At a couple of shows recently we have been experimenting with a small studio in our tent as well as our normal photography activities. Next year we will be offering this in one form or another at most events, but they are really event dependent.

The first is the trophy shoot, both as a mock magazine cover and second as a more straight forward print.  See the examples below.

Next will be the more traditional portrait and we can include dogs in this too, like these two.

If you would like something like this at the next show we are attending, just come and ask us. Oh, the Little Owl was brought along by the Worcestershire Barn Owl Conservation Trust and is only available at certain shows. Sales of prints featuring the owl also help the Trust.

The other day I was asked to take some photographs for a young musician to use in his promotional material. Ali had the idea of hauling a piano out onto a rise in the landscape close to his home. It was quite surreal listening to him play and sing out in the middle of the field with the lovely Teme Valley as aback drop. He wanted to keep it casual and do something a bit different, so here is what I came up with for one of the shots.

Alistair Webb plays the piano.

We also did some shooting indoors a bit later and here is one of those images taken in the recording studio.

In the Studio

At the weekend I was lucky enough to get to shoot with two great girls. Here are three images I have had time to work on and I hope you like the results.

Just a quick post of a picture I took a couple of days ago. My daughter was about to go out and I had an idea that I wanted to quickly try. Using off camera flash, this was shot at about 5.00pm in the afternoon, so still quite a lot of daylight about, not that you would guess from the photo.

Last weekend I was in London to take some pictures of Ellen. We were looking at some old photos in a book and Ellen told me how she loved the grainy black and white images captured during moments of play. The first image is produced here in the style of those we were looking at in the book. Hard and gritty.

Tom with his father’s shotgun and an over large shooting jacket waits with Cobble, his partner in crime, for a lift home with his bounty of a brace of pheasant. It is the shooting season now and I decided to capture Tom showing more of a lifestyle image than a standard studio portrait. Thank you Tom for your patience out in the cold and also to Cobble for his reluctant co-oporation.

Tom and Cobble

WARNING: The shotgun in this picture is shown in the closed position for artistic purposes only and should never be carried about like this. There were no cartridges either in the gun or in the vicinity of the photoshoot.

"Phoebe and the Farrier"

Some time ago now, months, maybe a year or more, I was having another look at a great book I have and one image in there struck me as being a great idea for a photograph. The book, by David Hockney, is called “Secret Knowledge”. It is a big glossy hardback in which David discusses how mirrors and lenses have been used through the ages by artists to ‘capture’ images for their painting. It is a fascinating read. The image in question was painted in 1645 by the French artist George de la Tour, a follower of the great Caravaggio and is titled “St Joseph the Carpenter“.

Now that one painting had grabbed me, I started looking at other artworks in the same manner, for inspiration in my own work. Wouldn’t it be great if somebody wanted a portrait doing in the style and, to a certain extent, the setting of a bygone age. I happened to discuss this with a good a friend of mine and he said he would love such a picture of his daughter and she would be thrilled. So we made plans, but due to other commitments and twists of fate, it has taken quite a long time for all of us to be available at the same time. We managed to get together on Saturday afternoon and shoot the image. Phoebe, my friend’s daughter, is very keen on her horse riding and hopes to have one of her own one day, so I decided to swap the carpenter for a farrier.

Many thanks to Berriewood Farm for allowing use of their building and horses. Also to John Preece of Uppington Smithy for modelling as the farrier, and to Phoebe’s mum for bringing her along.

For the second location of my Project 10, I chose Hereford. I was meeting fellow photographer Wendy Lillygreen for a bite to eat and a coffee and afterwards I had time before collecting my daughter for art college, which was the perfect opportunity to get my pictures. Once again, everybody that I approached agreed to have the their picture taken, which does make life much easier.

Thanks for looking.

To find out what Project 10 is, look under Ideas in the menu.

I want to say a big thank you to James, Jemima, Charlotte and Emma for the great photoshoot this morning. You were all stars and I hope you all enjoyed it too, not forgetting Clara. Here are some of the images to keep you going for the time being. Hope you like them, I think they turned out great.

Emma, Jemima, James and Charlotte

The Gang