Inside and Out

Luck often plays more than a fleeting role in my life. I’d say that the efforts put into marketing and advertising are pretty much useless, and the work I’ve secured to date has been almost solely down to being in the right place at the right time. That applies to bad luck as well – more of that later. My years of shooting fashion products were initiated by a conversation between a marketing director and my sister in law, who is a hairdresser, and mentioned me in a random conversation during a cut and colour. My time as a travel & tourism photographer in Northumberland was started by a random inbound telephone call, and my years of shooting for Dogs Trust came about after I sponsored a dog at their Darlington rehoming centre. Even lately, my attempts at getting in touch with high-end estate agencies was an utter waste of time, and I got a break due to an inbound enquiry (which almost never happens).
Lady luck. It’s a funny old thing. The following photos are examples of shots that …

This post is a bit of an advertisement for a local business to be honest. If I’m paid to shoot imagery for a website, then I think it’s only fair that I give them the odd boost in the promotional department as part of the package.

The Running Fox in Felton is a go-to eatery in the area. My recent post detailed the re-branding it’s just undertaken, and the menu shoot that I did after the restaurant had closed for the evening. The new branding looks really fresh, and the place is going from strength to strength. Bookings are pretty much mandatory nowadays, and the little innovations like the personal coffee mug that gets refills, and the bread-club subscription are adding anew dimension to an extremely successful local business. Part of my job was to get a few shots of products, branding, and staff in new livery. I didn’t have a lot of time to get the shots in the bag, and the weather was dire (there’s a surprise eh?) All went well, but I was faced with a few barriers: Lunch service had …

The new year brings the prospect of starting to earn some money again, after a bit of a strange year chasing my tail. The last 12 months has taught me lots of things about finding new business – what works, what is a complete waste of time, what sort of businesses have a total disrespect for freelancers etc. I spent a lot of time disposing of spare equipment from the studio – clothes steamers, rails, mannequins, shelving, desks, computer equipment, paper rolls, lighting accessories, books, bags, and all sorts of gear that will never be of use outside a studio environment. Most of it was either sold at a massive loss, dumped, burned, or stored under my stairs at home. I’ve stripped my business expenses down to the bone so that I don’t need to ride the gravy train just to pay for stuff that I don’t need.
Along the way I’ve learned some big lessons – my ten commandments. Feel free to utilise some of them, and also to ignore my rantings if you’re a big-time mutha. A lot of these don’t appl…

Well – that’s the holiday period over at last. Let’s start the new year with a bang, and tell you about the best part of my job – the MEGAHOUSES! Most of my work is geared towards shooting  the £350-£750K properties in Northumberland, Durham, and Tyneside, but from time to time I get a request to photograph the £1m plus stuff. It’s always a daunting task, as they’re usually massive pads with lots of difficult lighting needs. This one was no exception – an example of a traditional Mansion House on the coast of South Tyneside. It was what agents call a “sticky” property – meaning that it had been on the market for ages, without many viewings. This was a winter shoot, so I had to contend with possible bad weather, low sun, and time restraints. The gods were with me however. The skies cleared as soon as I arrived, and glorious sunshine bathed the main fascia at the rear of the property. There had also been a mains gas leak nearby, so I was just in time before the authorities closed off th…