Every now and then a job comes along that is set to really test your metal as a photographer and today was one of those jobs. Everything went wrong! This was a short notice commission from In Touch With Health, an innovative communications and IT firm that work closely with NHS Trusts, and the brief was to shoot a team that have won an award within the industry. The problem was that the request for the shoot only came yesterday and due to mobile phone difficulties, traffic jams on motorways and just bad luck really, the confirmation phone call and instructions I should have had today never arrived. I couldn’t get through to their man and in the end I assumed that the job was off . Then came the call from the director of Pontefract hospital saying that I was expected after all at 14:00hrs. Holy Moly! It was now 14:20 - I said I could be there in 10 mins which was ok as the director from In Touch had failed to arrive due to traffic so I had chance get it in the bag after all.
A swift drive through Ackworth and down to the new hospital at Pontefract and I was there by 14:33 but couldn’t find the reception. No problem, I saw two hospital porters and asked them for directions but they were the only two porters who had no idea where reception was and they sent me way off course. Another phone call from the director and navigational assistance from a nurse and I was there - 150yards from where I’d asked the porters for directions! Its now 14:45, everyone had to go by 15:00 so there was no time for any fancy photography and all my ideas of power posing (them not me!) went out the window. Sheesh! Quickly stick a flash on a light stand with a radio trigger aiming it into a silver brolly because I’ve just found out my softbox attachment screw is lost, then realise in the dash from the house I haven’t brought the bad boy Sekonic flash meter, so its down whacking the camera into manual, checking the ambient and dropping it a stop before popping a test shot at 1/4 power from the flash, chimping the histogram, notch the flash up to 1/2 power and we’re away for the first shot outside the building. Only time for two or three shots before we move indoors into reception to shoot the team in the spacious and airy atrium. Couple of quick test shots here and then three or four actuals and job’s over! Team dispersing at 14:57 to go back to Pinderfields etc. The hospital cafe is right behind me and as I turn to pack up I see the two porters sat there having coffee and watching me work! Obviously I should have asked for the canteen not the reception! Oh! And did I mention that one of the key guys was not there and needs to be ’shopped in in post? :¬\
Just a heads up that I will be at Ardsley House Hotel, Barnsley for their wedding fayre on September 12th from 11:00am to 4:00pm. If you’re out that way or have been looking at my work, why not drop by and say hello and have a look at some of the sample albums and wedding pictures. Anyone that comes along and mentions they saw this blog post will get a free 30×40 wedding canvas worth £175 when they book me for their wedding :¬)
Ardsley House Hotel is located on Doncaster Road, Ardsley, Barnsley S71 5EH. For further information call Julie or Dawn on 01226 309955.
Been away for two weeks in Luxembourg, hence the lack of ‘blogtivity’ but back into it with avengence with a wedding and two portrait shoots this weekend. Stand by for some Luxembourg stuff shortly!
Here are a few images of gothic model Calamity Vain taken inside a beautiful old church on the outskirts of Bristol. The gothic arches and stone pillars made a superb backdrop to the photos and the long heavy dresses were killer and just so right for the shoot. I used some very low key lighting to give the images a Byronesque feel of gothic romance and sorrowful desolation. Got to dig out something suitable from My Dying Bride or The Sins of Thy Beloved while I finish the edit. I do so love a bit of a Gothic metal soundtrack while I work.
Claire breezed into the studio today on what seemed like the hottest and brightest day so far. She’d booked to come over for a lingerie portfolio shoot - very popular these days - and we made the most of the summer light, shooting all around the studio to give us a variety of looks. If you’re thinking of a portfolio shoot to kick start your modelling or acting career, quite honestly, I think you’ll be hard pushed to get better than this anywhere in Yorkshire! Just give me a call on 01924 229800 to arrange your quality portfolio shoot, they’re fun sessions and very relaxed. For more information visit the portfolio pages.
Melissa is just about to head back for another stint on board the cruise ships, spending the next few months in and around the Caribbean where she works as a beautician in the ship’s spa centre. Before going back this time, however, Melissa decided to drop by VERVEstudio for a portfolio shoot. The shoot was a blast and working our way around the studio, we came up with lots of different styles in the various parts of the building. Here are a few of my favourites. To book your fun, friendly and professional portfolio shoot, just give me a call on 01924 229800 or browse the portfolio pages on the website.
Abi was a bridesmaid at Scott and Amy’s wedding a while back and my friend Jannine whom I shot the wedding with over in Keighley asked if she could bring Abi over to the studio for a bit of a practise session with the studio lighting. So tonight they came over and we also had the company of Sarah Aveyard as MUA who did a great job on the make-up for the shoot. Here’s some footage from the night and a few of the images we did for Abi. If you’d like to book a portrait shoot, just give me a call on 01924 229800 or send me a mail.
My daughter’s birthday today and also very typical weather for a bank holiday Sunday with a cold wind and heavy cloud and the odd spot of rain! So, what to do? Well, we’d seen that the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway were celebrating 40yrs since the making of the film ‘The Railway Children’ which was filmed on location around Oakworth station and Howarth and, being outvoted 3-1, that’s where we went. I decided it would probably be packed and therefore have little photo opportunities so, ever the professional, I left my gear at home! Fortunately, I did take my backup DSLR and a consumer zoom ranging from 18mm-200mm to do some family snaps but boy! Did I regret not taking the big boy’s camera and a couple of very fast pieces of glass?!
Throughout the course of the day, local actors from Keighley were re-enacting scenes from the film and, remarkably, for much of the morning the station was relatively quite which allowed for some great candid photography of the actors as they performed the scenes amidst the tourists and film aficionados (my wife!). However, I managed to have a few minutes away from the crowds with actress Barbara Boothroyd, who was playing the mother, as she stood inside the ticket office.
Barbara was dressed in resplendant Edwardian costume and the setting was perfect in period detail and I had a great chance for a few quick portraits. The wide brimmed hat was throwing the face into heavy shadow (think mothers at weddings!) and at this moment I would have given my left arm for an aperture of f/2.8 and my California Sunbounce or a speedlight that I could have used off camera. As it was, I had to make do with a variable aperture of f/3.5-5.6 and not even a piece of white paper for fill! With only ambient light to work with, the only thing was to turn Barbara’s face to the windows and go for some soft natural light with the head tilted back slightly to get light into the eyes.
Whitby Photographic Society kindly invited me along to be their guest speaker for the evening and I duly obliged and ran them through a whole raft of images from my commercial, weddings, portraits and glamour shoots as well as some of my wildlife and landscape work. Being Whitby, I definitely made sure some of my Goth images were in there, but I hadn’t realised it was the Whitby Goth weekend this weekend. I would have stayed over and done some street portraiture! Anyways, going up there gave me a chance to do some seabird photography at Bempton cliffs which made a nice change from editing images!
Having submitted the images from the Hanson Bricks commission last Friday for their approval, it was nice to get a call yesterday from Steve Morton, Marketing Director, informing me that they were more than pleased with the images. “I use a lot of photographers to capture our finished projects” Said Steve, “but while they deliver a sharp, well exposed image, there aren’t many that have the eye for composition that you appear to have”. I really love it when I exceed a client’s expectation and I love it even more when they commission another shoot straight away which is what Steve has done! So, having checked the forecast and seeing a gradual decline in the weather towards the weekend (wedding on Saturday in Nottingham!), I decided to go straight out to York today to complete the shoot. Here are a few more brick shots from a project in York.
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