A Commercial Film Production To Remember

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...

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.

The Ghost of Old John, Bradgate Park

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Bradgate Park's ghost of Old John has been caught on camera!

I went out to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire last night to make some photographs of the Persiedes meteor shower, but as usual I became distracted with making my own different set of  photographs.

There must have been around 30 other photographers on the hill and all pointing their cameras towards Old John and the night sky.  If I had set my camera up in line with them, all of our photographs would have all looked the same.  I checked the backs of some of their cameras and some shots had caught meteors but no land, just sky, stars and a meteor.  I felt that the interest there was lost within seconds of saying 'Oh yes, a meteor'!

I couldn't stand in front of them to get a different composition, so I spent some time observing them making their pictures and then stepped back to design my own, carefully ensuring that not one of those photographers could make or replicate mine.  I decided to not collect any photographs of the meteors because I'd already done it before and I needed different pictures to everyone else on the hill.

It's probably the very thing that has stopped me from visiting this place at night to make photographs in the past, I really don't want to make the same pictures as everyone else.  

Hopefully, I've achieved that, what do you think?

If you'd like to look at more of my work, try starting with my personal work.

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If you'd like to chat with me about my work, please feel free to contact me.

Corporate Business Headshots Leicestershire

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Corporate Business Headshots Leicestershire

Recently I've been working with The Stuart Fletcher & Barrett Group at their head office in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.  They hired me to produce 60 corporate business head shots for their new website.  I managed this in 2 days of location shooting on site with a quality mobile photography studio.

The SFB Group are a nationwide accountancy and consultancy.  They wanted a professional image for every single member of staff.  So I took my time and fussed over the details.

We used a grey back drop, a fixed light shooting through an umbrella to soften the harshness of the permanent key light.  Then I set up a Bowens lamp shooting through a Snoot and pointing it on to the back drop behind the heads of each staff member.  This was by design and also to cover up a wrinkly backdrop!

This style produces a brilliant effect that allows the characters to really stand out from the background and gives each person a unique portrait.

Would you like to see some of the results?

Was that a silly question?

You can click on each picture to enlarge them and inspect the quality easier.

The SFB Group were so pleased with the work that I did for them, that they wrote to me with a review and even placed it on Google so it forms part of my SEO.  

“We used the photographic services of Paul Hands for our Corporate Staff Photographs. We required photos for our new website. Paul was recruited as a last minute booking and he could not have been more accommodating. His attention to detail was a comfort as a client and we received great customer service. On the two days of shooting he was very professional and brought out the smile in every member of staff in his own unique way (a lego car and a gingerbread man helped with this too but I won’t let any further details slip and ruin his secrets to getting you smiling). We had the photographs returned to us within a matter of days and Paul had put each set of photo’s into individual files, per staff member, for ease of reference for us. These little bits of attention to detail really make the difference. The quality of the photographs were crisp and clear and were exactly what we were looking for. We would thoroughly recommend Paul’s services to anybody looking for a photographer, he is fantastic!”
— Rosie Iliffe, The Stuart, Fletcher and Barrett Group

To discuss corporate business headshots and portraiture with me, please click on this link to contact me.

From Corporate Portraiture to Cocktails on the Roof

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Professional Corporate Portraiture...

...is where it all began.

I was invited by one of my long standing clients; Mode Transport Planning, to their fifth birthday party.  Our business relationship has been going on since 2014, when I was contracted to do some corporate portraiture.  

David Frisby, Managing Director, Mode Transport Planning.

Cocktails on the Roof...

...is where it has come to. 

Whilst I was invited to join Mode Transport in their celebrations, naturally I was encouraged to bring along my camera and was paid as what was noted as a Busmans holiday.  It really was an honour to help out by recording the party with still images so that a more unified feeling can be experienced between Mode Transport and the clients that were also invited.

Professional Headshot Service...

...is what I've mainly been providing for Mode Transport and have also produced documentary styled photographs around their offices for use on their website to give the professional image they have successfully built over the past five years.  I've also created a tailored set of stock images based around the transport industry to aid the visual impact of the Mode Transport Planning website.

Here's a selection of images from the roof top cocktail birthday party.

Mode Transport Planning

If you'd like to enquire about my professional photographic services, please visit this page on my website first.

Alternatively, complete my contact form here.

Alternative Landscape Photography Workshop Pictures

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I jumped at the chance to attend the alternative landscape photography workshop with the Internationally acclaimed Prof. Paul Hill MBE, Maria Falconer FRPS and Nick Lockett who was Chief Photographer for Central Television, last weekend.

This was a heavily attended workshop set in the stunning valley of Hartington in Derbyshires Peak District.  My goals during this workshop were to learn and understand their alternative way of seeing the landscape.  Having been taught by Nick during my degree at De Montfort University, I had already come across this alternative way of seeing the landscape and was keen to learn more about it and have the opportunity to practice with their live support.

