One of the good things to come out of this strange and worrying time is that I have had time to focus on one of my websites and with fantastic IT support from Tony Merryfield I have created a new site for The Family Photographer. Please take a look if you want to book a shoot or have any questions about Covid 19 (you will see info on each page of the website).
I welcome all Photographers to come a long and share my studio, I only charge £25 p/h this includes use of all the equipment and a black or white backdrop. If you are not a pro but are interested in finding out more about studio lighting then I also offer tuition to help you get set up. All you need to bring is some enthusiasm and your DSLR camera.
You can book via my website or call 01206 823299 if you have any questions or just want to chat about your requirements.
I love to take pictures of patterns and textures, here are a few shots of old boats at Mersea.
There is a thing which slowly happens over time which I was kind of aware of but haven’t really done enough about it. As a working Photographer all to often I am focused on what my clients want, what packages, ideas and concepts I can offer up and although I can get creative with these projects I rarely take the time to just play anymore with my own stuff. When I say play I mean to play with my camera to have fun and not to focus on the end result but more concentrate on the process, to experiment without limits and rules of expectation and responsibility of a paid job. It’s like any job when you do it for work over time you tend to do less of it in your own time, which I don’t want to happen as there were times when I would go everywhere with my camera to document, play, and experiment with and I love some of those old images I took of friends, family, random stuff like puddles and piers. I think some of it is because I take pictures as a job, some of it is about having my phone and sometimes using that instead and some of it is just about not really bothering. If I was really honest I think there is also an element of opening Pandoras box, there is a fear that if I start doing crazy wild stuff people might not respect me or take me seriously anymore I will just be seen as that mad old cat lady that takes pics of crazy shit. The thing is this nagging feeling is not going away there is something in me that wants to go there and as the years pass the feeling gets stronger.
So there are times when I take pictures of stuff in my own time but am reluctant to share for fear of ridicule I suppose, I am not sure why I should really care what people think as they don’t have to look at my images its a free country after all. In light of these thoughts I am sharing this image which I recently took in the studio, I have decided to ‘go there’.
I have my own ideas behind the concept of this image mostly around oppression, violence towards women, online bullying and the pressure from our media for women to look a certain way yaaay I hear you cheer all fun stuff! It is stuff that I feel strongly about, there is a huge pressure on young women and also young men to look and live up to a certain unachievable vision. We now have kids in their 20’s having botox and fillers, kids full of anxiety and afraid to be themselves for fear of rejection its utter madness destructive and out of control, I see it in the kids close to me but also in young people I take pictures of. I’ll stop ranting…it’s up to you as the viewer to make your own mind up about what if anything this image conjures up.
This is me up a ladder over the weekend taking pics of the village grass, why you may ask? I got a few looks but was armed ready with a story should anyone ask!
Clients sometimes ask me if I can put together a composite image (made up of disparate or separate parts or elements), this week I am working on an image which is advertising a football agility tool so I needed a background image of good healthy grass. The grass at the football and rugby club are a bit worn and sparse this grass from Bentley Village green looked perfect. It’s always useful to collect images of the sky, clouds and textures to use for backgrounds so whenever I see something I get my camera to shoot it to add to my background collection.
Bobby needed some commercial shots for Winmau Darts brochure, what a pleasure to meet his wife and granddaughter too.
Tim Andrews is an ex lawyer who has Parkinsons Disease, he is now retired and has gone on a journey of asking hundreds of Photographers to take images of him. I have had the pleasure of doing a couple of photo shoots with Tim and look forward to doing another shoot with him in 2018. “Wanted” is a film made by Graeme Montgomery of the last shoot of “Over the Hill”, which won the award for Best Short Documentary at the UK Film Festival last night.
I love taking pictures of brothers, sisters and different generations, I try to make my photography about capturing something of that special relationship. Thankfully gone are the days of tense formal family shots, I invite my clients to think imaginatively about their images before the shoot but if they feel like they have no ideas and are nervous about posing then that’s fine too as I am used to helping people pose.
On Monday evening I went along to take pictures of a networking meeting held at the wonderful Firstsite Gallery in Colchester. The Foundation Works is a networking community for Professionals within the Construction and Property industry in East Anglia. See their website http://www.thefoundationworks.co.uk/.
Go to my Gallery to view the rest of the pictures taken at the event http://www.pbase.com/wakelin/foundation_works_
