Archive for March, 2009
Fireworks at Carlton Towers
Posted by Paul in Commercial, For Website, Weddings on March 27th, 2009
Wow. Where do I start?!
This was just an amazing session albeit a gruelling one.
We have teamed up once again with the guys at Fuse Fireworks. For our regular visitors, you may remember that we captured some images for them down in a very inclement Bristol back in November but this was a very different shoot.
I always love creating images for Fuse as they have a really forward-thinking view of the marketing and PR images that they’d like. For this session, Ben and Brian from Fuse didn’t want the familiar explosions-in-the-sky type of image but rather wanted to create some images that show a little more of what it’s like to have fireworks as part of your own celebration or wedding. A little more tricky to shoot but brilliant!
We’ve been planning this session for weeks. Hasselblad kindly lent us a beautiful hi-res camera (more about this in another post) and we had hair & makeup, flowers, dresses, lighting, fireworks, models and the most unbelievable location all organised to create the most gorgeous images to cover everyone’s marketing. All of the suppliers involved are some of the best in the business which made it a real pleasure!
So a huge thank you to all the following:
* Once again we’re working with Sassy & Co in High Wycombe which I love. It was Claire and Connie who kindly joined us and we had a ball! Not only do they produce stunning results with hair and makeup – you only have to look at the photos to see that – they’re also just the loveliest people to be working around. They were absolutely at the heart of everything and there wasn’t a single glitch.
* Everyone at Maid in Heaven in High Wycombe for providing some utterly stunning wedding dresses. They were also hugely helpful given that it’s not every day that I get to go and pick out bridal wear!
* Carlton Towers for providing a location to die for. A huge, breathtaking Gothic mansion in the middle of the Yorkshire countryside. I can’t imagine a more glorious place to have as a backdrop
* Alison Tingey from Anthurium Floral created the stunning bouquets that you can see in the shots (you have to see these close up to see her exquisite attention to detail.) We’ve used her floristry for a year or two now and I am still always blown away by her work!
* The models – Anna, Ben, Coral, Danielle, Harriet, Mark, Natasha and Polly. What more can I say? Gorgeous! (even the guys)
* Fireworks – Fuse Fireworks who, as always, create the most sensational explosions! Oh, and you couldn’t ask for nicer guys to work with.
* The guys at EES Showhire provided the beautiful lighting that was the final icing on the cake. We bathed the building in a rich scarlet (for some Halloween publicity) but they had pretty much any colour we could have asked for!
I’ve included quite a few photographs for this blog to give you a feel for all the different types of shots we captured. Enjoy!
Cheers
P.
James Kessell Brand Images
Posted by Paul in Commercial, For Website on March 11th, 2009
We are frequently commissioned to take headshots (portraits I suppose in my world) of people for their own marketing material and websites. I take it as a very real compliment when someone uses an image we’ve created to represent the public face of their business. The personality that someone exudes through the imagery they use, whether it’s a website or a brochure, can make or break an opportunity and so it’s vitally important that we get it right – and I like to think that we do.
James Kessell runs an amazing web and brand design company call Scratch The Sky whose work I really love – particularly the use of photography on the different sites (obviously, anyone who uses photography in their design to such a great extent is always going to popular in my view!) so I was really pleased to be asked to capture some images of him to use.
I suppose, if you post-rationalise a shoot like this, I would say I was trying to capture the personality of the person I’m photographing more than just a simple portrait. At the time, of course, it doesn’t really feel that way. To be honest, it feels much more like we simply chat, drink coffee and capture images. This relaxed approached does have the natural benefit of creating a more ‘conversational’ set of images: not really photojournalism but not really posed portraits either – at least, not all of them – and this is exactly the type of image that I love.
This was one of those sessions, and it was brilliant! James is everything you would expect in someone who you’d trust to look after your brand or web presence and I hope a little of that character – the intelligence and creativity, as well as being a genuinely nice guy – shows through. I hate some people.
Let us know what you think.
Cheers
P.
Claire & Nick Pre Wedding Shoot
Posted by Sarah in For Website, Pre-Wedding on March 11th, 2009
We met Claire when we photographed Rosie and Adey’s wedding in August 2007. Claire was one of the ushers and one of the prettiest ushers we have ever photographed! We were thrilled to bits when Claire contacted us last year to say that she was getting married to Nick and would like us to be her photographer. We have been looking forward to their pre wedding shoot and seeing Claire and Nick again.
One of my roles in the business is the difficult task of selecting images from a shoot, which we will show to our customers. We aim to reveal about 100 to 150 shots from a session and add 10-15 to the blog. I spend a considerably amount of time ensuring the selection reflects different emotions, a good mix of everyone at the shoot, a variety of locations and some strong iconic images for our customers to deliberate over! The advantage of me selecting the images as opposed to Paul, is that I look at the images with fresh eyes and I am also separated from what actually happened on the shoot. Coming from a marketing background, I am used to choosing images I like which fit with the overall positioning of a company and at Paul Wilkinson Photography this is no exception. Except a lot more fun and I love the images!
Claire and Nick’s pre wedding shoot presented me with a really lovely set of photographs. The light was beautiful and photographing in Haddenham offers such a variety of interesting backgrounds; witchert walls, old wooden doors, windy footpaths and old fashioned streets. As with most couples, I think Claire and Nick were a little apprehensive before the shoot but Paul has a very relaxed style and I couldn’t pick up on any nerves in the shots. I really like the first shot as Claire’s face is highlighted by the sunlight and the look in her eyes is so engaging. But my favourite from the whole shoot was shot 4 where the location, light and closeness of Claire and Nick presents both a touching and striking image. A very lovely set of shots.
Paul really enjoyed the shoot and we are looking forward to the big day later in the year.
Let us know what you think.
Sarah
Mandy & Melissa Headshots
Posted by Paul in Commercial, For Website on March 4th, 2009
I loved this short session.
Mandy & Melissa are both part of the incredible team that Kate Nicolle at Kidology has put together and the brief was to capture a few headshots of each of them that would both fit into the Kidology brand style and would also capture a little of the personality of each of them.
Nice clear brief, two really nice people to photograph (who both photography really easily!), a beautiful day, one happy photographer. And, given the images we captured, hopefully two happy clients! 
Let us know what you think.
Cheers
P.
Paul Wilkinson Wins Accolade of Excellence in the WPPI 2009 Awards of Excellence
Posted by Paul in For Website, News on March 1st, 2009
I quite like this one. We entered some of our images into the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) Awards and have just received notice that we’ve won an Accolade of Excellence!
This is the press release:
Paul Wilkinson of Haddenham, England, has received special honours in the WEDDING & PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS INTERNATIONAL (WPPI) 2009 Awards of Excellence 16×20 Print Competition. Designed to recognize outstanding photographers, the judging was held in Las Vegas, NV on February 14 and 15, 2009. ‘Time for Reflection’ received an Accolade of Excellence in the Group category. Wilkinson competed against an international field of photographers to win such honours. The Awards of Excellence 16×20 Print Competition awards are presented each year at the largest trade show, educational platform and convention in the United States for professional photographers. The 2009 competition included 2717 prints in 19 different categories submitted by photographers from all over the world.
Didn’t win it but we’re really pleased given this is our first entry into this worldwide competition, to have been judged in the top few. Still, there’s always next year…
Cheers
P.
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