Last weekend I headed East and practised my skills relating to birthday party photography in Essex.

Billericay to be precise.

This was an enjoyable change from the usual corporate shoots I do for big brands like Adidas.

100 guests were expected and Steve, my client, wanted a street/urban photographer who could capture the real story of the party, an honest account of the event and the fun that was had without having those annoying forced poses which no one likes.

I’m like that too.

When my wife Chrystall and I got married a couple of years ago in Dorset, the last thing I wanted was to create some false memory of things which never happened and end up with photos which looked nothing like how I remembered the day to be like.

It's not what taking photos should be about.

Do you want to look through an album and instead of it bringing back memories it makes you wonder if you were even in this fantasy the photographer created?

So with that simple brief in mind of "keeping it real" I just went on and did my thing.

Of course I always like a challenge so I decided to shoot the entire event using a manual focus prime 50mm lens.

I shot a mix of black & white as well as colour, although I admit my preference for black and white for these events.

Here are a few of my favourite shots of the evening: