How did you get started in professional photography?
During my final year at Guildhall University in 1997 I bumped into the picture editor of an agency called Big Pictures. They specialised in paparazzi-style photographs and I began working for them as a freelance. My first gig was hanging about outside The Ivy, waiting for celebrities to come out of the restaurant. In those days, I was photographing The Spice Girls, Denise Van Outen, Chris Evans, Patsy Kensit and Danni Minogue.

What was the competition like?
When I first started in the late nineties, there was still a sense of an "old boys' club" on the paparazzi circuit. There were still quite a few Fleet Street photographers around, in their fifties. Everybody knew everybody. Except me, because I was the new kid on the block! Even so, most photographers were friendly and welcoming. Times have changed, though. There are now a lot of younger photographers and the atmosphere is more competitive. Everyone's vying to get their pictures in the national newspapers the next day.

What sort of work do you do at Rex Features?
At the beginning of the day, my picture editor assigns me to the stories I'm going to cover. It's very varied. About 70% of the money Rex Features makes comes from syndicating pictures of celebrities but that's not all I do. We cover news, sport, politics and special events like auctions, too. I could be photographing showbiz personalities like Jodie Marsh, Rachel Stevens, Charlotte Church, Sarah Manners and Carol Vordeman. Or I might be taking pictures of Tony Blair with the new German chancellor, Angela Merkel. For the first two years at Rex I was mainly photographing celebrities promoting products or charities at photocalls. It was good fun, actually. Most of the celebrities we work with are pretty pleasant, down-to-earth people. They know how to work with the media and how to get themselves in the newspapers. Someone like Nell McAndrew, for example, you see quite regularly in national newspapers. She likes to work with the press. And she does it very, very well. Someone like her helps your day!

The media's obsession with celebrities is often criticised. But the public laps this stuff up. What do you think about that?
There is definitely a weird, triangular relationship between celebrities, the media and the public. I feel that celebrities definitely have a right to some privacy but they certainly can't have it both ways, especially when some celebrity agents are actually tipping off the paparazzi about where their clients are going to be on holiday and the company they're keeping.

There's more to the job than just taking photographs, isn't there?
Now we have digital technology, the photographer has to do a lot more. In the past, we would just take the pictures and send the rolls of film back to the office for developing. Now we use digital cameras and laptops so that we can edit and process pictures immediately and send them back to the office via the internet from wherever we happen to be. We attach a mobile phone or mobile data card to the laptop or, increasingly, use wireless facilities in places like Starbucks and Café Nero.

What are the hours like?
The hours - and the effort - can be long. If I've got to cover a large film premiere at the Empire in Leicester Square featuring a top Hollywood star like Julia Roberts, my day will start at two or three o'clock in the morning. I have to go to the cinema and physically put my name on a list of photographers. This usually involves waiting around until 6.30am. Then, when I come back some hours later, the organisers call out the names on the list and, one-by-one, you go into the press pen to record the event. It's tough but it's fair. Before we used this system, you would arrive really early to mark out your spot with tape on the ground but unscrupulous rivals would rip up your tape and steal your place!