I had the great pleasure of photographing Sharon Tembo in the studio recently in preparation for the releasen of her debut single ‘Running’.
Sharon is great fun to work with and we captured a fantastic set of images from the shoot. We worked through a variety of backgrounds and lighting setups in the studio to give Sharon a great set of images to choose from.
Wishing Sharon the very best to succeed in her career path.
I am not a frequenter of gyms – in fact I think the last time I had a gym session was over 20 years ago – but I was excited to spend a couple of hours at The Warehouse Gym in Leicester to shoot Kate for a commission.
There are plenty of photo opportunities around a gym, from the apparatus to textured walls and floors. We ended up only using a small part of the gym, and the time flew by, meaning that I would love to get back in there to try out some more ideas in other parts of the gym.
All images shot with the Fuji X-Pro1 and 35mm lens, using Bowens lighting powered with the TravelPak. Modifiers included a gridded beauty dish and stripbox.
A recent commission for a family portrait photoshoot in the client’s home proved to me how versatile a couple of Bowens lights and a grey paper background can be. Space was tight, which meant positioning of lights was limited, but a gridded beauty dish and strip box for fill allowed me to control the lighting sufficiently well to maintain contrast and produce my favourite style of portraiture.
Shot with the Fuji X-Pro1 with 35mm and 56mm lens. Lit with Bowens Gemini 500R monolights.
I was recently commissioned by Gursharan to photograph her for a new website. Gursharan had reviewed my portfolio and wanted a similar style for some headshots of her. As only a relatively small amount of space is needed for a headshot photoshoot, we decided on setting up a portable studio at Gursharan’s home, giving us the flexiblility of time and outfit changes in the comfort of a home environment.
We tried a variety of lighting setups, including the use of coloured gels on the backdrop, but plain grey works well as a simple, unfussy and clean background, and it can go from white to black depending on how much light falls on any part of it.
It can take a little while for a sitter to relax during a photoshoot, as it is not something they do everyday, and interestingly my favourite images were taken at both ends of the photoshoot – Pic 1 and 4 at the end, Pic 2 and 3 at the beginning.
Contact me if you would like to arrange a photoshoot for use in your website, corporate marketing material or editorials.
I was recently contacted by Sam Beavan, Owner of One Vision Health to photograph Sam and his staff for the corporate website. Sam was exhibiting at the Birmingham NEC, so we arranged a photoshoot on location and decided on using the bright foyer area next to the Hall entrance, taking advantage of the fantastic natural light.
I spent a recent Sunday in a studio with a selection of themed sets. This American set was one of my favourites, and I tried out a two light setup with a gridded beauty dish as the main light and a gridded reflector as a secondary light on the back wall, with Charlotte as my model. Lit with Bowens Gemini lights and shot with a Fuji X-Pro1 with XF35mm lens.
I visited Leicester’s Abbey Pumping Station recently for a ‘Steampunk’ themed photoshoot. The old pumping station was a great backdrop for the day, with its collection of industrial steam pumping machinery in working order. The mix of natural light streaming through the high windows and off camera flash created a great style of imagery, especially against the backdrop of old steam engines.
There was not a lot of room to work with, especially as we shot on a day the museum was open to the general public, but it was a great opportunity to shoot in a completely different setting to the normal studio and street environment.
Here are 3 of my favourite images from the day, shot and edited to create a cinematic look.
I was asked to photograph Ben for the BackUp Trust Transform magazine. Ben lives in my local area, so it was easy to decide on a suitable location to do the photoshoot. The aim was to capture Ben out and about, so we met in the afternoon and moved around a very small area to capture a set of images. The weather was cold, but Ben is very hardy and managed a good 90 minutes before we declared it a wrap.
The cover shot was Ben’s idea, right towards the end of the shoot. We tried a few variations, with a mix of natural light and off-camera-flash. It was a winner right from the start.
I had a first time shoot with local model Nicola Jayne recently in a close by woodland area. We tried to schedule the shoot for dusk to incorporate a colourful sky, but being mid-February the light falls really quickly and we resorted to finding a nice area in the wood away from the mud. Although the evening was very cold and dark, we managed to get a few shots completed before we called it a day.
This is my favourite image from the shoot, using my Nikon D300, Nikkor 24-70 F2.8 lens, Bowens Gemini 500 flashhead and travelpak, with an Octabox. Triggered with PowerWizard MiniTT1 and TT5 receiver.
The wonderful local model Melissa asked me to do a baby bump shoot with her recently in the studio. It is not often I do a maternity type shoot, but we had a great time and created a strong set of images with different lighting setups. I used the session to try out the Fuji X-Pro1 in the studio with the 35mm lens – a great combination. Lit with Bowens flashheads with Octabox softbox, Beauty dish and strip light mods.