I completed a very enjoyable editorial shoot the other week for Artists & Illustrators magazine.  I was called up to photograph Rutland based artist Angela Harding for an editorial piece they were running in the June 2012 edition of the magazine.

Angela is an extremely talented artist and her studio is full of great pieces of work, inspired from the natural environment surrounding the studio.

The image above is an outake from the photoshoot with Angela’s much loved pet dogs who are well and truly part of the scenery.

So the best place to stop and look around…Las Vegas !

Sin City is never a placed I have  considered visiting, simply because I saw it is a neon lit artificial town filled with beer drinking gamblers on stag weekends.  Lots of noise, lots of people, and lots of money down the drain.  But my wife has always wanted to visit, and saw our 40th as a great excuse to go, so who was I to argue.

And I loved the place.  Full of neon lights and beer drinking gambling stag weekenders, but I loved the place.  America as a whole does everything bigger and better than anywhere else I have visited on the planet, and no more so than in Vegas.  The hotels, the shopping malls, the roads, the food, the shows – everything is BIG.  And the people are friendly, the service outstanding, the weather just perfect.  We had a great time.

And I had plenty of photo opportunities during the visit.  We had a great view from our lakeside room at the Bellagio.  We visited the Eiffel Tower for an amazing view of the strip at night.  And we went on a once in a lifetime helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon to get a 180 degree contrast in scenery.

And within two days of returning to the UK I was in the desert in the Middle East.  Las Vegas casino to Middle East desert in 48 hours !  I felt like I was in the middle of a James Bond movie.  But that is for another day.

I did a test shoot recently in the studio with Grace, a new local model with a great look and who is very easy to work with.  I used the opportunity to try out some different lighting setups with Octaboxes and gridded beauty dishes, whilst Grace was able to start building up her modelling portfolio.

We had a very successful couple of hours in the studio trying out a mixture of low and high key lighting with a variety of poses in a relaxed environment.  I am looking forward to working with Grace again in the near future.

I spent a few hours last weekend testing out some new lighting setups with the wonderful model Nicole who I have worked with previously.

We had a great big room to use so we could really spread out and go to town on the lighting.  The image above was one of my favourite from the session, and was a simple one light setup with a gridded beauty dish to control the light spill.  This particular setup can be created in a very small room, including a living room in a home.

Second image is the same location and same background, but lit with multiple lights to give a completely different look.  this lighting really makes Nicole’s skin glow.

This last image had a subtle change to the lighting to create a completely different look to the previous image.

A great session completed, and I am really looking forward to trying these lighting setups in photoshoots over the coming weeks.

Professional portrait photography is constantly changing and adapting to new trends.  This means test shoots are vital to try out new lighting setups and ideas without the limitations that a client photo shoot brings.

Charlotte is an experienced model who responded to my casting call on a model website at the last minute, and we managed a very successful three hour studio shoot in Leicester creating a set of new and dynamic images which can be translated into exciting client shoots.

Many more test shoots in the pipeline this year.

Last family photoshoot of the year was in the Leicester studio to celebrate family member birthdays and new arrivals.  This photoshoot was great fun to do as everyone was relaxed and radiating great big smiles.  The baby was the most relaxed 14 week old I have ever come across and a joy to photograph.

This image was created with a single gridded softbox, camera right.

I purchased a small vintage Union Jack flag from ebay a while ago with the express intention of using it as a backdrop to some studio portraits.   Really wanted a very large flag for full length portraits, but this is just about suitable for half length max.  Its made from cotton and doesn’t have the horrible sheen to it that new cheap flags seem to have.

The opportunity to use it only recently came along when I did a fashion shoot with Penny in the Leicester studio.  Hung from a backdrop stand with black cloth behind to soak up the light.  Lit with a single EZYBox softbox with grid on a C-Stand.

The Olympics may be just about on us but I will keep hold of this flag for the studio.  Will be great for dynamic child and family portraits as well as fashion and beauty photoshoots.

Did a shoot with Sam last week using a combination of a local woodland location and then into Leicester city centre for some urban portraits.  The weather threatened to be a real challenge but somehow we managed to dodge the worst of it and created some great images.

This image was shot with my now favourite lighting setup of a PocketWizard miniTT1 / TT5 triggering an SB800 through a Lastolite EZYBox 60×60 gridded softbox on a stand.  Ambient light provided fill.

Took this quick portrait of my youngest  daughter Megan just a few days before her 10th birthday.  Children grow up so quick and I feel that as everyone gets older these portraits taken now will be even more treasured in years to come.

Happy birthday Megan.

I was recently commissioned to make a portrait of triathlete Steve Faulkner for Triathlete’s World.  Anyone who takes up the challenge of swimming, biking or running competitively gets my nod, but doing all three in a triathlon is on another level.  Mix that in with Ironman challenges, representing Great Britain in the Vancouver World Championships, studying for a PhD at Loughborough University – oh and beating an aggressive type of cancer diagnosed at the age of 16, and you have one seriously determined man.

You can read more about Steve in October’s edition of Triathlete’s World.

Donations to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research at justgiving.com/Steve-Faulkner0