Author Archive
Photographing Kids presention at Focus On Imaging 2010: Slideshow 2
Posted by Paul in For Website, General, News on March 10th, 2010
For anyone who attended our ‘The business of photographing children’ seminar yesterday on the Graphistudio stand at Focus On Imaging (and for anyone else who would like a look), here is the second of the two AV slideshows.
Enjoy!
Photographing Kids presention at Focus On Imaging 2010: Slideshow 1
Posted by Paul in For Website, General, News on March 10th, 2010
For anyone who attended our ‘The business of photographing children’ seminar yesterday on the Graphistudio stand at Focus On Imaging (and for anyone else who would like a look), here is the first of the two AV slideshows.
Enjoy!
Graphistudio Presentations at Focus On Imaging 2010
Posted by Paul in For Website, General, News on March 10th, 2010
Focus On Imaging is always good fun if you’re into photography – with plenty to look at and listen to, it’s one of the key dates in a UK Photographer’s diary. This year, though, we were also presenting our work on Graphistudio’s stand – and we’ve had a fantastic time!
So, a huge ‘thank you’ to Graphistudio for asking us along (it’s a huge honour to be working with these guys – and their albums are simply stunning!) and to everyone who came and sat through our musings. We’ve had loads of really lovely comments so I hope everyone found it useful/amusing/entertaining/a good place to sleep*
For everyone who was there (and for anyone else who’s interested) we’re posting the two AV’s we used yesterday. I know the plasma wasn’t brilliant but hopefully it didn’t prove too much of a distraction.
I should point out that we have now licensed this website with the music guys at PRS/MCPS (I think they’re now called the Music Alliance) so that we can use and show our slideshows online. This is something that we couldn’t really do before so watch this space and hopefully we’ll get more of our slideshow content up here.
Cheers
P.
*delete as applicable (I’m joking about anyone falling asleep – though I did keep a look out!)
Sophie: test shots from our new toy – the Nikon D3X
Posted by Paul in For Website, General on March 2nd, 2010
Ah, so it’s arrived and out of the box. Took me a while to set up all the menus to be exactly how I like them but ’tis all done and is ready to roll. One shiny Nikon D3X.
We’ve added this high-res camera to our trusty D3’s as we’re doing an increasing amount of fashion and commercial work (though I’d love to see a wall-size family canvas generated from this thing) and the extra resolution is a real help. One thing about commercial work is that the designers/clients like to have additional cropping room in an image and this compromises the overall resolution (i.e. picture quality) of the image. The D3X has twice the resolution of the D3 (and, at 12 Mega-pixels, these weren’t bad by any means!) and when you put some of our beautiful lenses on the front, the image quality is utterly compelling. The designers’ wish is our command!
We’re very lucky here to have many friends who’ll help us out – even at stupidly short notice – and so Sophie (the fantastic model we worked with recently for Sassy & Co.) agreed to pop round and help me to quickly put it through its paces. Half an hour later and we have these really lovely street/studio images. Believe me, the camera is working perfectly (admittedly, it helps that Sophie is stunning of course!)
With bags of resolution, this thing is going to be a joy to work with. It will slow me down, however, as the files do take a while to both write to the memory cards and to work with in production. However, they’re worth the wait! And you never know, it might be a good thing to slow down the ol’ continuous shooting!
In a few of the images below, I’ve cropped into the image (the crops are roughly 4 Mega-pixel images taken from the 24MP original) to show just how much fun we’re going to have! Please note that the website doesn’t quite do them justice (we’ve compressed them down or you’d be waiting a long time for them to load!)
Tomorrow we’ll be working with it for real. I’ll keep you posted, but for now there’s a great big fat grin permanently planted across my face!
Ben & Barbara’s pre-wedding session in Southampton
Posted by Paul in For Website, Pre-Wedding on March 2nd, 2010
Is it just me, or do I appear to laugh for a living?
I don’t mean to sound criminally chirpy (believe me I’m really not – I do like to think I have a cool, dark and mysterious side though, admittedly, I could be well wide of the mark here) but there aren’t many things that make me happier than being out with a client and a camera. Being with my family is top of the list of course, just ahead of photography and closely followed by (in no particular order) Guinness; roast dinners; curry; snowboarding; skiing; loud music (Lady Gaga’s Fame Monster 2009 sounds pretty good at the moment with the volume pumped way too high); a hot beach (to be precise, a good book with a beer on a hot beach); Single Malt; mountain biking and maybe just a little traveling around the globe thrown in for good measure.
Actually, that now sounds like a very very corny CV. Still, it’s irrelevant as we’re working flat out at the moment and photography is pretty much the only thing I get to do. It’s a good job it’s high on the list then!
