It was a straight forward brief by the lovely people over at Approach PR, go out and photograph a lady who was doing a testimonial for one of their clients.

Normally these types of jobs throw up all sorts of problems, bad weather, hard to find places, people not expecting you or even not wanting to do what you have turn up for.

So this one was winning hands down, found the house, the weather was great, the lady was lovely and happy to do what was needed. A quick sit down and a chat, get introduced to the 5 dogs and the parrot, and then outside to do the shoot. read more

The small market town of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands seems an unlikely place to be a hot bed of Blues music, but for the last 4 years during the first weekend in October, the town has become exactly that.

I have had the great honour to be the festival’s photographer right from the start and to celebrate the festivals 5th year we are planning an exhibition of the best of the pictures taken over those 4 years to be shown in some of the venues during this year’s festival.

To do this we have set up an Indiegogo page to fund the exhibition. read more

As a commercial photographer I can be asked to photograph anything, from a simple profile picture to a complex multi place multi day shoot. Each shoot has it’s own challenges and a large part of my job is working around these challenges and producing the pictures my clients wants.

While the work is very satisfying most of it is not very artistic and one of the reasons I became a photographer was to get an out let for my creative side.  So trying to balance an image that fits a customers brief while also trying to be creative is a constant struggle, but when the two come together the result can be fantastic. read more

Just finished work on a great shoot at Seasoned Cookery School. Seasoned is one of the UK’s leading cookery schools, specialising in inspirational courses taught by friendly, passionate chefs.

My brief for the day was just to hang out and capture the feel of one of their excellent cookery courses.

This might sound simple, but trying to photograph in a room containing 14 chefs, 3 kitchen assistants, lots of hot pans and sharp knifes, while trying not to get in the way, or be stabbed, burned or scalded, meant a lot of quick foot work and always checking what was going on around me. read more

Most people have a competitive streak and we all like praise and adoration, and who doesn’t love a bargain, so when we see “Free photo competition” splashed across a web site how can we resist.
But we all known nothing comes for free, so where is the catch in these seemingly harmless competitions. Well it will come as no surprise that it is normally buried in the small print, and by buried I do mean buried, this example was right at the bottom of 4 pages of terms and conditions.
So what is the catch, in most of these competitions the catch is you lose all the rights to your photo, just check out these T’s and C’s from one I’ve just found. read more

Leek is full of great buildings, it’s also full of cars, so when I saw The Roebuck without anything blocking the view I just had to grab a picture. When it came to working on the picture I was struck by the fact that this great building was still a bit cluttered up with a lamp post and street sign.

With the wonder of photoshop and years of experiance, I set about cleaning up the view, first to go was the lamp post and street sign. Then I saw the TV aerial which then just had to go. The little square vent on the right was easily dealt with leaving the building looking much better, job done.  But it still looked a bit dull, so a quick touch up on the paint work, brightening the white bits, removing some of the marks and darkening the black wood work. There was a temptation to remove more, like the A boards and signs, but they are part of the pub and add to the picture. read more

At this time of year that is a question that runs through my mind a lot, why go professional.

January is a strange month for me, it follows the busiest period for my business, 4 months work in 6 weeks, it’s the anniversary of me going pro, it’s the time of the year you plan forward and review what has been, it’s tax return time and it is normally the quietest month work wise. All in all a time to reflect on life and the choices you have made.

This January finds me tired, stressed, thinking too much and with time on my hands, not the best combination. So back to the big question, why go pro. The case for not going pro is stronger so lets start with that. read more