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

location portrait photography: Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew

December 14, 2016

Wakefield commercial photographer: location portrait photography

Environmental portraiture or shooting on location portrait photography is one of my favourite things to do. I love to capture the subject in their own environment away from the studio. Don’t get me wrong, I love studio shooting, but there’s always a challenge when working on location. Determining where to place the subject for impact and drama is my first step in creating an image, followed by lighting and choice of lens. While I usually go for a mid range telephoto, such as the 70-200mm, I sometimes may go ultra wide for impact. I do like the telephoto lens though, for its ability to isolate the subject from the background while still giving a sense of place. Here are a few images from a recent shoot with the crew of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance

location portrait photographer Wakefield

by John

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Wakefield commercial Photographer: Leeds Corn Exchange

December 12, 2016

Wakefield commercial photographer: Corn Exchange Christmas lights

I was at the Corn Exhnage a couple of weeks ago to capture the Christmas lights installation and today I was back there to photograph them post the switch on and in all their glory. The illuminations were pretty spectacularrn ex, especially the dressed tree which I saw Fizzco lovingly installing, but there was also the addition of the northen lights installation which was a clever projection of different colours and ever changing patterns of light being cast on the magnificent ceiling and very much resembling the Aurora borealis or northern lights. The combination of bothe installations was very impressive

by John

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Wakefield commercial photographer: New YAA helicopter

December 9, 2016

Wakefield Commercial Photographer: Yorkshire Air Ambulance new helicopter

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service were due to take delivery of a new hellicopter acouple of days ago and I had been commissioned to take some press pictures but, due to thick fog, the helicopter had been delayed. So today, I was back on site at the YAA base at Nostell to try and get some shots. No fog today, but the usual torrential rain that seems to dog every shoot I’ve ever done at Nstell! However, armed with the Pentax 645Z which is, I’m assured, weatherproof, I headed out onto the helipad. I think the leaden skies helped a bit with the images because by under exposing them slightly and using a bit of flash from a Profoto B1, I managed to make the sky look dramatic. The low light meant the lights on the helicopter stood out nicely and by using a very small aperture, I managed a few starbursts. The old helicopter is for sale if anyone is interested and i understand it’s a bargain at just over £1 million ;¬)

Yorkshire Air Ambulance by Wakefield commercial photographer

by John

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Wakefield commercial photographer: Fox Valley lights

December 8, 2016

Wakefield commercial photographer: Fox Valley Christmas Lights

Earlier today, I splashed out on a Pentax 645Z medium format digital camera so it seemed only right to test it on a commercial photography shoot at Fox Valley shopping outlet on behalf of Fizzco. It would be interesting to see how the 50mp Pentax files would stack up against my tried and trusted (and much loved) Nikon D810 with its 36mp sensor. I took all the Nikon gear with me just in case as it would have been foolish to go shoot for a client with a camera and owned for only a few hours without backup,. However, the Pentax was very intuitive and I felt at home with it straight away. The lenses seemed very sharp and the images on the back of the camera looked amazing! I did the entire shoot with the camera and couldn’t wait to get them onto the computer to have a look at them on a 24inch monitor. Lightroom’s handling of the files was a little disappointing and I needed to really work the RAW files to get them to be anything close to the back of the camera JPEGs but, once I’d done this, I was blown away by the detail! The last image below was taken well after dark under streetlighting, but there is just so much detail in the shadows and the brickwork that it seems unbelievable! I think I am going to like my new toy!

by John

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Pentax 645z Medium format digital camera

December 8, 2016

Pentax 645Z Medium Format Digital Camera

Today was a milestone day for me: I just moved up a gear in terms of photography with the purchase of a Pentax 645z medium format digital camera! Two things that strike me straight off is that 1) I thought I already had plenty of pixel power with the Nikon D810 and 2) I never expected to be a Pentax user let alone a MF shooter! I’ve been looking at medioum format for a while now, mostly for my studio work – portraits, fashion and boudoir – but I wasn’t seriously in the market for buying. It was the announcement of the forthcoming Fuji GFX medium format that got me interested; the word on the street was that it would retail at roughly the same price as one of my top end DSLR cameras so it got me thinking. However, after making a chance remark in The Flash Centre in Leeds, I ended up looking at the Pentax 645Z. Now, less than a week later, I’ve committed and bought the Pentax along with a set of three lenses including 35mm wide angle, 75mm standard and 150mm portrait lens. Did I do the right thing? only time will tell. As I’ve done nothing more than unbox it and sit in a trance looking at it and contemplating the expense, it will be a short while before posting more about it and probably also a full review once I’ve had a play with it.

by John

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Commercial photography in Barnsley: Alhambra Shopping Centre

December 5, 2016

Commercial photographer in Barnsley: Alhambra shopping centre Christmas Lights

After Crigglestone MOT Centre this morning, I was undertaing a bit of commercial photography in Barnsley this evening. This time I was at the Alhambra shopping centre to photograph the Christmas lights installation for my client Fizzco. This is another new site for them and so I was commissioned to capture the festive feel of the place. It’s always hard inside due to the bright, artificial lights – I’ve said that before, I know – but it is true. Anyway, the shoot went well and we got enough images for the print and web that Fizzco require.

Akhmabra Barnsley commercial photography

by John

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