The Wedding of Mr & Mrs Charnock - 14th Oct 2017

November 05, 2017 in Wedding

On Oct 14th 2017 I had the pleasure and honor of photographing the wedding of Lee & Jane Charnock and what a day it was.

We started off at St Luke with All Saints Church for the ceremony where family and friends joined Lee & Jane to share their special day. St Lukes is a large grand church that is also Grade 2 listed.

Family, Friends + A Weekend in Wales

May 03, 2016 in Family, Personal

During April I helped some friends move house from Stockport to Wales, whilst it's hard to see them move far away I am happy that they have taken the jump and moved to such a beautiful place and on to better things/opportunities.

A little about the weekend...

I want to take this opportunity to let you all know that I somehow managed to miss my junction on the A55 and almost end up boarding a ferry in Holyhead, I am saying this because I know full well my sister from another mister (Hi Ellen) will mentioned it in the comments - some things in life you will never live down.

This was not the only daft thing I did this weekend....anyway.

Once the last loads were moved I decided to stay with them for 2 days and got not only to spend time with people I call family but also visit the amazing Newborough Beach.

The beach has other names that I can't even begin to pronounce but more importantly it's a beautiful place to visit and on a clear day has great views of Snowdonia. I really like this place.

(It also has large sharp rocks, my right hand and elbow tell me... It's ok I saved the camera)

It's one of those places you could go for the day with nothing but some refreshments and good company whilst just sitting and enjoying the location and views, of course on the day I visited I had a camera with me in the form of my Fuji X100+TLC lens and deicide to see what photographs I could find.

Below are a few photographs from the day. ( Click for larger view )

To the family.. Ellen, Steve, Zakk & Saul, keep a bed set and beer in the fridge because I will be back again soon to visit you guys. Miss you all and wish you all the happiness in the world in your new home.

If you need me I am just a phone call and 150 miles away :)

Thank you for reading.
Rick

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Client Work: 3 Families 1 Day Part 3 – Danny, Megan, Laura

May 05, 2013 in Client Shoot, Photography, Studio

This is the third shoot that took part on that day. Best part about this shoot is that it was for a good friend of mine who I had not seen for years Dan. So I was in the studio making photographs and catching up with an old (not in literal terms mate :) ) friend/meeting his family… nothing I would've rather of been doing.

I grew up with Dan and went through high school and college with him, hell he was the guy who got me into Martial Arts training. We must have thrown a good number of kicks and punches each others way over those years, but no kicking and punching this time.

After college when we all went our separate ways we drifted apart, it happens to many people... Life happens/moves on, gets in the way a little… makes us busy. Anyway it was dam good to see him and to finally meet Megan and Laura. Dan’s son Elliot was not present at this shoot but we will schedule another shoot with them all together (Dan ring me about that).

We chatted and caught up which gave Megan time to get use to a busy studio with lights and gear around. Both myself and Dan said neither of us had changed much… funny that.

One thing that was a nice surprise was Dan’s interest in the photo taking process, lights camera and all that... Ended up handing him the camera which you will see coming up

Shot mostly on the white seamless, nice, clean and simple and looked 10x better than grey or black paper unlit when shooting family images full length. Grey works for fashion.. Not so much for family on full length. Anyway during the shoot its important to get your clients or children involved, just happens that sometimes the client becomes the child… sorry Dan.

One of the many wig props the studio has to hand. Suites you Dan.

We started with a few images of Laura, Megan and Dan together. Sometimes you can let them just be and interact, sometimes you pose.. other times you ask Megan if Dad is ticklish.

Turns out he was. :)

We then grabbed a few frame with Megan and Laura in before Megan was comfortable enough to have some of just her.

Now I don’t normally include images of people picking noses but it so reminds me of Dan.

At this point Megan was starting to relax in to the shoot.

I love both of these images of Megan; in fact they are both in my portfolio galleries.

You can’t beat simple black and white and a moment between mother and daughter, Of course followed by an upside down moment with Dad.

