Chouxlicious
Chouxlicious is a Bridgnorth based company who recently got in touch to create a photoset for their new wedding brunch hamper, filled with delicious handbaked cakes, scones and a huge variety of other delicious treats. They supply a huge range of goodies with national shipping available so be sure to head to their website if you have as sweet a tooth as I do (the scones, are to die for!)
Val B's Wax 5
It's a really tough time to be a small business, with many of us unable to work at all, closing our storefronts or having to reduce our workload to accomodate having out kids at home. I have felt truly privileged to be able to continue to offer my drop off product photography service for local business who have been able to continue with their online stores, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has worked with me over the last few months, for your patience and your business!
Working with Val B's Wax is always a pleasure, her work is beautful and a treasure to photograph. Hopefully her storefront in Shrewsbury will be opening up with the others when the Pride Hill shopping centre re-opens, but until then, head over to her online store and have a browse at the latest of her stunning handmade creations and branding revamp (these blush and pastel gift boxes are divine!).
Pawfect Delights 5
Something special from Pawfect Delights this time, with gift bundles and birthday treats for all of your lovely dogs as well as this giant NHS Superhero treats, the proceeds from which raised around £400 for the NHS trust. Amazing.
Black Tree Organics 2
My second session shooting for black tree was covering packshots of their latest range of candles, reed diffusers and giftsets to go alongside the styled session we'd shot previously. Working with glass on a white backdrop is always tricky, shadows and reflections even in the most controlled environment can make for a lot of editing in Photoshop, which I don't really like to do if I can avoid it because it makes the process so much slower and I like to get images to my clients ASAP. So I ended up shooting this whole set twice, which is definitely the advantage of working from a home based studio, because had I been on location, this would not have been a realistic choice. The original set up worked nicely for the the gift collections, producing a soft, more natural looking light, but wasn't working at all for producing cut-out shots of the glassware or the reed diffusers, which were disappearing into the background. Anyway, long story short I had a bit of an Eureka moment while I was making breakfast the next day, set up a bit of an experimental studio using a pane of glass from a picture frame (risky, but worth it) and a bookshelf and decided to reshoot the whole set. It worked like a charm, produced beautiful cut outs in camera and overall I was pretty chuffed with myself.
Hayley Dunn
Last Month I worked with Hayley Dunn of Shropshire SBM to shoot a quick set of headshots for her business.
It's always a privilege to work with people who feel comfortable in front of the camera, and as a professional public speaker, a couple of portraits were nothing and we breezed through the studio shots, leaving enough time left over to head outside and take a few natural ones, too.
Black Tree Organics Session 1
I've been so excited to share this styled shoot for Black Tree Organics which took place in February.
The shoot was a collaborative effort between Kelly of Black Tree Organics, Lindsey of Buy From and myself, at Kelly's stunning home in Shropshire, which somehow managed to have the best natural lighting conditions I ever could have asked for and made for one of the most fun and easy styled sessions I've ever been a part of.
Having such a large amount of products to arrange and photograph can often be a complicated process logistically, but with Kelly's clear, straight forward ideas about how she wanted her products shot, in which combinations and along with specifically sourced props to go with each item to be displayed, combined with Lindsey's detailed shot lists and knowledgability about how best to arrange each product in order to be able to market them in multiple ways, meant that a shoot that easily could have taken a full day, was complete in just over 2 hours with very little editing, no reshooting and no backtracking to cover forgotten item combinations.
Before any product shoot, especially for styled sessions I always try to emphasise the importance of providing a shot list with as much detail as can be provided, as something that might be obvious to a producer who has been working with their product for years, may not be so obvious to me, who has been working with it for 5 minutes and for this shoot, the amount of time and thought that went into planning that what information was necesary for me to know, meant that I could focus soley on lighting, styling and shooting the items instead of trying to decode shotlists that don't have much information, and it paid off a thousand fold, meaning we even had time to get creative, to experiment and play around with additional images that weren't on the shot list, too.
Working with businesses who work with marketing agencies is always a bonus. As creatives we have to be so focused on the service or product that we provide that it's easy to overlook or undervalue the things that fall outside of our areas of expertise, so having a third person who's job it is to know specifically how an image will be used, why it's required, who will see it and for how long is absolutely worth having if you can.
Black Tree Organics create wonderful products and it's such a privilege to work alongside such talented, dedicated businesses owner. Be sure to head to their online store and get your home spelling as lush as mine did when I had this range in for the studio shots (coming soon!)
Family Portraits At Bridgnorth Castle Gardens
Another trip to the castle gardens to snap some portraits of another absolutely beautiful set of cousins on a rather drizzly day in February. The kids brought their wellies and some bubbles a whole load of gorgeousness to an otherwise grey day.
Neal Family Portraits
One of the greatest things about location family portraits is when said families bring along their dogs.
They're wonderful ice breakers and provide a great distraction for people who feel self conscious in front of the camera, they give us new places to explore and I get to make a new doggy pal.
For this family portrait session we headed out to explore Bridgnorth's Stanmore Country Park which is a spot I've wanted to use for SUCH a long time. The spotlights created by the sun breaking through the trees are just gorgeous.
Relaxed Family Portrait Session in Bridgnorth
I don't market myself as a family portait photographer because I feel that to be one, it's best to have a studio, which I don't. But when the circumstances are right, and if I feel like my style of portrait photography suits what a family have in mind, then I'll do it, because I know as a parent myself, how fleeting all the gorgeousness of baby and toddlerhood is and wouldn't want to deny preserving those beautiful memories.
For me, capturing a child's personality is the most important thing about a photoshoot, what they're wearing, where they are or how they sit is secondary. If they're boistrous or shy, precocious or cheeky, rambunctious or anxious that's all okay. If they're happier halfway up a tree or cuddled up on their parent's lap or hiding behind their favourite teddy, it's who they are at that moment in their lives, and it's a good thing that we can look back at that and remember them as they truly were. When I look back at my favourite pictures of my own children, it's always the ones I caught of them engaged in some activity, or interacting with eachother, or talking animatedly, midsentence about something awesome, that make my heart melt.
So I don't force children into poses for the sake of composition or formality, won't force them to look at me, wont insist on dragging out a session past the point of enjoyment for the sake of a 'perfect' shot. And it's absolutely okay that not everybody wants to risk spending their money on a session that doesn't guarentee a perfectly polished picture of their child.
But if you aren't after perfection, if your kid is happier doing their own thing, getting muddy or pretending to be a princess or walking the dog or pulling faces or even just hanging out in the living room like these two gorgeous cousins, then get in touch and let's chat.
