Professional Photographer Leicestershire

Hinckley Bid's 9th Annual Soap Box Derby Film

July 16, 2018 in Commercial Film, Documentary Film

The Soap Box Derby

Hinckley BID (Business Improvement District) organise many social events in the small market town centre in Leicestershire every year in what is now becoming an historic tradition.

I was commissioned to create a short film of the whole event and arrived early on the Sunday morning of the race day. The first thing I encountered was the huge numbers of entrants hanging around in the pits, tinkering around and putting the final touches towards their carts.

The Soap Box Derby is a timed solo race down Castle Street which is a large hill named after a small Mott and Bailey that centered in Hinckley many years ago. Castle Street is a long downhill gradient and the course is manufactured with a chicane and a ramp with a large stopping and turning area at the bottom of the hill.

Thousands of people come to Hinckley from all over the UK to watch the derby and this film is a short tribute to everyone that takes part in both the racing and the organisation.

The commission was to create this short film with a focus upon the event and the crowds that flock to watch and for the purpose of showcasing the extent the BID go to, to bring people in to the town centre and to show how good for local business are the BID and the events that bring the footfall.

Documentary Photography and Filmmaking

Public Relations Photography

Corporate Website Imagery

Landscape Photography

Documentary Photography

Clients: Charities, Local Government, Corporate and SME business

Events, promotion and storytelling visual needs

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New Website Photographs

June 07, 2018 in Commercial Photography, Business Photographer

Corporate Business Photography

Tailored photographs designed for your new or existing company website.

Most of my clients need my services to help them clean up their websites, to help support their brands and to promote their business to their own clients and potential new business.

The SFB Group in Nuneaton commissioned me to create corporate portraits of every member of staff from all of their UK offices in 2017 and then became a returning client in 2018 when they required new photographs for their website and for public relations in the local media. The above photograph was created so they have a strong photograph to use in their recruitment campaigns.

JJ Churchill in Market Bosworth commissioned me to provide a series of corporate headshots of their Directors, working photographs of staff in situ, on site and operating their multimillion pound machines, which are used to create precision aerospace parts as well as product photography of their machined parts.

Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council commissioned me to produce a series of images for public relations to help promote their tourism partnership project, starting with a new Bosworth visitors map. The image below shows MP David Treddinick giving a speech to the local tourism businesses and other council dignitaries.

Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, David Treddinick

Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond and Sajid Javid Home Secretary

Morris Homes and the Treasury commissioned me to provide a natural candid style of public relations photography to help them promote the new Homes England campaign to support house builders throughout the UK. These images were used in social media blogs and on their website, all in aid of supporting positive direction.

The commonality of my image making:

These are just some of the commissions that I've been working on during 2018 and the common theme between all of them is the platform in which the images will be published, as well as the fact that most of my photographs are about people and place and always with promotion and a positive end result.

In the near future, I have a large commission for local government to produce a year-long series of documentary films promoting how the Business Improvement District support local businesses. This will be heavily focused on the footfall of the town centre, the busyness and how the BID bring business to the businesses.

I'm a passionate photographer and filmmaker that specialises in storytelling and promotion. Check out my client list and services here, along with great examples of the finished product of my assignments.

This is just a small snippet of my client list:

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If you're considering hiring a professional photographer to create brand-specific photographs for your website, social media or for newspapers and magazines, then make an enquiry to discuss whether your assignment and my skills & availability are compatible.

Enquiries

Alternatively, call me now on 07854 956 970

My phones in my pocket on vibrate, I won't miss your call.

Email: paul@paulhands.co.uk

PR Photographer, Midlands

May 01, 2018 in Professional Photographer, Public Relations Photogra

Public Relations Photography Midlands Service

All good leading brands need to self promote

How my PR photography service can help your brand?

I'll answer that question easily enough, I'm great with candid photography. I'm a street photographer at heart and this genre of photography is a very fast paced pictorial style that can't be done well by just anybody. The snapshot is often and incorrectly disregarded because of the quick nature in which they have to be created. It actually takes great craft, skill and observational techniques that can only be grown by a practicing and experienced photographer.

Sajid Javid (Home Secretary) & Phillip Hammond (Chancellor of the Exchequer) at Morris Homes, Leicester.

The story is always the important part of the picture and in the image above, Sajid Javid who was at the time of this photoshoot, was the Secretary of State and Phillip Hammond who is still the Chancellor of the Exchequer. They both visited Morris Homes in Leicester as part of a PR stunt aimed at boosting the new Homes England campaign by the government. In this picture Hammond and Javid spoke with house building apprentices in one of the show homes. They were genuinely interested in what the apprentices had to say.

I had to light this image with a speed light in order to bring out the details of the people with this being inside a fairly dark room (for photography). The PR shoot was mixed and based both inside and outside, with me moving quickly between environments. Many lighting factors had to be considered and worked around to get the images clean and crisp enough for professional usage.