Usually during a shoot we take a break and get everyone off the set. But I always stay aware of the available light in the studio be it window, fluorescent or a mix of the two. This means I set the camera to the available light and shoot some frames in between sets. These are black and white due to the mixed and not so great light, but remember its not always about light.. the moments matter as well and are just as if not more important.

Whilst I was making the above images Dan was shooting with My X100 and catching me at work.

Well done Dan, the last one is my favourite.

We also took a break during a lighting set up change over, and Dan wanted to take some images of me with Megan so I dialled in exposure and handed him the 5D and 85mm lens. Nicely done Dan.. Maybe I should of let him shoot all of them.

Yeah don't ask.

I also shot some images with a simple one light set up using a white wall to give another option for prints. Used the 7’ Parabolic umbrella with diffusion cover, great big soft light source.

We ended the shoot with talking about photography and some of the gear, Dan asked me to make a dramatic portraits of him, something moody for facebook. Ok no problem.

I rigged up a speedlite with a Grid spot and boomed it over head. Explained to Dan if you move your out of the light and shot this frame.. well after a few others where he cracked up smiling or laughing.

Dan also wanted a dramatic side lit half face shot, sure thing. This was lit by the 28” Westcott Apollo allowing more light on to the background to prevent all his dark hair going black against a dark background. Moody, Serious and dramatic images. Which could not be further from Dan as a person.. He’s not at all moody.

Dan,

Thank you for booking me to photograph your and your family. And thank you to Laura and of course the little star Megan.

Lets not leave it so long to catch up again Dan, had a blast. We are long over due a few pints and a curry my friend.

Also thanks to my local studio Ians Studio for the studio space.

Thank you for reading.
Rick

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Client Work (3 Family Shoots 1 Day part 2) – Harry & George Hughes

April 28, 2013 in Client Shoot, Child, Photography, Photo Shoot

Part 2 of this blog series is shoot number 2 of 3 than took place on that busy day.

This shoot was with Harry & George Hughes; they arrived with Grandma as mum and Dad were working.

I kept on the white seamless for this shoot. Reason is its cleaner.. Allot cleaner. If you shoot on grey or black paper backgrounds with no boards / plexi it does not look as neat as a white seamless set does.

A great shot of them both together. Brothers and at this point friends.

We then moved on to some images of just Harry.

As you will see through this set of photographs of Harry the expressions became more fun and silly. This was in a bid to get little brother George back in to the shoot.

Yeah Harry found a hat. Kids love these hats.. but sometimes I wish I would remember to hide them for longer. But it was the hat that got George back in to the shoot.. he loves that hat.

Little George checking out Harry’s Spiderman impression.

Harry was enjoying moving around at this point which can always make for some interesting images.

This was Harry talking about his super heroes with George listing in.

I managed to get Grandmar Judith in front of the camera for one shot. That toy truck belongs to one of my god sons did not think I was going to get it back off George.

The next set of images are of George not wanting Harry near his cushion… not even close.

Get off its mine!

Next I got Harry talking about his favourite super heroes again.. do this and he’s away and can talk for ages.. you may also make him get up find another hat and start kicking the you know what out of imaginary bad guys. Come on we have all done that before.

Just enough time at the end to have a face pulling.. face off.

Thank you Harry, George, Judith and Mum & Dad for another fun shoot. And again thank to Ian’s Studio for the studio space.

For the photographers: Keep it simple, simple light and simple set.. make it about the kids and about the family. Oh watch out for hats :)

Shot with a Canon 5D2 and either a 50mm or 85mm prime lens. I need to (infact just have) add a zoom lens to the kit for studio work, primes can be a bit limiting if you need to shift position quickly.

ISO 250
1/125th sec
F11 – giving some wiggle room with Depth of Field.

All images lit with 2 lights on the background and one 60” umbrella as the main light, reason is simplicity, it’s a huge modifier giving a soft light with good coverage for multiple people on a set. I used it in reflective configuration as you can get more light from it that way, shoot through takes more power.

Thank you for reading.
Rick

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