The unit was in the process of final assembly before being sent to a customer and my client was looking for some high quality images of this new unit for sales and marketing materials (website, brochure etc).

Working carefully in the workshop, and in conjunction with the sales director for guidance on the look of the images and the engineers working on the unit itself we positioned the unit which was about 7-8 feet tall and extremely heavy into a good position and I then photographed it in it’s entirety and key details and features.

Not wanting to slow down the final construction and shipment I checked the images onsite to ensure that I had everything I needed and then departed so they could finish working on it.

Once back at the studio, and after a quick edit of the images, a number were processed including a cut-out of the entire unit to remove the distracting background and provide a neutral backdrop for marketing usage, and then placed on a secure online lightbox for client viewing.

No images until released by the client I’m afraid.

The weekend was the most logical time to photograph the units because of the reduced amount of traffic, and equipment on site making for a safer environment for the tripod based long exposures required to get high quality images and to ensure images which showed the units themselves off. The job was split into two sections early morning and late afternoon to ensure optimal lighting of the units and also to avoid the hottest part of the day.

All the images were taken on high resolution digital capture equipment using specialist architectural lenses to maintain the verticals and correct perspective.

Here are three example images from the shoot.

This year both Pat Cash and Andrew Castle visited the tennis club to be part of this well prepared, and executed event.As with last year my brief was fairly straightforward. Capture the day, photograph some PR images of the celebrities with the sponsors and their families, and then shoot the tennis matches.

The day started wet, very wet but the tennis clinics still took place with heavy rain visible in the images. Some came prepared for the rain, and some didn’t. I was beginning to rue not having a change of clothes. Even the balloon man was making umbrellas. However almost to the minute the rain ended at about 1pm, and apart from a short shower the weather improved and the crowds arrived to watch a feast of doubles matches including the main event Pat Cash and Andrew Castle vs Chris Wilkinson (director of tennis) and Michael Privett (mens club champion).

For those who came to the day a gallery of all of the images will be available from Monday 31st May (planned) for you to view and if you wish to purchase prints. You will have details on the back of your open day programme, on an A5 flyer from inside the club or I’m sure someone at the club will help you. The gallery can be accessed from the Open day page on the website which can be seen here.

Here are a few taster images from the day (and yes the younger brother is licking rainwater of his siblings back !). Click the main image to start the slideshow or pick from the thumbnails.

This year the club has Pat Cash and Andrew Castle returning to do battle in some exhibition tennis with Chris Wilkinson, the club’s Director of Tennis, and commenter/umpire Matt Chilton also there – it promises to be bigger and better than last years amazing event.

There will be tuition from the morning for kids through to adults and then the matches take place mid-afternoon, which means I’ll be shooting a mixture of photojournalism, PR images, portraits, sports photography, and some good old fashioned “grip and grins” over the course of several hours.

Images will be available to view, and purchase, from an online gallery shortly after the open day – details including the password will be provided in the event programmes and in loose flyers at the club reception and in the bar. There will also be some feature images here on the blog over the weekend as well.

We have a landing page already for the event, which also has links to last years gallery, blog entry and a highlights slideshow so if you want to see what happened last year and to get a flavour of what it should be like on Saturday do take a look here: Open Day page.

The tennis club has it’s own website which will have details of all the activities and the schedule for the day.

Finally an image of the exhibition match last year taken from the fitness suite to keep you going until the weekend.

The images are now online in a private gallery for the client to view and download their chosen images for use on their website and PR materials.

Our individual business portraits can be conducted like this one in our studio for speed, and ease and to keep costs down or we can visit your offices or locations to photograph management or staff in their working environment – and for multiple people or a whole company we typically work on our day rates.

I’d be crazy to say I’m not pleased, because I am, but the reality is I could have walked away with nothing depending on the other entries and most importantly the judge. I am very pleased that when he looked at my images he saw the quality. Notably one of the images is from a professional shoot up at London Fashion Weekend, and the other a personal piece of work of a kitesurfer at a local beach – demonstrating an ability to take high quality images both under the demands of a shoot and when I am relaxing with the camera.

So here they are my two award winning images and a precis of what the judge said about them.

The judge commented on the dynamic nature of the print noting the wave, and the beads of water in the air, and the thrust of the kitesurfer. He commended the concentration of the image on the kitesurfer and not the kite, and acknowledged both the strong directional edge lighting with plenty of detail in the dark areas of the face and wetsuit.

This image is shown as originally posted back in February when it was taken at London Fashion Weekend. The competition image has a panoramic vertical crop removing the London Fashion Weekend TV screens and concentrating on the catwalk, lighting and model only. The judge recognised the environment this shot was taken under,  noted the lighting on the background and the unique lighting on the model and declared that he hadn’t seen another image like it before.

With all of my work I’m looking to make sure I have good quality images in the bank and then push myself to get something different, a little out of the ordinary, but still with good composition, great lighting and impact. I like to think this is one of the ways that I differentiate myself from some of the other Hampshire photographers in every wedding I shoot, portrait session and approach to commercial photography.

Both of these images are on display in the studio at the moment, and I’m looking forward to taking my next award winning image.

I’m making no political statement, nor any bias to any one of the political parties but it is clear from the TV debates that an individuals personal image can have a dramatic effect on the general public’s perception of them, and their party, which is why I was so surprised to see a such a motley collection coming through the door. So I’m a photographer and I notice things technically and artistically but it was clear that only one of the candidates had used a professional, or talented amateur, photographer to take the photographs on their flyer. Some of the images could have been castings for the role of an axe murderer so horrible was the lighting and composition and the expression of the candidate, and others simply were so poor.

I didn’t meet many of the people who were standing, so my opinions on them as local candidates were only influenced by the words on the flyer, and the images – and we all know a picture speaks a thousand words.

So here is a tip for election candidates, local, council or general election, or just for you or your parties website. Get a decent PR portrait taken, invest in a professional to accompany you for your key baby-kissing moments and don’t leave it to chance. It needn’t cost you the earth to get some PR images for your campaign use and a skilled professional photographer will make you look your very best and convey in an image your character and beliefs far better than 100 words of spin. So out of the many £1000′s of pounds you spend on campaign literature drop a few hundred pounds on professional photography next time. It could well make a significant difference to how you are perceived by the general public.

Not even making a basic effort to present a professional image says a great deal in this world of media coverage and personality based politics. People simply expect more in this area than a snapshot against a wall.

The studio session was used to get some different looks under the control afforded by studio lighting like Reni’s session we worked on 2-3 different looks and expressions and here is one of the images from the set presented in 10×8 headshot format and in black and white.

Harriet has already uploaded one of her original headshots to Casting Call Pro – the actors directory on the web, and at least one from this session is destined for there as well.

So we scheduled it for today and this afternoon I had the pleasure of shooting Reni for a short while to get some new headshots for her. We worked on 2-3 different looks and some varying expressions and here are three images from the session. I’ll be working on the rest of the shoot over the next couple of days and prepping the images ready for Reni to select her favourites for her headshots.

We have attended some business events there in the past, and over the last few weeks have been documenting the site transformation with interior photography. The site is nearing completion and we will be back over the next week as the furniture is installed and we can complete our brief to show the final office space, and capture the finishing details of the work.

Until then I need to keep the images confidential, particularly as they will be being shown to the end client next week, so here are a few images of the exterior of 1000 Lakeside to go with this post, and I’ll get an entry out with some of the interior images once I have approval.

Clicking on an image will show it in a larger size.