Sajid Javid, Home Secretary, Public Relations Photography Shoot.

The above image was made outside and extra lighting wasn't required to get that candid feel. Lighting always make everything look staged. I was hired purposefully to create a documentary feel to the images.

David Treddinick Politician Hinckley & Bosworth MP

David Treddinick visited an event that was held by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council at The Royal Arms in Sutton Cheney in the district of Hinckley & Bosworth. The event was a celebration and event for the tourism industry, filled with many local businesses in the district like Twycross Zoo, Bosworth Water Park and Tropical Birdland. I was hired at the last minute, and luckily I was available and always happy to cater for emergencies and urgent requirements.

Employees at JJ Churchill Aerospace Engineering Ltd.

I was hired by a marketing agency to provide some pr photographs, product shots and studio styled headshots of the Directors for JJ Churchill Aerospace Engineering in Market Bosworth. Churchill's required imagery for their website and also for some marketing material at a trade show. This was also a last minute booking and I was hired urgently with a premium request for the turnaround of the images within 24 hours. I provide an overnight service that helps companies complete their marketing needs at late notice and with precision.

Diabetes UK booked me to provide documentary styled images that could be used for public relations and to help push focus towards their charity, hopefully gaining support, donations and convince parents to pay for their children to attend their type one events.

What ever your visual requirements are, what ever your budget is and whether you need still or moving images. I can provide you a tailored service that gives you a service and product that meets your budget.

My diary is very busy but I do have spaces for new business, so if you have any pr photography requirements, then please don't hesitate to get in touch.

I also provide services for:

Website Imagery
Marketing Photographs
Public Relations
Moving Image
Documentary Photography and Filmmaking
Corporate Portraiture / Headshots
Landscape Photography
Street Photography

The best thing to do if you think you might be able to use my services is to make a note of my contact details and / or just get in touch now.

Contact Me

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.

Home to Home

February 18, 2018 in Night Landscape Photo, Landscape Photography

Night Landscape Photographer England

Home To Home

This series of pictures are part of the experimental stage of what could potentially become a new project.

"I leave home and return, that's the single most repetitive thing I do".

The other night I left home to go and make a series of night landscapes around my local area between Hinckley and Coalville. My search was for the unusual quirkiness surrounding our towns and villages. Some man made and some natural with street signs, giant posters in the middle of nowhere and concrete bollards in-between such beauty in the landscape.

February News

New Clients:

I'm pleased to welcome new clients Hinckley BID, BJL Group, Morris Homes, ARO PR and Marketing and JJ Churchill on board.

Also this month I'll be working on new assignments for two existing clients; Mode Transport Planning and the SFB Group.

More work will also be going in to the application to Grants for the Arts through the Arts Council for a major Environmental Portrait project I'm hoping to work on this year.

If you'd like to keep up with my news or get my blogs and pictures delivered to you via email, subscribe here. Facebook are messing around with the algorithms for pages and a lot of Creatives are not able to share their art. So this is one way for artists to stay in touch with the community.

Public Relations Photographer Hinckley Leicestershire Midlands PR

February 02, 2018 in Public Relations Photogra, Professional Photographer

Public Relations Key Visual Messages

A recently stage managed reportage styled shoot.

Working with the BJL Group Ltd. Morris Homes and The Treasury.

Homes England is a recently formed organisation by the Government to deliver a series of housing targets in the future for England. They sent the current housing secretary Sajid Javid who launched the agency and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond to meet with the top brass at Morris Homes; CEO Mike Gaskell and Dominic Harman at one of their large sites in Leicester where members of the press and the BBC were waiting to film and photograph the occasion.

Sajid Javid, Mike Gaskell, Dominic Harman, Phillip Hammond.

The shoot was carefully thought out with instructions from Homes England, The Treasury and Morris Homes PR to create a series of pictures that fits within their thought out narrative. Each situation was managed with The Treasury tugging on our sleeves to end scenes and move on towards the next stages. It's quite bizarre assignment in the sense that each creative was hired to give their skills and at great expense, to be directed from behind.

Prior to the arrival of the Government Ministers, each scene was walked through and discussed with careful planning on the direction of light, most preferred back drops and positioning. In other words even the composition was almost curated before the event.

Sajid Javid, Phillip Hammond, Three Apprentices

CEO Mike Gaskell (Morris Homes), Phillip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

On this type of shoot, there's usually a lot of standing around and on this occasion it was no different. Finding things to do when they party is talking and you've already got a ton of good shots but waiting to move on to the next scene.

If you're a PR professional and looking for a travelling PR Photographer around the UK, then please get in touch.

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Photography Adventures

November 30, 2017 in Astrophotography, Documentary Photography

Immersing in Photography

Photography is so yesterday

I covered a roof top party for Mode Transport Planning at their head offices in Birmingham during the Summer and towards the end of the night, my wife Lisa discovered these cool stairs. This week I hand delivered a framed print for them and was proud to hang it on the wall in their office.

