Landscape Photographer

Landscape Photography Workshop - Hollycroft Park

August 30, 2019 in Photography Classes, Photography Workshops

Autumn Photography Workshop in Hollycroft Park, Hinckley

Join a like minded group of beginner photography enthusiasts to learn how to improve your photography skills.

On this workshop you’ll learn the following:

How to set up your camera for landscape photography
How to design a frame and use professional compositional techniques
How to study the light and create form in your pictures
What to photograph and how to identify a good picture before you look through your viewfinder
You’ll learn how to adjust the settings on your camera to go with the flow and be more natural making photographs
You’ll learn this on a nice Sunday evening in September during Autumn and be with a group of like minded people.

All you will need:

Clothes, shoes, digital camera, a tripod (if you have one) and a love for nature.

You can find more information and book one of the limited places using this link.

If you can’t make this date, sign up for news to your email inbox about up coming workshops.

The Combe Martin Landscape, North Devon.

July 23, 2018 in Landscape Photography, Tourism Photography

Tourism Photography

Showing off the landscape for travellers and tourists.

During a trip to Combe Martin in North Devon for our holiday and exploration of the area, I was overwhelmed by the naturla beauty that surrounds the resort and reacted by making photographs that I felt showed off the place in a promotional way.

This is a skill that I apply to my commercial photography. I look for the shape of the land and work with how the light falls up on it, shaping the form and romanticising the landscape.

I'm not strictly a sublimne romantic photographer and this genre is one that I usually leave for the photography enthusiasts but when I was faced with these beautiful scenes in Combe Martin, I couldn't refuse the exposures.

This is a small selection of the pictures that I made during this trip, I hope you enjoy them?

This kind of Landscape Photography can be used to help promote holiday parks, resorts and campsites as well as support the tourism board in promoting destinations. If you'd like to make an enquiry about commissioning me for an assignment, please hit this button gently...

contact paul hands

Sublunary - Alien Invasion of Planet Earth

April 17, 2018 in Fine Art Photography, Night Landscape Photo

Fine Art Photography meets Visual Stories

Sublunary - Part 2

As a professional photographer, Father to the most beautiful little toddler in the world and Husband to an equally beautiful Mother; I find it difficult to get out and make personal work.

In 2017, I graduated from University with a High 2:1 in a BA Hons in Photography & Video degree at De Montfort University, where the idea for this project was born. I began with a long period of time in the library, scouring art books and photographic archives, learning about who, what where, when, why and how specific bodies of work was made.

Surprisingly, I came across some painters and other Fine Art Photographers that worked in similar fields to my research. One in particular that sticks out in my mind was Photographer Erasmus Schroeter and Painter Max Ernst.

I was also heavily inspired by my lecturer (Kosovan) Lala Meredith-Vula who is a contemporary fine art photographer with international recognition. Lala's ideas about my work and how to get the best out of me was first class and Lala's self confessed crazy mind was a perfect match for the project I had stuck in my head. She knew just how to get me excited about my own work.

So the body of work for Sublunary began. I created a series of landscape photographs that followed the narrative of an imaginary alien invasion of the planet Earth. A tall order you might think? I just needed the right level of inspiration and a camera. At the end of creating the work for my degree, I put it all together in a short movie with a spooky sound track that I created myself. You can watch that below.

I'm now about to embark on a much longer journey that will see me creating a whole new body of work for Sublunary Part 2. I'll be using my experiences from the first part of the project and will be digging deeper in to my imagination.

Here's a sneaky peek at my first experiment for part 2...

This is called 'The Mute' and features a landscape photograph that has been manipulated in camera by myself. I added the red light using the brake lights on my car and chose this location for the crazy tree that could be morphed in to any kind of other worldly creature. The reverse side of the road sign represents having nothing to say, to be muted and to be stunned by the experience of an alien invasion. You will see that I've also added a strange shaped metal frame on the right. This represents an alien being and is the shape of a large humanoid or key hole. It is hollow and appears invisible with the exception of the outer edges.

The scene is lit like a stage as if the play is being carried out and has undertones of humour, not to be taken seriously. It's a project that I can literally play and have fun with. I have a list of locations, that I've been building, so you can watch to see how this develops.

De Montfort University bought the first 5 prints of this project and hold them in their permanent art collection on campus. You can also read more about this project here.

If you'd like to follow my work then you can subscribe to my emails (below) or follow my social media channels.

Can Street and Landscape Photography Skills be utilised for a Commercial Organisation?

March 28, 2018 in Commercial Photography, Professional Photographer

Commercial Photography in Leicestershire.

Can the skills gained whilst making personal work be transferred to a commercial client brief?

YES!

The end!

Well, not actually the end, this is the beginning and that was a bit gimmicky!

Phillip Hammond and Sajid Javid visiting a Morris Homes building site in Leicester.

The image of Hammond and Javid above was a picture that I made while on a recent PR photo shoot for The BJL Group and Morris Homes. It involved working closely with The Treasury and working to a brief. This was the cover image used for a blog written by Morris Homes and wasn't really on the brief they gave me.

As an avid Street Photography fan and practitioner, this was a naturally easy type of shot to get for me. The rest of the press group were a good 20 feet behind me. I had a brief to work to and they were just collecting imagery, so I had a free run. The government ministers walked very quickly and it was a cold February morning. You can even see Phillip Hammond breathing out some misty air. The shot isn't perfect but in this kind of situation, perfection isn't what's required, it's the story that counts and with the Morris Homes flags waving around in the background, it was just what they wanted but didn't know about that at the time.

This picture above is of the building for one of my regular clients The SFB Group a nationwide firm of accountants. It's all too easy to make a picture looking straight on at the building. I wanted to create something that fitted with their branding which was quite dynamic, hence the acute angle. This is loosely where landscape photography skills come in useful, I positioned the composition acutely to create a more interesting view of something usually very ordinary. The angle has given the building form and made it look more three dimensional.

David Treddinick meeting with the owners of Enchanted Bell Tents

The above picture uses Street Photography skills because it's candid and the people in the picture are unaware of my presence. My intention was to follow my brief and collect natural looking pictures of the MP David Treddinick meeting local business owners at the launch of the new Bosworth Visitors Map at a special event held at Royal Arms in Sutton Cheney.

A Street Photograph made in Leicester city centre.

Mirror Man, Street Photography in Paris.

I've shared a small selection of my street photography to show the similarities to shooting reportage and PR work. Also the landscape picture that I've included is more of a contextual play with the words and space in the frame. The sign on the right reads 1 million square foot, so I've framed the image to include lots of space to insinuate that you can see 1 million square foot in the frame.

I've included the picture of the giant chicken tree because I think it's cool.

I've crafted my skills over a long period of time, been judged, examined, won awards and gained a level 3 qualification, HND and a BA Hons in photography through creating this style of work. I've figured out a way to transfer my skills to a growing client base, who are using me more and more regularly.

My clients keep coming back to me and won't use anyone else now. Assuming I can keep this up, yes, street and landscape photography skills are very transferable to a commercial client,.

The trick is to get deep in the minds of the commissioners to learn what they want and to identify with the brief. Once the purpose is established, I can easily determine what kind of pictures to make and which style to use.

My images now appear on many company websites, marketing literature and newspapers online and in print.

You can enquire with me about my availability or to get a quote for your business here.

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