PhotoT

Some of what I do to pay my bills is product photography. For fun (and because anything that broadens your skill set is good) I'm building a portfolio of "people pictures" broadly across Fashion & Portraits.

In terms of style I like a "polished look" and I also like a lot of my work to be slightly edgy (appreciating that one person's edge may be another person's centre!). I'm not really into the ethereal, the soft and floaty, I prefer clean sharp lines and contrast. I like to work with either bright colours that pop, or in monochrome - faded colours are really not my thing.

You won't find any "grungy" images in my portfolio or on my "would like to shoot" list. Whilst I accept the importance of showing the world as it is (especially in this era of social media) I prefer what I photograph to be at least a little glamorous and polished. I'll leave the factual story telling to the brilliant & often brave photo journalists who bring amazing and often uncomfortable images to our screens - and thank God they do.

I'm a big fan of much (but not all) of the work of Helmut Newton and I enjoy creating in this style. I also like commercial beauty & fashion images. Whilst I love really high end fashion I've not yet had a go at this but I do like a polished, commercial feel to the fashion work I shoot.

I'm very collaborative and happy to debate the aesthetics of any shoot with a model - I certainly don't claim a monopoly on good ideas - in fact I suspect that a lot of models have a far better idea than I do of "what looks good". I always work up a mood board - many things in life have taught me the 6P theory "perfect preparation prevents piss poor performance". I'm also old enough and wise enough to understand another old adage - that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Now I'm not suggesting that anyone I work with is ever the enemy - but on location especially, however well you prep - there's always something that isn't how you thought it would be!

I like working with models that will largely pose themselves having had a glance at my mood board - I like to minimise my directions. I'm also highly appreciative of models who have great attention to detail in what they wear, how they do their hair, nails and make up and how they pose.

I like to keep my post processing to a minimum but you rarely get a polished / glamorous look without some post processing - so I do what feels necessary to me. On commercial beauty stuff (as I found out when trying this) keeping post processing to a minimum is pretty hard! So I guess, in practice, I'm flexible about this.

I'm equally happy working on location or in a studio, although I've usually got a speed light or two in my bag on location - just in case!

I pay for many of my shoots but I'm usually happy to make a set of processed JPEG images available to the model on the sole condition that I'm credited if they're shared on social media or elsewhere. If ever a model wanted to use them commercially then that would be a different discussion. I've also collaborated on a few shoots on a TFP basis - and I'm happy to agree that in advance with anyone who'd like to work with me.

I'm based in Surbiton on the south west edge of London.  I'm happy to take the train into London or drive for an hour or so by car into West Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire or Berkshire. for shoots. That said I'd go further for the right concept / model / location.

My calendar on here is incomplete - it does have any PP bookings on it, but I have far more stuff going on in life that isn't here so please check my availability with me.  Thanks.

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