Firelights travel from Liverpool for a Band Shoot

February 6th, 2010

firelightsfeb10-19I had a great new band in the studio for a portfolio shoot today called Firelights. They’re based in Liverpool and are a genuinely great bunch of guys who produce some brilliant music. Check out the details for the band and listen to some of their music on the bands MySpace page www.myspace.com/firelightsmusic.

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As they are a new band they were looking for some basic promotional photos for advertising and web sites and so we spent about 3 hours in the studio getting a few different setups and a good mix of group and individual shots. firelightsfeb10-72

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Trip to Bentwaters Rally Event in Suffolk

January 24th, 2010

_mg_0302Today I was able to get backstage at the Brentwaters Rally Stages event in Bentwaters Airfield Suffolk. My wife knows one of the CoDrivers Lindsey Watson who very kindly invited me along and gave me a service car pass to get into the events main preparation area.  I’m a massive car fanatic and so any forms of motorsport really interest me but I’d never been to a real life rally before and so I took Lindsey’s arm off for the invite! Her Driver was John Talyor and they were driving a Ford Escort MkI which for me is a fantastic car and one I’ve always loved. _mg_0257_mg_0267_mg_0258

I’ve posted a couple of pictures from the event but security was very tight on safety and so I couldn’t get very close to the track at all and so a long lens and an amount of cropping was needed! next event I may speak with the organisers about getting a spot on track to find a better viewpoint.

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Back to Crondon Park a Winter Wedding Workshop

November 24th, 2009

crondonpark-3Back to Crondon Park Golf and Country Club for another of our wedding workshops run by myself and Mark.  We were battling with the weather once again but this time it was a November day and so the weather was pretty typical of the time of year and needs to be factored into a wedding photographers plan. That said we were able to get a good hour outside with our brave models Gareth and Rio enduring the high winds and low temperatures before the rain came and forced us indoors for the later part of the training.

crondonpark-4The setup was the same as always with the morning spent running through the events of a wedding day and how to plan it out as well as things to watch out for. Then the models arrive during a nice hot and cold buffet lunch and once everyone is fed we head out to take some pictures. This part of the day is fully hands on and we run through how to use the natural light for individual portraits up to full wedding guests group shots.

crondonpark-8We then move on to the bride and groom portraits and show the delegates how to find great shots from almost any area of the venue. We then talk a lot more about posing and using the surrounding for the shots to give the delegates much more confidence to position people and see the shots before even setting them up.

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All in all everyone on the course had a great time and went away with a head full of information and a camera full of great shots!

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Tony and Coni enjoy a sunny afternoon in Mountnessing

November 15th, 2009

_mg_6407On to Week 3 of the Love In Essex project and we have Tony and Coni from Pilgrims Hatch. Tony and Coni have been together for 22 years and been married for 19 of those. They’re also the Mum and Dad of Josh from last weeks Love In Essex shoot and have another teenage son.

They originally met through the police force where they worked in the Plaistow area in different departments, but have since both left the force and work as teachers in a local school.

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_mg_6433This weeks shoot started in the beautiful grounds of Ingatestone Hall but this was closed for the winter and so we moved onto Mountnessing Windmill for the remainder of the shoot.  The weather was on our side with a glorious sunny afternoon dispite some heavy rain showers in the morning.

Tony and Coni were really fun to work with and even though Tony confessed to hating his picture being taken they both really enjoyed the shoot and said they loved the concept of the project.

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Josh and Justine - Young Lovers at Hylands House

November 8th, 2009

joshjustine-12Week 2 of my Love In Essex project introduced me to my youngest couple currently booked onto the project, Josh and Justine of Brentwood. Josh at 17 and Justine at 16 signed up to the project right at the beginning and helped to spread my age range from 16-90!

They met through school sharing a Geography class for a few months in their last year of GCSE’s at Shenfield High School. After getting t0 know each other Josh built up the courage to ask Justine to the School Prom, held at Stock Brook Manor. She said yes and this was their first date! Now into the sixth form at Shenfield School, with Josh doing a  BTEC and Justine taking A-Levels, they’ve been together for just over 6 months.

