How are you feeling?” The groom asked me, as he showed me around the wedding venue on the morning of the big day. “I’m so excited about today,” I started to respond. I should’ve stopped there. Instead, as a perpetual oversharer, I continued. “But I also know I’m going to be so disappointed tomorrow when I think about all the photographs I didn’t capture.” We were at Wells Cathedral, arguably the most beautiful of all the UK’s cathedrals, and a …
Hey honey,’ I typed, ‘I thought I’d dump some thoughts on the photo business… I really want to get this thing rolling.’ I was on the 8:49pm train back from London. All the regular commuters had returned home hours ago. The ones still out in town for drinks and dinner would be staggering into seats on later trains. This carriage was full of IT consultants like me, the ones working crazy hours for demanding clients in return for six-figure salaries. …
We were in the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas as part of a weeklong trip to celebrate my 50th birthday. My wife Sarah and I had been here before for our honeymoon, and I’d always wanted to return with the kids. On this evening we were looking forward to Love, the Cirque du Soleil show based on the Beatles’ music. First though, we were fuelling up with a hot meal, and were midway through the main course when the hotel …
A photography competition judge’s job is to whittle down huge numbers of entries into a shortlist of possible winners. To do this effectively, they look for common mistakes they can deduct points for. I’ve been on the judging panel for local camera club competitions as well as national and international competitions. Every time, there are recurring themes that cause otherwise great images to lose marks and miss out. Even if you don’t plan to enter competitions, knowing the common mistakes …
“I don’t see the point of pro photography qualifications. I don’t need them and clients don’t expect them, so why should I?” This is a common sentiment I encounter when I chat with other photographers. I believe they are only partly right. Do most of my clients scan through my website to find my qualifications before getting in contact? I doubt it. Still, the qualifications I’ve achieved have been instrumental in shaping the photographer I am that I cannot conceive …
At the end of every Mastering Portrait Photography podcast, I remind listeners “to be kind to yourself”. If I’m honest, the reminder is aimed at myself as much as anybody else. I constantly analyse the things I’ve said, the things I do and my photography. When you create photos as a hobby there’s no pressure at all. If you think the pictures you take are great, you’re right. After all, you’re taking them for your own pleasure. But once you …
From tripping on-stage in front of hundreds to noticing a print error too late, here’s what I did next. Two thoughts passed through my mind as I sailed towards the stage floor at the Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures. Firstly, there were three steps, not two, in the set I’d just scampered down in a rush to capture the next shot. And secondly, I must protect my camera at all costs. I twisted my body to spare the camera from impact. …
One of my clients told me about an experience they had with another photographer. They commissioned a shoot of their family and were due to meet at a local woodland spot. It was the first time they’d done anything like this, and they were a bit nervous. Their two children – six-year-old Harry and three-year-old Jade – provided the usual challenges on the morning of the shoot: “I don’t want to wear that!” and “I don’t want to go!” Still, …
The studio phone rang late on a Friday night. A journalist from a national newspaper was calling to get permission to use one of my images with a story they were running. I asked for details: a violent crime had been committed. The victim was in a serious condition in hospital, and the media were looking for a picture of him to go with the write-up. This journalist scoured the guy’s Facebook page and came across an image of him …
We’d hit crisis point. There was a backlog of images to edit and a queue of many more to capture. My wife Sarah was running the business side and I was shooting, culling and editing the pictures. I was the bottleneck and there was no reprieve in sight. It was time to redesign our workflow. Every photographer has a workflow, even if they haven’t formalised it yet. A good workflow is resilient, efficient, useable, obvious and consistent. The pursuit of …