Ben and Barbara had the full force of me being chipper I’m afraid. I can’t help it. The weather for this, their pre-wedding shoot, was dire, but they’re very funny to be around so we just laughed a lot. And occasionally stopped to take a picture or two. Both Ben and Barbara (‘Bird’ to her friends – I had to refrain from using her nickname as if anyone overheard me pointing a camera and saying ‘that’s it Bird, you look perfect’…) are ultra-fit. I don’t mean kinda normal go-to-the-gym-once-a-week-and-play-squash-when-I-can-be-bothered sort of fit. I mean international yachtswoman (Barbara) and alpine mountain bike guide (Ben) fit. Which left me feeling embarrassingly out of shape. Still, I can take a good picture so, given both Ben and Bird are into their photography, maybe they forgave the eagerness with which I accepted a cup of tea after a couple of hours’ shooting!
It’s really nice when our clients are fun to be with like this. Makes the trip down to Southampton completely worthwhile. Even in the pouring rain.
Loved the shoot, love the images, can’t wait until the wedding!
Nancy, Phil & Oscar: Pre-Wedding session in Greenwich Park, London
Posted by Paul in For Website, Pre-Wedding on March 1st, 2010
I love working in London. I think I love it more now than when I used to travel into the city every day. And I loved it then.
There’s always a sense of style, of drama. A kind of feeling of history everywhere you look. And it’s utterly fantastic. The only other city I’ve loved working in as much is New York. Only for us, London is on our doorstep which makes things a little more accessible than The Big Apple!
It’s going to be great this season as as we have a number of clients in our famous capital city so I’m going nipping in and out a lot!
This particular shoot is with a couple whose wedding we’re going to be photographing at The Crazy Bear in Stadhampton. Now I’m always excited about our Crazy Bear weddings but with the added twist of working with a client in Greenwich, well, things couldn’t be better.
Greenwich park, like many of London’s vast green expanses, is simply fantastic to work in. Even with the world’s tourists – having seemingly broken into some kind of odd-ball clothing shop – amassing tera-pixel upon tera-pixel of self-portraits around you, the parks feel fresh and open – and quintessentially London. And with Canary Wharf and the Millenium Dome (or is that now the O2 Arena?) just in the distance you couldn’t feel closer to the vast metropolis.
I loved this shoot. Even in the pouring rain (have a look at some of the images!). It was a wonderful space to play. And, as is so often the case, the client – Nancy & Phil and their little boy, Oscar, were brilliant fun. A very very fine way to spend an afternoon in lovely company. Oh, and we captured some beautiful images too!
And, once we’d finished and packed the cameras away, we had the added benefit of nipping down the road to some of oldest (a.k.a. long-suffering) friends’ for bit of tea’n'cake. Had I not been driving, it would have been a beer. Or two. Still, pretty much a perfect end to a perfect day.
Paul Wilkinson Photography presenting at Focus On Imaging 2010
Posted by Paul in For Website, News on February 24th, 2010
Just had the link through from Graphistudio: I’m going to be on their stand doing to 40-minute seminars at the UK’s largest photographic trade show – Focus on Imaging – that runs from 7th-10th March at the NEC in Birmingham.
Graphistudio are the world’s largest album supplier (and they make the most beautiful books you can imagine!) so it’s a real honour to be asked along!
Given the number of wedding photographers presenting at the show, I thought I’d talk about something that’s close to my (and any other parent’s) heart: the art of photographing kids. We’ve titled it:
“Teens, toddlers, tykes and triptychs”: The business of photographing children.
This is the best job in the world which always makes it a joy to talk about so, as you might imagine, I’m really excited about it. We’ll be there on Tuesday 9th March so if you’re around pop in and say hello!
Hmmm, I now have the challenge of sitting down and writing something. Where’s that pen….?!
Sarah Banks Bridal: a good friend making gorgeous bespoke wedding dresses
Posted by Paul in Chat, For Website on February 23rd, 2010
We’re very lucky in this job in that we meet loads of lovely and hugely talented people. And they’re very often very good friends of ours too!
This is true of Sarah Banks who I’ve known for 20 years or so now – and it just so happens that she’s a massively talented wedding dress designer! Based in Egham, Surrey she covers much of the same area that we do, so for anyone who’s reading our blog and is currently planning their Big Day, may I can strongly recommend that you have a look at her website.
Sarah is a) ridiculously talented b) the creator of some of the most beautiful bespoke dresses you’ll find and is c) really really lovely.
I’ve lifted this quote about her service from her website which, knowing Sarah, is spot on:
Cups of coffee, chat, meeting the family, talking about the day, planning for the day, planning the dress for the day, planning your dress for the day, fitting your dress, planning the veil, matching shoes, family see dress, hemline checked, checked again, sewn, glass of champagne, dress pick up arranged, packed, ready when you are
Which, incidentally (apart from the dress/shoes/veil aspects, obviously) is exactly how we like to do business too!
