Had fun on a nice little press job for a national newspaper today. I was delighted to be commissioned to take a few portraits of a head-teacher to go with an article about recruiting teachers. I kept things simple with just one off camera speed-light to compliment the nice ambient light, here's a few examples from the shoot.
Last Saturday I helped out a good friend photograph a wedding in Leicestershire. I acted as his second shooter for the day, which was a first for me. The location was amazing with an incredibly picturesque lake and rolling hills at the bottom of the converted old barn. A dream for a photographer with lots of nooks and crannies to explore :-) It was made even better as the bride & groom were so chilled out and fun. Here's a small selection from the day :-)
Photographed a nice little PR job recently that involved a Wimbledon themed promotion campaign. Yep its that time of year again when everyone wears their best white t shirts, dusts of their tennis racket and eats mountains of strawberries! :-)
It's been a busy few days for me shooting a lot of PR, news and portrait jobs around Gloucestershire. I love getting out and about meeting new people and new clients. Each and every job is different whether its the amount of time with a client, location or lighting. Here's a sample of what I've been up to.
The long summer nights are upon us and everyone loves a festival! I recently shot the Wychwood festival in Gloucestershire. It's a great, fun event for all the family :-)
There are many worthy charitable causes out there but one horrible disease that has affected just about every person in the UK in one way or another is cancer. I was recently commissioned to photograph a very brave lady who has successfully fought cancer and is now in training for the upcoming Race for Life in Gloucester. The event is a fantastic way for people who have been affected by cancer to come together and show unity, have fun and raise lots of money to hopefully one day eradicate the disease :-)
Whenever I get to meet someone in the public eye it's always a buzz especially if I like what they do. This was the case with singer/songwriter Mr James Morrison who I had the good fortune of photographing yesterday. He was giving a talk on music and performing at the local P3 charity. After answering some questions he grabbed his guitar and performed a few songs!
You may get the impression that musicians are a bit arrogant ( I've met a few who are ) but not James Morrison, he was so friendly and chatty and happy to pose for a few portraits. The space I had to shoot in was severely limited but I managed to find a nice backdrop albeit in a less than glamorous place. I had to ask James to stand on a drain cover out the back with an intimidating four foot drop either side of him. :-) Thankfully James saw the funny side.
During a recent trip back home to my parents I couldn't resist getting my camera out to photograph the very friendly neighbourhood fox. It ventures into the garden every day to have a mooch around and wait for its dinner consisting of eggs, pork pies, steak pies, peanuts etc. Not sure what Dad thinks seeing Mrs Fox running off with his best steak pies! :-)
If you like cheese you might like to give the world famous Gloucestershire tradition of cheese rolling a go.
It's quite simple, you climb to the top of a ridiculously steep hill in the Gloucestershire countryside and then launch yourself back down the hill chasing a large round lump of cheese. The person who reaches the bottom first wins the cheese! You may not the reach the bottom with all of your limbs in working order but hey I'm sure the cheese is worth it!
Baby Portraits
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to photograph a friends very cute ten week old baby called Austin. He was a happy little chap and certainly knew how to work the camera ...a career in modelling awaits! :-)
After a night of emotion and remarkable results, the General Election 2015 is now over. The country has now turned blue with Scotland a distinct yellow in favour of the SNP. Labour and the Liberal Democrats took a bashing with the people of England and Wales deciding to stick with what they know and give David Cameron another five years to finish the job.
I photographed the former Labour leader Ed Milliband a couple of months ago on the campaign trail in Gloucestershire. He seemed like a nice guy, more relaxed and tuned in than the impression I got from watching him on TV. After five years as leader he's now looking for a new job. As for David Cameron... I hope he does well and doesn't send the country to sleep, unlike the audience members in a speech he gave a few years back! :-)
It was a pleasure to photograph the amazing wedding ceremony of Amy-Jane & Andy. A great couple combined with a lovely traditional church made for some fab images :-)
I took a few portraits today of the Seven Dials Rapscallions Historical Re-enactment Group today ( that's a mouthful! ). I'm fascinated with history and learning about how people lived hundreds of years ago, so this job was a joy. The costumes and acting of the group were amazing. They really sucked me in and made me believe I was transported back in time.
Being such a huge Top Gear fan i was excited to meet and photograph one of the three amigos Mr Richard Hammond today. It was made even better by having the opportunity to go inside the infamous GCHQ offices in Cheltenham. Richard was there with the Severn Freewheelers who were receiving a blood bike bought for them by GCHQ.
With the arrival of this fantastic early summer weather it would be a shame to waste it. So today I left the comfort of my office and wandered off to create some lovely warm early summer images! I noticed this bench looking out into the distance with a vast open sky above and felt it was perfect for a dreamy, peaceful, thought provoking picture. I can imagine lots of people at one time or another have sat on the bench looking out into the distance deep in thought.
Another shot I found was of these lovely bright pink tulips. I wanted to create another sense of interest apart from the tulips so had fun creating this shot with lots of movement and colour.
I love taking portraits of people in their familiar surroundings. I always feel you get the best images when the subjects comfortable in what they're wearing and somewhere they're used to. I was recently commissioned to photograph a tailor at his office with the images scheduled to feature in a magazine.
Enjoyed a fun magazine shoot last night photographing Tim Perkin on Cleeve Hill, Cheltenham. Tim has bravely battled cancer and is amazingly now going to be running this years London marathon. A few running magazines were interested in Tims incredible story which should hopefully be in this months issues. Good luck Tim! A few examples of the shoot are below!
It's always enjoyable being asked to photograph school productions. The energy, thought and passion that was put into this specific production of The Great War was fantastic. The costumes that the students got to wear really helped them get into character and made for some interesting photographs.
I had a recent commission to photograph a local bar in Gloucestershire. It always amazes me how quick and easy making a cocktail is made to look by the experienced staff! Here's a few pics from the shoot. Please get in touch for all PR, Portrait and Wedding photography. :-)
Iceland - What an amazing country! It's certainly somewhere I would love to revisit. It reminded me of New Zealand with its rugged landscape. I took this shot on the way to view a geyser about 2 hours from the capital Reykjavik. The snow capped mountains in the distance really were stunning!