Back to the mill

After the fun on Formby sands I had here Saturday saw another shoot in Islington Mill where my studio is based. After the lovely sun on Friday the weather was a real disappointment being both cold and dull. Sarah came to see me as she wanted some flashdance ones similar to the ones you can see here and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass by without doing some other looks as well. In the end we tried to make it look a bit warmer and hopefully that comes across in the images.

Incidentally both the flashdance and this lighting technique are taught in my forthcoming workshop on the 28th March which you can read about here. There are a couple of places left if any photographers are interested.


Fun in the sun

Yesterday was the first sunny day of the year that I’ve been available to shoot. Happily both Fran and Emma could make it to the shoot as well, and we had great fun shooting in natural light on the beach. Initially I tried using a flash but I actually got better results using natural light and a reflector. Here is a sample of the results.

2nd lighting workshop – 28th March

I held my first lighting workshop on the 28th February in Islington Mill. Despite the cold weather myself and 5 other photographers had a great time working with Emma and trying out some of my lighting ideas. The above is a sample of one of the shots I took while setting up the lighting. I’ll try and add some links to the other photographers work also and as a start here’s a link to Mark Byrne’s blog with some images he managed to get from the day. Great effort Mark!

I’m planning on holding a second workshop on the 28th March following the same format and again using Emma as the model. There are 6 places available. Any photographers who would like to take part please drop me a message and your place is confirmed on payment of the £40 deposit (which is returnable up to 7 days prior to the workshop). Total cost is only £90 including a light luncheon. My previous post here outlines what will be covered during the day.

B-Eat awareness week

If you’ve known me for 3 years or more you’ll probably remember my friend and some time muse Ilona (Faerie). Folks who know Ilona better will know that she has suffered for many years from an eating disorder.

Well in April of last year Ilona went in to a unit to help her overcome her illness and recently she was finally able to resume a ‘normal’ life. You can follow her thoughts on the excellent blog here

Eating disorders are often misunderstood in relation to modelling and even with my ‘insider information’ I only have one persons version of how it affects them. Suffice it to say I felt a shoot today would be a positive event and it marked just over 3 years since we last worked together.

We didn’t exactly strike lucky with the weather. I was promised (by the BBC no less) a sunny afternoon. Nothing of the sort materialised, in fact it was so dark that if it hadn’t been for a torch I would have struggled to focus. Snow and cold temperatures prevailed.

The first picture reflects the fact that, starting tomorrow, is Eating Disorders Awareness Week. The remainder are what we were able to capture in an hour or so. I hope you like them but whether you do or not please visit these links to get an insight in to the work of B-EAT and also to consider sponsoring Ilona as she runs another Manchester 10k, this time for the charity MIND.

Lighting workshop

I’ve had a few request recently to run workshops so thought I’d offer one on the 28th Feb and see what level of interest there is.

This would be a small workshop of between 4 and 6 photographers primarily experimenting with lighting around 3 main themes.

Firstly headshots, for this we will be looking to use lighting to create a natural look. You’ll need a reasonably long lens or (if you shoot Nikon) you can use mine. This is the kind of thing we’ll be doing.

Secondly we’ll be creating effects with lighting despite the weather! In the example below it was a cold, dull day with barely any daylight.

Finally we’ll use the water set and create images like this

The shoot will last about a day and refreshments will be provided. The location will be my studio building..

A £40 deposit secures you place, total price £90. Please drop me a message if you’re interested

Update – Following the success of the first workshop I’m running a further workshop on the 28th March!

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