Hence a big plug for talent we like! 
Cheers
P.
PS. If you should contact her, say a big ‘hi’ from me an’ Sarah!
Catharine & Jon’s finished album from their wedding in North Curry, Somerset
Posted by Paul in For Website, Weddings on February 21st, 2010
I don’t mind showing our work off just a little. OK, maybe quite a lot. We’re very very proud of the quality of work we produce and we’re forever striving to make sure it’s the best that we can do. So it’s always a great pleasure when you look at the finished design of a book and think it’s just gorgeous.
So it is with Catharine & Jon’s wedding album. I know, I know I’m biased but still – this book is just beautiful – and very big. Oh, and very heavy too. Bend-the-knees-not-the-back kinda heavy. With 24 inch wide pages when it’s opened up (with no crease line or cut down the middle of each spread) and the most sumptuous Bomber Jacket leather cover, this is one serious wedding album.
It does help, of course, that their wedding at North Curry Church near Taunton in Somerset was stunning (and that both Jon and Catharine were the greatest fun to work with!) Every moment of the day from the arrival of the bride in a priceless VW camper van, that had been lovingly restored (and upgraded!) to the beautiful church to the couple throwing some remarkable (and slightly unlikely) shapes on the dancefloor at their reception at Kersey Mill. It was all just perfect.
So with those images in your head, have a flick through their album design. I think Sara, our fantastic album designer, had quite a lot of fun with this one – and it shows! The design brings the absolute best out of the images: this is an album that I think many people will be shown (just a guess – I know Catharine!) and hopefully everyone who sees it will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed capturing the images and creating the finished design.
Let us know what you think,
Cheers
P.
Amy & Jonny: Pre-Wedding shoot at Wendover Woods, Buckinghamshire
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle, Pre-Wedding on February 21st, 2010
OK, so you may have noticed our titles are quietly getting longer (and distinctly less ’snappy’) well, this is due to a push to help our rankings on web search engines. We recently won a couple more weddings at The Crazy Bear simply because the client searched for ‘Crazy Bear Photography’ and this blog came up on Google’s first page which is always good. We’re also recommended by them which is an additional help of course!
We don’t advertise anywhere (though look out for our new soon-to-be-branded Land Rover Defender!) so it’s always reassuring to hear that people are finding us online as well as through the many recommendations we get. And modifying our cryptic titles to be something a little more, well, useful is just another small step we’re taking!
Anyway, onto the subject of this particular blog: Amy & Jonny’s pre-wedding session at Wendover Woods. This Buckinghamshire setting (d’you see what I did there?!) is almost certainly our most-visited location along with Coombe Hill and our home village of Haddenham. I must make an effort to find something more industrial this year for our fashion clients but, well, if you have beautiful locations right on your doorstep then why not go with it?!
The weather wasn’t exactly easy to deal with – but it was suitably dramatic! Although the snow wasn’t sticking, it was coming down at quite a pace for a period!
Amy & Jonny are getting married at Nether Winchendon House later this year and we’re unbelievably excited about working with them both. So early this Saturday before the crowds arrived (actually, given the weather, I’m not sure there’d be much in the way of crowds except for dog-walkers, mountain-bikers and photographers but still) we found ourselves on the hillside of this amazing forest.
The session was brilliant fun (they brought their two very lively pet labradors with them!) and the photos are just what I’d hope for. Lots of character and a lot of fun. Can’t wait for the summer to photograph the whole family in such a wonderful setting as Nether Winchendon. Perfect.
Lucy, Steve & George: Photography session at the Mausoleum in West Wycombe
Posted by Paul in For Website, Lifestyle on February 20th, 2010
Ah, I’m sitting clearing up disks and backing up data. Not the most fun you can have but it’s absolutely critical (we had a disk fail a few weeks ago and, although we did indeed have everything we needed to recover the data, it was a nervous moment!)
It does have to be said that I’m pretty much as bad at cleaning up disks as I am cleaning up the desk around my Mac and printers – my biggest problem being I’ll find something interesting and immediately get distracted by it! Which is exactly what happened here – I was moving some files around and caught sight of these album files for Lucy & Steve.
Although most people probably associate albums with wedding photography, rather than lifestyle or fashion, we actually produce nearly as many lifestyle and family books. Why not? A lifestyle shoot does, after all, create a whole load of priceless images that are just as important, particularly if they’re from a family session, and will last a lifetime. And they look great in a beautiful album!
So here’s one from last year: Lucy, Steve & George. We photographed Lucy & Steve’s wedding so it was wonderful to see them again – particularly with the addition of George. We chose the location as the Mausoleum that rises high above West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. A stunning location! I loved this shoot and we have some truly gorgeous images of all three of them – particularly George who is a real character!
