shopping centre in Cheltenham. This image captured everything the client was looking for in the photograph. Sometimes it’s hard to meet all criteria but this photo really hit the nail on the head.

What makes for a great stock photo? 

What are you reservations about working with Stock Photography?

One of my concerns is that the image won’t be model released. This would have big implications for our campaigns if it wasn’t. Although we don’t have to worry about that with moodboard.

What do you like about moodboard’s photo library?

I was getting frustrated using larger agencies as it takes ages to search through many inappropriate images. With moodboard you know your selection of quality relevant images will be brought up. This saves me a lot of time. Also the range of images and price points helps me chose the right image for campaigns with different budgets.  

Do you include microstock in your campaigns?

No never as it’s not worth risking a campaign by scrimping on a very low budget image. We do use royalty free though as there are some amazing premium quality photos out there.   

With a lot of doom and gloom in the market at the moment it’s great to hear from an agency that is using stock photography successfully in more and more campaigns.  Better luck next time with your celebrity photography. If you want any tips I’m sure our photographers here would be happy to give you some pointers.  

moodboard recently visited Berlin, and I must say I was extremely impressed with the creativity that is on show in this vibrant City. Following the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, many artists have returned to this infamous wall to retouch their paintings. The whole area was buzzing and smelt of fresh paint. There are some great photo opportunities around the city such as the Brandenburg Gate which is superbly lit on a clear night. Alexanderplatz one of the busiest squares in the city which captures the hustle and bustle of modern Berlin, and the Holocaust memorial which creates a far quiet and sombre vibe.  If you have a camera and are looking for a great city to visit and shoot, Berlin is perfect for you!

One the way out of the city, moodboard’s very own model Craig spotted himself on a giant billboard. They had taken image (no.10150019), cropped it, intensely airbrushed the shot and given both models a fake tan. This style of re-touching is supposedly very popular in Germany.

Dear all, 

After an exciting year of blog posts here on the factory,  I am taking some time off to have my first baby in January.  I've been thrilled to feature some of my favourite artists and photographers on the blog and would like to thank all the contributors who spent time with the factory and everyone that took time to read the posts. It's been a really great year!

Whilst I'm away my colleagues Craig and Lauren in Sales will be running the show and I'm sure they will keep you entertained in my absence.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Deb H x

I arrived back in Hertfordshire last night to be greeted by a rather fierce showering of snow which continued all night long.  This is what I saw when I looked out this morning, so pretty (luckily I get to work from home today!).

I'm told it's not quite so snowy in London (only a 30 min train ride away) but a friend of moodboard has sent in these pics from Kent, where it's looking rather picturesque too .....

We don't see much of the old snow, so if you have a snowy pic to share from around the UK, email it to deb.henderson@moodboard.com and I'll put it up.

Thanks to Hilary for sharing her pics from Kent.

Deb H 

I recently came across these rather delicious looking knitted food items by Ed Bing Lee and was completey taken with them.  Check out the artists website for more interesting pieces and the rest of this series titled 'Delectables'.

All images appear courtesy of the artist.

Deb H

                                                                                                                Christmas shopping can be an overwhelming experience. It all gets very primal out there on the high street. I have witnessed many a struggle to get the last item on the shelf, not much different to documentaries on the discovery channel showing animals fighting over the last scraps of food. This stressful experience has turned many a high street lover to the internet.