Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

A Little Boy and his Grandad


During the course of a family lifestyle portrait shoot in Lancashire last week it became apparent that the little boy, Charles, has a very special relationship with his grandad. Charles lives in Canada with his mum and dad and baby brother Jack, so he doesn't get to see his grandad too often. So, when Charles comes over to visit, he just loves to copy everything that his grandad does...tidying the garden, setting up the barbecue....and, especially, fixing things in grandad's shed. Lump hammers and spanners are not the first props that may spring to mind for a portrait, but lifestyle photography is all about capturing relationships by telling a story. These photographs will mean the world to Charles when he's grown up and has a shed (and maybe even grandchildren) of his own.


Always looking up to his Grandad...




Thursday, 28 January 2010

SWPP Convention Report

January has been an eventful month. The first challenge was one we all faced - coping with heavy snow that we're definitely not used to. Then it was one week spent preparing my lectures for the SWPP Convention in London, a fantastic week at the Convention itself followed by eight days (and counting) completely grounded by a flu virus, probably picked up on the way home. Hopefully things should get back to normal by February!

In the meantime here are a few shots from the Convention, starting with the the opening event, the Business School (overseen by Catherine Connor from Annabel Williams CPT). Two days of solid business advice from a variety of successful photographers and professional marketers, the Business School was a sell-out and rightly so. This is me in action on the first morning, talking about the benefits of Networking.....
Later in the week, after being part of the mid-week judging panel for awards and qualifications, it was on to portrait photography. Now what was that about never working with children and animals...?
After the Saturday Masterclass theory came the Sunday practical, with our young models ready and eager for the small-group 'Superclass'. The concrete and glass landscape of an urban hotel in mid January isn't the most sympathetic environment for capturing natural images of under 5s, but the delegates and I rose to the challenge. Capturing a winning shot of the two children together escaped me on this short photoshoot demonstration - the distraction of a nearby set of revolving doors proved too much to keep them both in the same place at the same time! There was plenty of scope for individual shots though, all taken in natural light. Everyone had fun in spite of the cold - in fact we were blessed with sunshine, the first of the whole week.




Having fun with shadows....



Here's to the SWPP Convention 2011. Hope to see you there.

Thursday, 24 December 2009

Happy Holiday

After a few minor delays due to snow and ice I'm pleased to say that all of the framed portraits, canvases and multi-frames that were ordered by our clients for Christmas have now been collected and it's time to go home. These are just a small selection chosen from my favourites........





That just leaves me and Janet to say 'Thank You' to all of the clients, contacts, friends and family who have supported us over the year. We hope you have a peaceful Christmas and a fun-packed, healthy and propserous New Year.

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

A first birthday photoshoot in Cheadle


My last posting was little bit wordy, so here are some recent images from a photoshoot commission to capture Rory at age one, shortly after his first birthday. As you can see, this was just before the autumn leaves disappeared for another year. Rory had great fun playing in the leaves while I used a long lense at a wide aperture to capture him in action. Even though I normally shoot mostly black and white, the colours of these Maple leaves are so fantastic every year that I always like to head to this spot for some autumnal colour shots.




Tuesday, 3 November 2009

As featured on Maltese TV....

Janet and I have today returned from Malta where we've been working over the weekend as speakers for the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers and the Malta Institute of Professional Photographers http://www.mipp-malta.com/ at their combined International Convention. The Maltese photographers have been some of the friendliest photographers I've ever had the pleasure to meet (maybe it's something to do with the sunny Mediterranean weather) and their enthusiasm has been an inspiration. The speaker line up included myself and Damian McGillicuddy from the UK, fine art photographer Ayman Lotfy from Egypt and a selection of home grown Maltese photographers. I've been teaching children's portrait and lifestyle photography over three separate seminars, as well as judging qualifications and the MIPP photographic awards. A hectic but very enjoyable few days.

To our surprise the event made the National News (the MIPP's Kevin Casha has friends in high places it would appear). You can view the clip on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqE9u6E61vE


Here are a few of the portraits taken during the demonstration, all captured with natural light.

And finally.....

Friday, 24 July 2009

An Outdoor Photoshoot

Last weekend I had a commission to capture some natural portraits of a delightful little girl for her fourth birthday. With heavy showers a possibility we started off in the studio for a few minutes, which gave the opportunity for some beautiful close-up portraits before she started to get too restless and fidgety!


Then it was everyone outside for a walk to the park......fortunately by now the clouds were clearing and it stayed fine for the rest of the shoot.

Outdoor photoshoots are unpredictable, which is all part of the fun. Today we found some ladybirds - catching them and counting the spots is good fun for children and a great opportunity for some close up portraits. 'No ladybirds were harmed in the making of these photographs...'




Still raring to go and having fun at the end of the photoshoot. Studio portraits have their place but you can't beat the great outdoors for a fantastic photoshoot experience.



Tuesday, 17 February 2009

More images from PTO

We had some great fun during the my workshops on photographing children at Photo Training Overseas, but these are some of the quieter moments :