Portrait Photography on location







I spend most of my time photographing people in their homes or places of work. Most of my clients are busy professionals who don't always have the time to travel to a studio, or are uncomfortable being photographed in the studio environment.





Over the years I have minimised the amount of gear I use when working on location, so that I can be in and out of the clients office, or home, in as short a time as possible. Most of the location portraits, or environmental portraits to be correct, take less than 15 minutes to shoot, including set-up and take down time. Very few portrait sessions take longer than 30 minutes, most of those involve photographing numerous subjects.





The equipment I use is about as simple as you can get, either a couple of Canon 580EX speedlites, or a simple Lumedyne kit depending on my general requirements for the shoot. If I only have one or two subjects and the client only needs the simplest of pictures then I will often use the 580's, if I need to use a large softbox or I have numerous subjects then I will need the power and longevity of the Lumedynes.





The portrait above is a typical example of working with lightweight equipment. The photo is of my friend Mark Sheppard. Mark is a registered Hypnotherapist and the photo was required for his new website. I just used a simple set-up, a single 580 mounted on a Manfrotto Nano lightstand using an umbrella adapter. I aimed the 580 directly through a 30inch white shoot through umbrella placed about 20 inches from the subject. Mark was sitting about 3 feet from a plain wall just close enough to allow some of the light from the umbrella to fall onto the wall, but creating enough fall-off to drop the exposure by about 1 and a half stops, creating an even grey. Marks daughter was off school so I got her to help by holding a Lastolite 20 inch silver reflector on the opposite side, this just lifted the light in the shadow.

The result is a simple high quality portrait that could have been taken in a studio using an array of complicated and expensive lighting options, such as a softboxes, grids or spots. Even though I did stop for a cup of tea and a chat, I was in and out of Marks house in less than an hour, the photography was over in less than 10 minutes.

Simple yet extremely effective.

My new website...I love it

I have been working tirelessly over the last few weeks to create a brand new website. I have had the earlier website for about two years and I was beginning to feel that it looked a little dated and sterile, so i decided to give the site an overhaul.

My old site was created by the team at Creative Motion Design, they produce some wonderful template based flash sites specifically for photographers. The control panels are easy to use and the servers are reasonably stable and the support is amazing. I decided I wanted CMD to to create my new site, I chose one of their great designs and submitted a few changes and in no time at all I had a new site. The problem started when I had to start loading up the images and writing the text, I am so busy that finding time to actually sit down and do it was just so diffficult. When I actually pulled my socks up and started adding images I had it done in now time. The CMD control panel has an amazing facility to bulk upload the images, its so quick, my galleries were finished in no time at all.

I am really pleased with the site, I hope it shows of my personality as well as my photography. There are loads of great photographers in the Newark area, so having a good website is really important when trying to get noticed. I think my new site is even better than I expected it to be and I am sure it will bring more interest in my work.

I love photography, my family are always saying that I am lucky to be doing a job that I enjoy doing so much. I have to agree with them, I consider myself priveliged to be allowed into so many peoples lives and to actually get paid to photograph them.

Gemma and Nicks Wedding

This weekend was a bit of a rush, non-stop shooting, mostof which I had not had alot of time to prep for. On saturday I photographed a wedding at Prestwold hall near Loughborough, it was a bit short notice as Nick and Gemma original photographer had been injured in an accident earlier in the week. I got a desperate phonecall on Thursday, and I obliged by standing in for him.

The Antiroom at Prestwold is stunning, and served as the ideal location to shoot the groups. I lit the groups with a single Canon 580Ex placed off camera to left of me. The flash was bounced of the wall behind me, even though the wall was not white, it had a soft shiny surface which reflected the light without too much trouble.

The star of the wedding was Harvey the Page boy, this little fella had all the girls after him, even married ones!!

I managed to grab the couple for few moments just before the sun went down, to create a couple of really nice portraits that also showed of Gemmas wonderful dress. I grabbed one of the guest to help, asking him to hold the flash and diffuser while I directed the shots. In all we were outside less than two minutes. Which was ideal, as it was freezing..

Gimme a B, Gimme a L, Gimme a U.....

Last Friday I had the pleasure of photographing a group of lovely young ladies from Newark. The Blue Sapphires Cheerleaders are preparing for a trip to America to compete in an International Cheerleading Competition. By all accounts the girls have great chance of coming home with medals and trophies, so lets hope they do well.

