I love the process of ensnaring life’s little moments.
With my photography I seek to capture the true personality of my subjects and believe that in order to bring out their authentic character, people need to feel relaxed and happy.
In my book chilled out and happy people lead to better portrait photography!
Whether it’s a landscape, an event, a project based shoot or family portrait photography, the ultimate challenge for me is to capture the very essence of what it is that is flowering before me. It is something I enjoy immensely.
I aim to capture the beautiful, the intriguing, the gritty, the fun, the moving, the abstract… The moment!
What are the characteristics of my photography?
Where people are concerned my style is largely based around a candid and reportage approach. Shooting from the hip and snatching those wonderful moments as and when they occur when people are off guard. This is definitely one of my favourite ways to capture images and portraits of people. That said, I do love the control of a studio setting too. When I can control the light I still employ this same philosophy when working with people. I like a relaxed space where people can just chat, kick back and very much be themselves. I tend to get the shots in the gaps so to speak. That’s where the good stuff is.
Making beautiful images is it’s own reward, be it in the studio or out in the natural world using natural or available occurring light. There are some amazing backdrops in this beautiful world, and I love to head out and take shots in amazing places. Studio photography and reportage photography are both exciting and hugely rewarding. I’m constantly searching to capture that perfect moment, whether it’s a glance, a mood, a colour, a smile or cry, or some beautiful madness unfolding out in front of me.
My landscape photography is a different kettle of fish completely in many ways, but the principles of observation are pretty much the same when looking for that certain image/composition. Landscape photography is very much about being in a place and waiting, reading weather, watching the light, watching the cloud activity and looking for a certain drama unfolding within the landscape. It can take much planning at times, certainly if you want to photograph something specific like a coastal scene for instance. You have to think about tide times, sun rise and sun set times if you are looking to make good use of that golden hour light or maybe even the blue hour etc. Some of it is about chance and serendipity. But most of the time you have to immerse yourself within the landscape to have any chance of something special.
It can be a very involved process, but also extremely rewarding when you get it right and the weather behaves as planned/predicted. Having your kit with you at all times can facilitate this. When you are out and about in the world and some drama in the landscape appears before you like an incredible vista from a fairytale, the only way you will capture it is if you have to means to capture it. I always have my kit with me. Well, nearly always.
