Earlier in Feb myself and good friend (sometimes assistant / Sometimes 2nd shooter) Stuart headed over to Chester to shoot for CH1 Studios owned by Sarah.

I have photographed Sarah before about 6 years ago when she was still based near Manchester.

I can't believe it had been 6 years. How time flies. 

The brief for this job was to provide portraits, head shots and some dance portraits for the studios website. For larger job like this I tend to pack heavier than normal making sure that I have all bases covered and am ready for any change to the brief whilst on location.

Stuart was with me to assist and he also provided use of a Tether Tools – Case Air gadget which allows you to wirelessly tether your camera to a tablet or laptop for client previews.  Let’s just say that I am trying to not look at that thing online, it worked very very well.

We met Sarah and Craig at the studio and set about building the first light set for the head shots and portraits. During the shoot it was easy to see that Sarah & Craig are good friends, which comes across in the images we captured during the evening.

   BTS Images...

The first thing I do when getting to a new location is look for a simple clean white or grey wall. I knew the studio had one but did not know ceiling height or other layout restrictions, thankfully we had plenty of space to work.

It’s always nice to start with some simple head shots and portraits to give time to get to know your client and for everyone to warm up to the shoot. You talk, ask questions and just get to know each other.

You also have to have some fun on set. These shots are always great and provide extra for use on social media.

After the portraits and head shots were taken care of we moved to some dance portraits.  This is where the real collaboration begins, I can light a set and figure out the right camera & lens for the shot but I needed to take input form Sarah & Craig regarding the dance poses and portraits.  If you have ever seen me dance you will know why.

It was during this part that the Tether Tools – Case Air came in real handy.  The screens on a DSLR are about 3” and not good enough to judge critical images on let alone have 3-4 people crowd around to see.   The tethering meant a 10” tablet could be used to provide a larger screen to preview images on and work on refining the frames.

After about 2.5 hours shooting we packed up and headed home or in my case back to the studio to offload the gear and backup the files.

Thank you, Sarah & Craig. All the best for CH1 Studios.  Also a big thanks to Stuart for the assist.

Stuart if you read this please don’t let me buy the Case Air at The Photography Show later this month.  😊

*I have some BTS video but need some time to put something together in post,  watch this space.  :)

Thanks for reading.
Rick