A few days late I know but I had a day of catching up on emails etc yesterday,so had no chance to blog. Anyway looking back on 2011 it was a good year, better than 2010 and 2010 was better than 2009 so things are looking up. Lets hope that 2012 brings the same level of increase. Plenty of naysayers around but I do find if you remain positive good things happen.

So heres to 2012!!

He was an odd character, confident and nervous(??), almost like a little boy, very weird. So here are a few of the out takes of him pulling faces. Childish, I know, but fun.

He is as you probably already know from one of my previous posts the same age as me,I thought he was in his late forties. I think I have aged better.

Anyway here are the pictures

The brief was to get environmental portraits of the management team at the Curve Theatre. Two and half days where spent in Leicester, sussing out locations and getting people organised. The whole gig went very well indeed, very much thanks to Claire Webb the Senior Media Officer at The Curve – she was an absolute star and really great to work with. I have to say the subjects where very patient and willing which helps enormously when trying to get the best shots.

Here are the photographic portraits, if you click on each image it will take you to The Curve Theatre website and give you a bit more info on each person. I would love to hear your thoughts on the photography.

I have know Carlton for around 15years and we have worked on projects together many times. Carlton is a photographer in his own right and runs the his succesful wedding photography business and produces personal work for his website Skin Storm.

The idea behind this shoot was to ‘balance’ his head in the bottom right hand corner of the frame. As you can see the only light source is window light from the right hand side. I already had planned that it was going to be in black and white.

When I first shot this I was not entirely happy with the result and set up another set of images which I was very pleased with, however I revisted this image and started to prefer it.

Often is the case that images can look better weeks after the shoot, at the time you can be too close to the image and not see it for what it is.

Here are the alternative rejected images

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.

I have know Darren for a few years having worked on various projects, he also designed this website you are looking at.We  catch up with our geek talk about photographic kit on a regular basis. As well as being an equipment geek he is mad into snowboarding. So the idea behind this shoot was to get him with his snowboard, budget restrictions limited us to the UK and as at the time of the shoot there was no snow in the UK. I thought lets go to the beach, there is a link with snow boarding and surfing so we set off to the Lancashire coast one cold Febuary afternoon. Late afternoon sun in winter at the coast is superb, so Cleveleys (how exotic) it was.

We tried a few different shots as you can see below and I must admit I was torn between a few of them. Out of the series of 10PEOPLE the shot of Darren is a favourite with many people.

Any comments as usual are more than welcome. Here are the alternative shots.

I have know Karl for a few years now, I was introduced to him by Graphic Designer Steven Carlin back in 2009

We first met to discuss photography for MRA architects new website which Steven was designing. It was a refreshing an inspirational meeting. We discussed at length my architectural photography together with how it would fit in to the construct of their website. We also discussed in depth, architecture in general and how it relates to photography and design. My portfolio of photography was admired by Karl who could see what I was getting at.

For this photography session I met with Karl at his house in Lancashire. All very nice and relaxed, we tried different lighting and setups. I had a clear idea that I wanted to use one of his chairs, as it had an architectural feel. My idea was to have Karl sat on the floor with the chair to one side almost looking like a tower block. We tried many different shots some of Karl looking happy, looking at the camera, but eventually went with the one where he looks thoughtful.  It has to be said that Karl was a superb subject, did exactly what I asked and trusted me. I do hope he likes the shot.

Here are a few of the outtakes

The shot of Caroline was all about location. As Caroline lived and worked in Burnley, Lancashire I decided to use the ‘Singing Ringing Tree’, which if you have read any of my previous posts is a Panopticon sculpture at Crown Point, Burnley Lancashire.

The ‘Singing Ringing Tree’ designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Li and it won the National Award for architectural excellence by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2007.

The sculpture harnesses the energy of the wind to produce a low, tuneful sound.

I arrived at the location about an hour or so before he shoot as I have already scouted for potential scenes. It was a freezing cold sunny day with intense blue skies. I decided on a number of shots using the low winter sun as my main light source.

The whole shoot took around two hours and  I must thank Caroline for her patience as she was clearly very very cold.

Here are some of the out takes

I have known Richard for well over 15 years having worked with him at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (Now the Lancashire Telegraph), and with various local PR companies eventually meeting up with him again about 10 years ago. Richard set up his own PR company SlaterPR (now weareslater) shortly after I set up my photography business. We worked together on numerous projects including  the now very successful Lancashire Business View magazine which he launched around 6 years ago.

The idea for the shoot was to get photographs of Richard in Corporation Park in Blackburn, Lancashire. Richards offices are situated at the entrance to the park on East Park Road, so I thought it quite appropriate to use this superb location. I asked him to bring along items associated with swimming as he is a keen swimmer. I had a few ideas and we spent around two and half hours trying all sorts of different shots, I abandoned the swimming shots as it just was not working. So we tried shots of him on his phone, shots of him lying down on the muddy paths (in his new suit!!). Eventually I settled on the final image of Richard walking down the Broadwalk area of the park,  an area that the Victorian people of Blackburn would use to promenade on a Sunday.

Richard was great throughout. He was relaxed and calm (even though admitting he hates having his photograph taken), it made for a fun, relaxed photographic session

Richard really liked the shot of himself on the phone, he asked if he could use it on his twitter profile – @richardslaterpr, I agreed, as it was not going to be the photograph used in the final project.

Enough of my ramblings here are the out takes.

I will start off with the first person in the series, Charles Tattersall of City Press in Manchester.

I asked Charles Tattersall from  the Manchester based PR company if he would like to be involved in a photographic project. I was to looking at celebrating 10 years in business by photographing 10  people  I had worked with over those years

He agreed so we set a date at his offices in Manchester city centre.

I mulled over a few ideas one of which was using a gyroscope as a prop, why a gyroscope? well PR if you don’t already know is about balance and spin. I explained to Charles what I wanted him to do and he was more than happy.

I spent an hour setting up and deciding on locations and lighting etc. I only needed 20 minutes or so to capture what I needed. The session went so well that we spent over an hour trying out different ideas etc.  Charles was superb throughout, he agreed to my ideas and I reckon we could have carried on for another hour. Just goes to show if you have more time then your get the best ideas and ultimately the best photographs.

Here are a few of the photographs, a couple of these are more suited to a more corporate style of photography. I would be happy using any of the photographs for my project but ultimately I had to go with my first idea.