A few images from a recent shoot on a farm in North Leicestershire. Farms are full of interesting barns and machinery, providing lots of photo opportunities with different backdrops. Spoilt for choice, but time is always limited. Light levels can be low in farm buildings, so the use of portable flashheads and power packs can be useful. My first shoot on a farm, but looking forward to revisiting at some point in the near future.
My last photoshoot of 2016 was the week before Christmas of 2016, photographing the actress Lydia Rose Bewley in her family home for an editorial piece for the Mail On Sunday’s You Magazine. Lydia has starred in The Inbetweeners Movie, Drifters TV series and Comedy Central’s I Live With Models. Lydia could not have been more friendly during our photoshoot – a consummate professional thoughout.
From my previous post on Tae Kwon-Do, my subject is also Head Chef at a local hotel in Leicester. So of course, we took the opportunity to photograph Chef in his working clothes. I planned this portrait as for an editorial piece within a magazine – a one light setup against a plain background, creating a quiet, simple but powerful image.
I had a great opportunity recently to spend some time in the Leicester studio with a local Tae Kwon-Do sportsman to capture some portraits and actions shots using minimal lighting for that lovely moody style which I am always drawn to. We tried out a few different lighting setups and created a great set of images suitable for an editorial piece.
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 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 took advantage of the start of Spring and the kinder weather to kick off my 2014 Street Shoot season with a photo shoot with local model Yasmin. I took along my new X-Pro1 camera, with its small design and fast sharp lenses being ideal for this type of shoot.
We met at a predesignated point in Leicester and used a handful of side streets in the same area for the photo shoot. This reduces the amount of walking to each area and maximises shoot time. A mix of natural light and off-camera flash gave us a great selection of images against different urban backdrops, ideal for model portfolios, editorial portraits or family portraits with a difference.
We battled with the wind somewhat but had a great time,and produced a fantastic set of images. The X-Pro1 performed brilliantly, and as I learn how to get the best out of it, will become my go to camera for portrait photography. It is very easy to carry around, and the quality is amazing. It worked flawlessly with my pair of Nikon SB-800s and Pocket Wizard Mini-TT1 trigger and TT5 receivers.
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.
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
I was recently commissioned to shoot a portrait of Dr Dali Edwards, Executive Director of Par Excellence Magazine .
Par Excellence is a successful site designed for professional women at the top of their game, and the site is packed full of interesting articles including business, lifestyle and wellbeing.
I split the shoot into two halves, the first to get a nice headshot of Dali to use in an official capacity, and then the second half was spent in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter to create a set of fantastic urban portraits which are ideal for editorial and lifestyle use.