Professional commercial, portrait photographer West Yorkshire, covering Wakefield, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Pontefract

Speedlight workshop in Manchester

May 16, 2011

Back in Manchester today to run a workshop for 8 photographers in a bar to show them how I work on location with models and a handful of small Nikon speedlights. I covered the essentials of speedlights vs studio lights, manual flash exposure, how to get the flashes off camera and get creative with the lighting and above all, how to work with people in a one-t0-one portrait shoot. For me, the Key elements of good portraiture are lens choice, aperture choice, lighting, location and most importantly, communication. Building a good rapport is the biggest single factor in getting a good portrait in my view. Absolutely no good not chatting to your subject, telling them clearly what you want from them and making them feel at ease. I didn’t take many shots today, that’s not my place, I’m just there to teach, advise and facilitate but I had to take a few for demo purposes and of those, here are a few I’ve edited up to give a taste of what we got up to. Maddy and Dannii were great models as they are both very natural and easy going and straight away they put the novices at ease.

If you are interested in a place on the next speedlight workshop, just call me on 01924 229800 or drop me a line to get on the mailing list.

by John

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Russell & Marie at Aston Hall

May 14, 2011

I headed down to Carlton-in-Lindrick to Marie’s mum and dad’s house for the bridal preps on a blustery and showery morning but I needen’t have worried about the weather, it turned out grand again, although the wind never really left us. The service took place at the nearby church of St Peter’s in Oldcoates and then on to Aston Hall for the main reception. After shooting a few formals at the church and also some car shots there to avoid the many other cars parked around Aston, the bride and groom travelled to Aston Hall in an old mk2 Jaguar while the bridesmaids took a leisurely drive in a superb VW campervan. Once at Aston Hall we set about the big group shot, friends and also the bridal party before heading into the main entrance to shoot on the staircase. Lots of images to go at from the day but here are a few to be going on with with more to come soon.

To book me for your Aston Hall wedding call me on 01924 229800 or visit the website for details.

by John

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Rachael & Neil at Bagden Hall

May 12, 2011

A week after the pre-wedding meeting I was back with Rachael and Neil for their wedding day at St Peter’s Church at Kirkthorpe and then on to Bagden Hall for the reception. Apart from driving through quite a downpour en route to Scissett, we managed to dodge all the rain showers forecast and the day was mostly bright and sunny and really quite dry! The beautiful church of St Peter’s was packed to the gunnel’s for the service and the grounds made a great location for some of the formals and also a few bride and groom shots before we headed off to Bagden to finish the shoot there. At Bagden we did the car shoot and then off into the grounds for some bridal party fun before finishing with just Neil and Rachel before heading on for the wedding breakfast. Later on, the evening light was superb so we had a second shoot ahead of the evening guests arriving and the first dance. I’ve hundreds of gorgeous images to choose from so its difficult to know what to put on the blog, but hopefully these few will give a flavour of the day.

To book me for your Bagden Hall wedding, call me on 01924 229800 or visit the website for details.

by John

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Kelly’s location lingerie shoot

May 10, 2011

Kelly came by for a lingerie portfolio shoot today but had in her mind an idea to shoot on location rather than in the studio and the image she really wanted was of her standing in the middle of a road in just underwear! Well, I’m not going to turn down a challenge like that so after an initial bit of a shoot in the studio, we headed off to the quieter roads around Woolley. I thought this area would be best not because we wanted to be discretely out of sight but rather I didn’t want a car slamming into me from behind while I’m peering down the viewfinder or having to move kit off the road every two mins! I also had in mind that I wanted the road to almost be a backdrop to the shoot so there had to be a hill and also the road had to be straight if it was to trail off behind Kelly. Lots of things to think about then! Anyway, we ended up near Woolley where I thought there was a road that would meet all our requirements and in many ways it did. It was still busier than I’d imagined and we had to move the kit a couple of times and one guy pulled up and asked if we were shooting a photo for the weather report on Look North at 6 o’clock! Any excuse to pull up and nosey methinks :¬) It was rushed in the end but I think we got the image she was after and we also shot in the fields around there too.

Call me on 01924 229800 to book me for your portfolio shoot in the clothes of your choice – lingerie or a burka – makes no odds to me and you will get some cracking images :¬)

by John

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Headshots for Danwood

May 9, 2011

Today found me back at the Danwood offices over in Normanton where I’d been booked to shoot a few headshots of one of the teams. I’ve shot for Danwood previously and its always good to be asked back by a client as it means they liked the work and they have the confidence that they will get the same high quality images for their new brochure work. The brief was to shoot a team shot then individual portraits both outdoors and indoors but I was to decide which person to shoot where. I opted for shooting the sales team outdoors and use the building as a backdrop before moving indoors to shoot the engineers alongside one of the copier machines that they are responsible for servicing and I also decided to shoot a couple of office locations too, especially for the secretary to put her in context. As ever, lighting is key and I’m always on a hiding to nothing with bright sunny conditions outdoors and horrible fluorescent lighting indoors. By using my sunbounce as a sunswatter, I dropped the outside guys into shade and used an SB28 for fill, while inside, gelled up the flashes to balance them to fluorescent and then compensated the white balance accordingly.

Here area a selection of what we shot and if you’d like to book me for your corporate work, just call 01924 229800 to have a chat.

by John

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Birthday portfolio shoot for Paige

May 8, 2011

Paige dropped by the studio for a portfolio shoot for her 15th birthday along with her mum and little sister. While Paige was in the make-up room I did a mini shoot with Megan and then a few shots of them together before putting Paige through her paces. We shot mostly high key before finishing off with some black background shots to add variety and I think we came up with some great images.

Portfolio shoots are a great gift for any teenager and they can bring their friends along too for a party shoot. Just call 01924 229800 to chat or book a session.

by John

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