The group was simply lit with my Lumedyne portable lights, another example of why using battery powered lighting systems enables you to work effectively without having to trail cables all over the place. The gym was lit with horrible flourescent tubes, which were giving a sickly green colour to the image. I decided to overpower the ambient light by using a fast shutter speed and white balancing for the flash.

Anyway, being in a room full of giggly teenage girls turned out not to be as scary as I had imagined, they are harmless really.

Go Girls.....

2008 Fight the Flab Campaign





Well here goes, I've spent the last 2 weeks gorging on pork pies, chocolate and roast dinners, and I have drunk more than my fair share of wine and beer, so its about time I started to look after myself abit.

I have always been able to carry a little weight without looking too porky, but just recently I have noticed a gradual increase in my waist size and I have started to feel more tired earlier in the day. Not a good sign for someone who has only just had his 39th birthday, if I was 10 years older I wouldn't feel quite so bad, but I am not exactly old and I feel like I should be wrapped in a blanket, doing jigsaws with a cup of cocoa. "I AM NOT OLD", I keep telling myself, "but why don't my trousers fit anymore?" , because you eat too much and sit in front of a computer too much....easy really, I know what the problem is, so I really must do something about it.

So I am publicly announcing my intention to fight the flab. I intend to lose at least 13 kgs over the next 6 months. I shouldn't be so difficult, cut down on sugery sweets, no snacking between meals, exercise more regularily....arghhhh, I can feel the pressure already.

Never mind, its a case of mind over matter, Alison doesn't mind, and I don't matter.

To help me along, and to give everyone an idea of how I am doing, I have created a Lardometer, a simple scale to demonstrate just how much weight I am losing. I intend to post an update every week, hopefully there will be an change and you will be able to see how I am doing.

Anyway, too all of you who are in the same boat as me, and are willing to do something about it, good luck, I hope you all do better than me.

Happy New year





Paul

Merry Christmas Everyone......


Just a quick one to say thank you to all my wonderful clients I have had the great pleasure of working with this year. I wish you all the best for the holidays and for the coming New Year.

Next year is going to be huge, I have a packed program of events already, plus I have some massive changes coming up for the New year. Look out for my new website, which will hopefully be live early in January and also look out for news of a new range of totally exclusive products.

Anyway, good luck for next year, I dearly hope that all of you have a wonderful time,

See you in 2008

Paul

YOU'RE KIDDIN ME





Believe it or not, the Christmas promotion is nearly over, only a few more days to go. We have had a huge success with bookings so far and nearly all of our allocated slots are full, but due to the amount of interest we have had, we have decided to extend the offer for one more week.

Not only that we are offering a limited number of gift certificates to lucky applicants. Each certificate entitles the bearer to £100 of products and services from our portrait range. These include handmade frames, display portfolios and albums.

Email me at paul@paulsaxby.co.uk to book your place.

Celtic Tigers Roar.........

"I can jump further than you...."

Last week I had the honour of being invited over to Ireland to photograph an entire extended family and some of their friends and family. I was invited into the family and waited on hand and foot for the three days I was in the Emerald Isle.

"Seaweed is great..."

I had been asked to photograph several families and all their respective children, all aged between 4 weeks and four and a half years. It was great, I got to behave like a child again, crawling on the floor, rolling about in wet grass and digging holes in a muddy beach. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even when I found myself changing nappies and watching Thomas the Tank Engine.

"Catching some rays man..."

Best af all I was given as much creative freedom as I wanted, so I took the bull by the horns and began using off-camera flash. As soon as I arrived in Ireland I instructed 'Uncle Russ' in how the VALS(Voice Activated Light Stand) system worked, gave him a Canon 580EZ, a Quantum Turbo Battery pack and a Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceiver, and we got to work. Russ even found himself in one or two of the images as he tried to dodge back and forth between children on the beach. I deliberately included him in the shot below to demonstrate how I lit the group shots.

Is that Russ or VAL in the corner of the picture?


"its not really gonna fall over....is it?"

I was really surprised how quickly the children got used to me being there, even though it was the first time I had met most of them, within a few minutes, the children strated to behave like children and ignored me. I let them get on with playing with their toys, racing around the garden on a peddle powered go-kart, playing on the swings and digging in the mud.

"Did someone say there were Ladybirds in here?"


Even Uncle Peter gets in on the act...What a poser..."

I am really happy with the results, I hope everyone enjoys the images as much as I do.

Many thanks to Carina, Russ and family for inviting me over, and a special thank you to Suzanne, Brian, Paddy and Collette for putting me up, and treating me as a member of their family.