I am not blogging about anything this week just pointing you in the direction of a three year old video on youtube. It is of photographer Albert Watson giving advice about photography. Sound advice indeed.

It may not sound the most exotic place in the world but Preston Bus Station is a classic and good example of brutalist architecture. Conceived in the 1960’s Preston Bus Station was finally completed in 1969. Love it or hate it most people who use it agree that it works, the problem is it is in the wrong part of town, about a mile from the railway staion, not exactly integrated public transport. Anyway, they (The City Council), want to demolish it and make way for the Tithebarn redevelopment project. It is loved and hated in equal numbers but in my opinion it needs to be kept. I love it, I think it is of a time and that is the reason it needs to stay. I predict that in 20-30 years time people will look back and say “why did we not keep the buildings of the 1960’s they where optimistic and futuristic?”

Right lets get to the point. I have taken a few photographs of the Bus Station because as you probably already know I am one of the few people who actually like 1960’s architecture and I intend to revisit it again and again and get some more.

Here is what I have done, I would love some comments etc. (good or bad!)

The next image in my series of 10PEOPLE is of Debra Brown from Global Hugs. I have know Debra for a number of years after meeting her at a Chamber of Commerce event.

Debra is a kind and fun person so after much I thought I decided it would be interesting to photograph her on a swing. I suggested the idea to her and she was up for it. During the planning of the shoot Debra suggested getting Andrew Greenwood from The Dove Company involved who has a business letting of doves at weddings etc. I thought why not give it a go, it wasn’t in my plan but it would be a fun thing to do even if I did not use the picture.

We set a date for the shoot and met at Debra’s house. The shoot was to take place in the park across the road from Debra’s house.

It was a beautiful warm summers day. I had a clear idea on how I wanted the image to look and needed to overcome the bright sunlight, so I set up my lighting gear at set to work.

We decided the first shoot should be without the doves.We had to do many test shots just to get Debra at the correct angle for the shot I wanted. It was one shot at a time as the lighting kit was on full power to overcome the sunlight, so no chance of using a high frames per second.

It took some time just to get it right. I did a little post production just to darken the edges and get the shot I wanted.

The dove shot was a different matter all together, we only had 9 doves, we used one at a time for the first 5 test shots. We had to time it so the doves flew past Debra at the correct point in the swing, we then had four takes with the next four doves to get it right. I think we got there in the end but it not what I had originally had in mind but is was fun anyway.

Here is the chosen shot and one of the dove shots.

Well what a six weeks it has been. Very very busy, in fact my busiest period since I started my photography business.

The bulk of the work has been corporate portraiture for Weightmans the solicitors who’s head office is in Liverpool. You may have heard they have recently merged with Mace & Jones and Vizards Wyeth. This facilited the photographing of all the new partners joining Weightmans in the Weightmans style (I was originally commissioned by Weightmans in 2007 to photograph all the partners in the business).

This was a huge undertaking and everything had to be completed and on their website within a month. Trips to London and Dartford and days and days in the North west offices in Liverpool and Manchester. Then a significant amount of time in post production. Around 110 people all in the Weightmans style.

It is all complete now and the website is now live, why not take a look www.weightmans.com

I will blog about the trips and shoots on my sister site (www.ukbusinessphotographer.co.uk) over the coming months

Now to do some personal work as I have a few days free.

So sorry I have neglected you all but work always has to come first.

Sorry I haven’t blogged for two weeks, I have been so busy (which is great) so neglected my social media and blog etc.

Anyway here I am now.

My next image in the 10People series is of Derek Knowles of Altium, a corporate client of mine based in Manchester. I asked Derek at the last minute to be one of my subjects as my original person had to drop out due to time constraints.

I have worked with Derek for many years on corporate assignments, so I called him to explain my idea. He was interested and agreed to model for me.

I set this one up and started shooting pretty quickly because Derek was a little pressed for time. I had a few ideas which we tried out, eventually I settled with the drinking the cup of tea idea. It just seemed to work, the location really made the shoot.

Here are some of the out takes, not sure about them, what do you think?