I recently had the pleasure of photographing Lizzy Rushby and fellow musical entertainer one evening in Leicester for a set of publicity shots. I setup a small studio area in Lizzy’s home, and we spent an hour shooting with a variety of setups. You do not need a lot of space for this kind of portraiture, and it can certainly be more convenient for the sitter to shoot in the home where outfits and props are to hand. All shot in colour, with conversion to black and white in post production where appropriate. Shot with Fuji x-Pro1 with 35mm and 56mm lenses and Bowens lighting.
After the recent photoshoot with Kate in The Warehouse Gym in Leicester, we were both keen to get back in for a second photoshoot to try out some more ideas we did not have time to do in the first shoot.
It was a lot colder this time round so more of a challenge, especially for Kate, but we came away with a great set of images. The gym is literally in an old warehouse. It is full of character with lots of photo opportunities with the spray painted walls and a variety of gym equipment. And more importantly for me, lots of space to move around with my equipment.
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 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.
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.
My second photoshoot with the X-Pro1 was with local model Beth through Model Mayhem. First try out with the fantastic Fuji 35mm F1.4 lens, along with the wider Fuji 18mm F2.
We shot in the same area as my first street shoot of 2014, but using different buildings as backdrops. Even though the photo shoot was mid afternoon with bright sunshine, the use of off camera flash enabled us to create a night time look in some of the images for a dramatic effect.
The use of natural light and off camera flash on a 2 hour street shoot enables the set of images to include a mix of moody and dramatic images along with bright and sunny examples.
A street shoot is great fun for model and photographer, and is a great option for an editorial piece for a blog or magazine.