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I decided to take them for a shoot at Hylands House in Chelmsford as I’ve shot weddings there and there are loads of little places t0 shoot hidden away from the other park dwellers. I thought this would be an advantage as a younger couple can be a little self concious having portraits taken in a public park and I could ease them into it away from the masses!  This worked well and as we worked our way through Hylands House’s beautiful gardens I could sense (and see) them relaxing into the shoot and becoming more comfortable having their pictures taken

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Love In Essex Kicked off with the lovely Dawn and Sean in South Weald Park

October 21st, 2009

_mg_3538I had the very first couples location portrait shoot for my Love In Essex project today. My first couple was Dawn and Sean who came in the studio for a portrait photography shoot a few months ago and I think it was working with them that gave me the insiration for the project. Dawn and Sean actually live in South Weald Country Park in Brentwood as Sean manages the maintanance of the park as well as other country parks across Essex. Dawn also works for the council  managing country parks and so they seemed a perfect start for a project showing the beauty of Essex!

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Not only this but it’s very obvious in Dawn and Sean’s company how very much in love they are and they’re a pleasure to photograph and we had a good laugh during the shoot.

Here are a few of the shots from the session and as you can see we started at around 5pm which might have been a touch late as by the end we were shooting in pitch black! Lesson learned there and I’ll get the future shoots underway a bit earlier I think!

So week one is done and I look forward to the following 51 weeks…

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Charity Event at The Burstead

October 10th, 2009

leestaffordThis evening I shot portraits at a charity event at The Burstead Golf Club. The Burstead is a wedding venue that I have photographed at before and that’s how I got in contact with Teresa at the club. It’s a family run club and has a great community spirit amongst the members which meant the evening was a huge success in raising money for the Essex Air Ambulance charity. I setup a white background for the shots and had a good turnout in the makeshift studio area that is usually the reception areas conservatory. Amongst the families and friend that were there was the celebrity hairdresser Lee Stafford who has appeared on the likes of Comic Relief and has a salon in Leigh. The picture attached of Lee was taken on the night

Love In Essex is launched with Front Page coverage!

September 7th, 2009

weeklynewsMy personal project “Love In Essex” launched this week with an article in the Brentwood Weekly News newspaper covering my plans. Little did I know that it was actually featured in the front page! As a result of this the uptake has been fantastic and I’m getting a great list of couples e-mailing me requesting to join the project.

Love In Essex- The Idea:

I’m looking for a completely diverse range of people from the young lovers still at school to the elderly pensioners celebrating 60 years of marriage! I want the locations to be equally diverse ranging from beautiful country parks and castles to busy town centers to dark and dirty graffiti covered urban settings. I’m looking for a complete range of cultures and ethnic origins and well to mix with all the seasons to create a really mixed collection of work.

You can find more information and sign up at http://www.reelexposures.com/LoveInEssex/

My Son Nathaniel’s 1st Birthday!

September 5th, 2009

_mg_1449So today was a big day for me, I had a wedding to shoot locally in Brentwood registry office for Joanne and Dan Green but I wasn’t needed for the afternoon and so we had a party of our own to celebrate my son Nathaniel turning One! The party was held in a church hall in Doddinghurst and lots of Family came along as well as lots of his little friends that we met through the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) AntiNatal classes. I tried to leave the camera alone and enjoy the party but with my portrait photography insticts and loads of available candid photgraphy to shoot, I took a few shots of the day and I’ve posted a couple on here for all to enjoy :O)

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First Wedding Workshop goes down a storm!

September 2nd, 2009

_mg_0668We had our first wedding workshop today in the beautiful setting of Crondon Park Golf Club and Wedding Venue (Crondon). We spent the morning talking through the details of a wedding day right from the point at which the booking is taken through to delivering the album. The emphasis of the workshop is to give photographers with a good understanding of their cameras all the information they would need to shoot a wedding as well as the confidence to do the job well. We didn’t sugar coat it at all and I think everyone had a good reality check as to how much work is involved in shooting a wedding let alone 50 of them a year! After the feast Crondon put on for us for lunch our models had arrived and we then had our Bride and Groom for the afternoon stint which is all about putting the mornings theory into practice and to spend the whole afternoon with the cameras out working hard!  Working right through from the ceremony, details, and formal group shots we then took the group around the venue looking for the interesting places to get some nice shots of the bride and groom. We talked through posing as well as using the natural light and features of the venue to get some stunning shots.

_mg_0689We had to battle with light showers and strong winds but this just added to the realism of a wedding photographers job and we used it to our advantage with flowing veils and windswept fields. We finished the shooting indoors with some advice on creative flash techniques both on and off camera.

Once the cameras were back in the bags we did some portfolio critiques over a fresh jug of coffee and all of the participants went away with a head full of new possibilities and a notepad full of useful information.

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All the pictures here were taken on the day and a big thank you to Emily and Leigh, our models for the day

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