After finishing a few prints for various clients, I nipped over to the Lowry Centre at Salford to photograph the Christmas lights inside the shopping mall. The Lowry Outlet is just a stones throw from the new Media Centre where many of the BBC programmes come from these days so if you are fancying a go at some architecture shots, this would be a great place to visit as there are some amazing buildings to shoot, especially at dusk. However, I didn’t have time for that and concentrated on the task in hand which was to capture some of the Christmas lights installed by MK Illuminations.

Another Christmas lights shoot, this time at two small but very busy shopping centres in the centre of Shrewsbury – Pride Hill and Darwin Centre. Wakefield readers will be familiar with the large deer outside the Darwin Centre as there are two identical ones at Trinity walk in Wakefield which I photographed a few years ago when Trinity Walk first opened. In fact, it was that shoot that brought my work to the attention of MK Illuminations and the rest, as they say, is history.

On the road again to shoot Christmas lights for MK Illuminations and this time a long haul down to Gloucester to visit Gloucester Quays shopping centre. I have photographed this mall before but there has been an expansion of the scheme so an update of the photos was needed. There are a good number of lights on the outside of this shopping outlet so it is imperative to work hard and fast to get the outside lights done just as the light drops from the sky. There really is only around a 20 minute window to get it just right – once the sky goes dark, it becomes very hard to capture both lights and the buildings.

Wakefield commercial photographer: For the last few years at Christmas time I have been commissioned to shoot MK Illuminations’ lighting installations up and down the country at various malls and theme parks and this year is no exception. I kicked off the project with a visit to The Clevland Centre in Middlesborough, a small but bustling centre and a new venue for MK. All the illuminations at this venue are inside and there is no natural light which is a real challenge as the Christmas lights are tungsten or LED and have a different colour temperature to the fluorescent  lighting in the mall and this plays havoc with the white balance. Additionally, the brightly lit walkways in the mall overpower the Christmas lights to a greater extent but in the end, I think the photos captured the spectacular lighting. Here is a small montage.

Wakefield commercial photographer: I was back on site at Beaumont Legal today to shoot around 60 corporate headshots for the new website which they are currently building. The brief was to get some three quarter portraits and headshots against a plain background and to try and get people looking relaxed yet professional. So, after scouting their offices on the Paragon Business Park, I decided to use a white wall at one end of a downstairs conference room. This  gave me plenty of space for a three light set-up and enough working distance to shoot with a 70-200mm, a favourite lens for many of my portraits under studio conditions. Using the 70-200mm means I get great perspective and also I have a good working distance which immediately helps put the subject at ease rather than being in their face with a shorter focal length. I’ve knocked up this montage to give an idea of what we shot and how I guided the staff through the poses to come up with a great set of images for the website.

If you’re a local business looking for some great commercial photography for web or print, just give me a call to discuss your requirements on 01924 229800