I've managed to raise £1500 for a photographic project around my home town, involving 60 local business owners. The project is to create environmental portraits of each self employed business owner.

I'm running a niche workshop on Monday evening, creating low light urban photographs.

The documentary styled short I've been working on for Diabetes UK is finished and we're awaiting news of a release date. I'm looking forwards to sharing this with you, it's been one of my favourite assignments this year.

I can't forget graduating from university as a mature student this year. Studying photography has been a long old slog in the establishments. I've loved every minute of it, even the minutes I wasn't that tickled about.

I've enjoyed getting creative with my camera, learning to create photographs out of the ordinary that make me feel good about them. Most of the time, just for the hell of it.

Danger High Voltage from the series 'Sublunary 1'

I'm working on getting some of my best work printed and made available in my online shop.

Learn More

Yellow Is The Colour Of Sunshine

October 13, 2017 in Documentary Photography, Landscape Photography

"Of the colour between green and orange in the spectrum, a primary subtractive colour complementary to blue; coloured like ripe lemons or egg yolks."

Often Yellow is a beautiful colour in the Sun and is synonymous with nature, the brightest of all the spectrum and the colour that usually automatically attracts the eye toward.

This is a short body of personal work that is experimental in practice. Something which I do to keep my eyes trained on the world. I find work like this is more a test for myself to prove to myself that I see things differently to others and my desire to share my vision of a slowed down world, brings your attention to this project.

This is my personal work that I sometimes like to just go out for a walk to see what I can find. A test to see what my eyes and mind are looking at, something that puts me in the zone.

I had no brief, just walked and worked with what ever the environment presented to me.

If you'd like to chat to me, click here.

Art of Photography Workshop

September 01, 2017 in Photography Workshops, Photography Classes

Since starting the Art of Photography Group, this is the first physical workshop I've ran. I've ran many other workshops but have improved as a practitioner and have learned how to teach people in a much better way. So I ran a mini workshop for the group on Wednesday night and it went really well.

This was a rescheduled event because the first date was a wash out, it chucked it down and then I had to try and co-ordinate 9 peoples diaries. In the end we got there, and it wasn't easy watching the weather on the run up to the rescheduled workshop!

The day before the workshop was terrifying (well maybe I'm being a little over dramatic), the Met Office predicted rain all morning and a little shower in the evening. The workshop was to take place between 6:30pm and 9:30pm. On the morning of the workshop, the Met Office said it would rain until midday and be dry for the rest. Then at lunch time they predicted rain all day and all night, until 2pm when they said it would dry up at lunch and then give us heavy showers between 7pm and 9pm.

I couldn't take this anymore! So I didn't look for another hour and they said it would be dry all evening. That was it, I shut down my mac and accepted that. It wouldn't change again!

I know from experience of watching the skies as a photographer that rain followed by a sunny dry spell usually gives a dramatic sunset. This is just what I would have ordered for my group, dry weather and a dramatic sunset.

Some of the people in the group were complete beginners and some were amateurs and all were looking to either improve their photography skills or to learn how to use their camera properly.

Each one left my workshop knowing how to use a camera on manual properly, how to set up their camera to give them complete control over their images.

What's more important with my photography group is that they all have a common interest.

I run the group in the evening once a month. It's called The Art Of Photography and we have a Facebook group that you can join if you like. We share information about photographers, styles, have workshops, will be visiting exhibitions and have artists come along to talk to us about their photography on occasions. You can visit and join the group by following the above link.

If you'd like to learn more about the group and or my workshops, please contact me here.

A Commercial Film Production To Remember

August 20, 2017

I was booked by Diabetes UK to produce a commercial film, a trailer and a series of documentary style photographs. They came to me because they wanted the natural candid feel that I often produce. They wanted a sense of fun to help promote their Type 1 events to the children and parents who have to endure type one diabetes on a daily basis.

I jumped at the chance because I felt that working with such a genuine and helpful charity is how I want my business to be seen. I always offer a generous discount to charities. This opportunity was to work a a large group of 8-10 year olds who all have type 1 diabetes and these events are designed to help the children learn to manage the diabetes on their own, and to continue to enjoy a normal, healthy and active lifestyle.

They attend without their parents and love every minute of it!

Shooting this film and producing the documentary is up there with the best commercial project I've been commissioned to do. The children were an inspiration and genuinely warmed my heart.

I'm currently at the proofing stage and won't be able to release the film until it has been finalised but rest assured, as soon as it is, I'll be sharing it here.

Maybe a sneak peak at one of the pictures...

Diabetes professional photography and film.jpg

Diabetes professional film and photography.png

You can click through the logos for Diabetes to go to their website and learn more information.

If you'd like to enquire about commissioning me for other assignments, please contact me here.

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