Just brilliant!
Cheers
P.
Sassy & Co
Posted by Paul in Fashion, For Website on February 17th, 2010
Our studio isn’t particularly big. Large enough for most of what we do, but when 3 models and 6 stylists bowled up I knew it was going to be, well, intimate. And so it proved to be. Good fun though. Besides, our local pub isn’t very far away so we sent a couple of the guys off for a quick pint while they waited. They didn’t exactly protest, it has to be said.
As for the shoot, well this is another in a long and happy series we’ve done with Sassy & Co. in High Wycombe. I get quite excited about these sessions as they’re a little out of the norm for us – although we do work with models occasionally, it’s usually to create a much more ‘lifestyle’ image rather than these more stylised images that are clearly more at home in the ‘fashion’ category. Still, who wouldn’t want a portrait where you look this good? I think we might be doing more of this style of image in our portrait sessions.
We’ve worked with Charlie before so I knew he’d be very easy (and we’d get great images of course – something of a pre-requisite!) but it’s the first time we’ve worked with either Katy or Sophie. And I think we might be working with them again! Great, great images and a joy to work with. Even with 9 people in our little studio!
Let us know what you think.
Cheers
P.
There is nothing quite like a good book.
Posted by Paul in For Website, Weddings on January 15th, 2010
There’s nothing quite like a good book. Particularly if it’s full of your photographs.
Had a great meeting this morning with our album designer (who’s both lovely and a great designer!) to set the layout ideas running for this year’s albums.
I have to admit we’re hugely proud of these weighty tomes – they’re really really beautiful things, all custom-made and finished in some of the most sumptuous leathers and materials available. Everything from mirror finish patents, to exquisite linens and the softest leathers. All skilfully wrapped around state-of-the-art (yup, there is an art to this) prints and bindings, with each page – even though they’re incredibly thick – able to lie completely flat and open to allow those big panoramic images we’re known for.
Gorgeous albums that will, quite simply, bring back irreplaceable memories for a lifetime.
But even with such stunning craftsmanship, our albums wouldn’t be much without beautiful designs inside them. And that’s where our designers come in. That and the small matter of a load of images to play with! We regularly get together to chat through the kinds of designs that we (and our clients) will like and what sorts of photographs we should be shooting to make it possible. That way we know that the photography and albums will continue to develop and evolve so they’re always fresh and exciting!
This particular album is from Debbie & Kit’s wedding last year up in Chilton.
Gorgeous wedding. Stunning couple.
Absolutely fabulous album.
Blimey, I’m beginning to sound like a creative.
Pass the Bolly darling. Mwah, mwah.
Here comes the rain again
Posted by Paul in For Website, Personal on January 12th, 2010
Is it wrong that I feel as miserable as the kids about the incoming demise of our icy wonderland?
Apparently, it’s de rigeur, when one reaches a certain age (which – at least according to our daughter – I apparently have) to be downbeat about this winter playground but I just can’t help myself.
Firstly, I was just as excited as my two children when the snow arrived. Possibly more so. I’m not sure it’s very grown up to be peering out of the curtains at 6am to see if it’s settled. But there I was, my nose pressed excitedly against the frost-encrusted glass hoping that school would be canceled! The whole thing took me right back to my North Wales childhood where, at least in my head, it snowed each and every winter (oh and Curly Wurlies were significantly bigger and you could still buy a quarter of sweets – there really was nothing like the taste of paper bag inextricably attached to your sherbet pips!)
Secondly, it’s a dream come true when it comes to creating beautiful images – be it portraits or landscapes, snow-ridden light is gorgeous to work in. All in all I couldn’t be happier (though it does have to be said that we use a 4×4 for the business so the snow isn’t quite so restricting as it might be for some – grit or no grit!)
Part photographer. Part delinquent.
Anyway, given that it’s due to thaw over the next few days, here are a handful of personal images I captured while ‘off-duty’.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, it’s not all fun in the snow – we have also been working flat out in it – this is perfect light for portraits and we have quite a few to show you in the coming weeks.
Enjoy
Oh, and thanks to Jon Hook for grabbing the shot of Sarah and me with Harriet on the sledge. Brilliant!
Claire & Iain’s Crazy Bear Wedding Album
Posted by Paul in For Website, Weddings on January 11th, 2010
We’re at that lovely time of year at the moment where much of our work involves planning the next twelve months and looking back (with a lot of enjoyment it must be said) to some of the sessions and weddings we did last year.
We’ve already talked about Claire and Iain’s wedding at the Crazy Bear but I thought you might be curious as to their finished album. Well, it was every bit as stunning (and as unusual) as their wedding. 12 inches square and finished in the most beautiful calfskin leather (and weighing more than your average Italian car), it is truly unique – just as every wedding album should be!
Cheers
P.
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