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

Stacey’s portfolio shoot on location

July 16, 2009

I met up with Stacey today to shoot her portfolio and I decided I’d snag it all on location rather than the studio. We got hold of the keys to a disused workshop courtesy of the Wilkes Group and had a brilliant session for a couple of hours despite getting caked in sawdust! I’m sure you’ll agree that there’s a strong resemblance to a certain celebrity of notoriety here – this is the closest I’ll ever get to photographing Paris Hilton :¬)

Although there was power in the building and I did take the Bowens studio flash, I ended up shooting all these images with either one, two or three small speedlights. When used correctly, these compact little flashes can really deliver the goods: all the images are shot in manual exposure mode and the flashes are in manual too. I’m close now to running a street photography workshop where you can learn how to do this kind of ‘on location’ lighting. Watch this space or put your name in the comment box below. Anyways, here’s some of the images from today. Enjoy!

Fashion portfolio photography in Wakefield

Wakefield model portfolio photographer

fashion & glamour photographer Wakefield

by John

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Natalie’s Trash the Dress shoot

July 12, 2009

Regular blog followers may remember Natalie and John’s wedding at Healds Hall earlier in the year when we got some really nice images for the album, but from way before the wedding day Natalie had decided she’d like a trash the dress style shoot to add to the album. So, trusting the weather forecast we set off to Derbyshire to do a shoot amongst the millstone grit edges just south of Sheffield. The wind was very strong indeed and gave us a few problems but, incredibly, the forecasters got it right and the sun broke through in the early evening. This was more of a celebrate the dress shoot but Natalie’s desperate to get the dress wet so it looks like a trip to a waterfall in the Dales or maybe the coast and the North Sea. Watch this space. Brrrr!!

Even if you didn’t have your wedding shot by me, you can still make up for it and get your ‘trash the dress’ shoot done professionally :¬) And don’t forget, it doesn’t have to be a wedding dress – why not do an unusual shoot in your prom dress?!!

Trash the dress shoot in derbyshire by Wakefield wedding photographer John Gardner

Bridal portrait from trash the dress shoot

by John

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Lucy and Robert’s wedding at Mosborough Hall

July 11, 2009

I never expected to meet the bride & groom for the first time on the actual wedding day, but that’s what happened today after getting a call on Thursday morning from a photographer friend in Sheffield to say he’d gone down with a serious case of chicken pox and couldn’t manage the wedding! Nightmare! Luckily, I managed to sort out my schedule of event photography for today to get down to South Yorkshire and help out with Lucy and Robert’s wedding.

Lucy and Robert were married at St Peter & Paul’s church at Eckington, South Yorkshire followed by a reception at the nearby Mosborough Hall. Both the church and Mosborough Hall provided some super backdrops to the wedding photos, particularly the shots with the Ferrari and Rolls Royce. Here are a few for the bride and groom before they jet off to California for some sun and adventure.

by John

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Celebrate the dress (or trash it if you dare)!!

July 7, 2009

One of the recent additions to the wedding services on offer here at John Gardner Photography is a pre/post wedding shoot where we can celebrate the dress in style. The CTD can be shot in the studio pre wedding, so no fear of getting any dirt or smudges on the beloved item before the big day, but for the really adventurous, why not celebrate the dress in style in a more extreme location? I have loads of ideas and locations in mind for this kind of shoot and can guarantee some really great and unique images to add in to the album or even present as a small additional album. Why celebrate the dress at all? Well, on the wedding day, while we will always get some stunning images for your album, time is often short and of the essence, so shooting after the event gives us time to really get some great images. Often this is called a trash the dress shoot, but so far, the words trash the dress always instill a look of fear in the bride’s eyes when I mention it. So, what I want to say is ‘celebrate the dress’ in style at an outstanding location but if you do want to trash it, I’ll be on hand to record the event :¬)

For more information on the e-sessions and Celebrate the Dress shoots, take a look at the wedding pages and, if you had another photographer shoot your wedding, don’t worry, you can still come to me for a Celebrate the Dress shoot but without the discounts offered to my wedding couples.

by John

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Caroline’s boudoir shoot

July 6, 2009

Caroline came to the studio today for a boudoir shoot to create an album to give to hubby as a special gift on his upcoming birthday. Although Caroline confessed to some pre-shoot nerves, she soon got into the swing of it and we ended up with some sultry images for the album. Caroline kindly allowed me to post a some images here to give a few ideas to those ladies who are perhaps contemplating a boudoir shoot but haven’t yet plucked up the courage.

For more details of boudoir and glamour makeover shoots, check out the main website.

by John

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Gold Award achieved in the SWPP international wedding competition

July 5, 2009

Just been looking at the June competition results of the Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographer’s monthly international competition and discovered I got the gold award for this picture of Donna taken at Bagden Hall, Huddersfield last year. It was one of my favourites on the day from a series I set up in the hotel entrance hall as dusk fell. I wanted to capture the elegance of the surrounds and the warmth of the tungsten lights while putting the emphasis on the bride. It’s all done with a couple of speedlights, one through a shoot through brolly and the other a bare flash to skim the face giving the impression of light coming from the table lamp.

Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but this image taken at Scott & Fiona’s recent wedding took a silver medal in the same competition but different category! I really enjoyed shooting in this location, the warm sandstone and the huge pillars make a great setting for the gothic wedding dress. I added the cracks to the stone pillers in post but they may be hard to make out at this size. Just thought it added a bit of character :¬)

by John

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