I like the notion of creating unique landscapes that look like you have personally created them and not in the same stylistic manner in which almost every other main stream photographer is preaching.  Paul Hill said "If you've seen the picture before, don't click the shutter"!  "How we translate the three-dimensional world into an interesting two-dimensional picture is often referred to as the art of photography. It is called seeing photographically or camera vision" (Hill, 2017).

Paul, Maria and Nick are all such lovely people and very obviously experts in photography with a tremendous amount of experience that is well worth paying for.  If you're interested in looking in to the workshops with these, then check out Paul's website.

Here are my 6 best pictures made during the day.

If you'd like to look in to attending a workshop with myself, then please follow subscribe for news and up to date information.

Sublunary 15

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This is it!  I've been working on this body of work since July 2016.

Sublunary 15 is a series of futuristic, metaphorical landscape photographs that follow the narrative of an imaginary alien invasion of the planet Earth.

I've created all of these pictures in single exposures and no photoshop manipulation using a Nikon D610 and a tripod.  In some of the pictures, I've added my own light from a speed light covered in a red gel as well as the occasional car brake lights.

Please enjoy the photographs, they've taken me a long time to produce.

Some of these pictures will be exhibited at De Montfort University and Freerange, Old Truman Brewery (London) during June.  Keep an eye out for information relating to a private view invitation, or subscribe using the box below.

If you would like to see the slideshow that I've created as part of this project, it comes with my own narration against my own sound track in the background.

To follow my work and keep up to date with news of exhibitions etc, please subscribe using this box below.

Photography Workshops and Classes

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If you're looking to learn more about photography, what ever level you're at and if you would like to explore more about your photography and your camera, then have a look at these courses.

There are courses for absolute beginners, amateurs and those that feel they're a little more advanced and wish to discover about making project work or need to go further than they currently are.

If you don't see the type of course you're looking for, then please contact me to discuss, because I can use your help to design future courses that might appeal to you better.  

Follow this link for the course list.

Or each link...

Paul Hands, Sublunar 15, Hinckley, Leicestershire, Midlands, Photography Classes, Workshops, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Europe

 

 

An Alien Invasion

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A series of metaphorical, futuristic landscape photographs based on an imaginary alien invasion of the planet Earth.

I've spent the last 9 months creating this body of work and now I'm publicly publishing the results.  The work is not finished and will be continued throughout my career but this current collection is now ready for the first exhibition.

The challenge for this project has been finding locations and objects that fit within my criteria and also hold that metaphorical 'Je Ne Said Quoi'!

I now have a selection of images that can tell my imaginary story and are fit for purpose with regards to being hung in an exhibition spanning across two venues; Free Range at The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London and De Montfort University in Leicester, both in June 2017.

This short stills film is pat of my submission and displays a series of the photographs made for this project, together with my own vocal narration and a series of sound effects.

You can see the stills from this film exhibited at the above mentioned exhibitions in June, which I will be notifying you about closer to the time.

Please watch and leave a comment on your thoughts because I've put so much effort in to making this, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

I will be part of a larger collective show that will see the students from De Montfort University's Photography and Video Ba Hons degree come together to exhibit and show off their talents, as a culmination of three years of studying the worlds best photographers and videographers and being lectured by some of the key figures in the industry today, like Laura McGregor, Nick Locket, Neil Dyson, Su Ansell, Dr Mike Simmons, Lala Meredith, Dave Soden, Martin Shakeshaft and visiting professor Paul Hill.

Exhibition Dates:

De Montfort University, Vijay Patel Building, Leicester, LE1 9BH 

17/6/17 - 22/6/17

Private View - 16/6/17 

 

Free Range, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL  

22/6/17 - 26/6/17

Private View - 22/6/17 6-10pm

If you'd like to be invited to the private view where hopefully there will be an opportunity to meet all of the artists, have a drink and some grub, then please drop me a line using this link.

Album Review for Saal Digital

I have been given the opportunity to test a new book publishing company out.  Saal Digital have created a portfolio book for me and this is my honest review.

At first I was little skeptical as always with a new supplier.  However, I downloaded the software for designing a book with Saal Digital.  Their communication was always by email and was simple and straight forward and very clear to understand.  T

he software download was smooth and opened up easily.  I was already familiar with creating books, so their designing software was easy to get to grips with.  If you've never designed a book before, then you may need one additional support.

Quite quickly, I became frustrated with the software as I felt it was too restrictive as is most other reputable book designing software.  I felt that some of the ideas in my head for how I'd like my book to look wasn't met by the templates already supplied by Saal Digital.  I did manage to overcome this by settling for one of their page templates and managed to create by book in the way I'd like.

Once I'd designed the book, ordering was very straight forward and the speed in which the book was finally delivered was astounding in comparison to companies like Blurb.  My book was designed, submitted, published and delivered within one week.

Upon receipt of the book, it was very nicely packaged and protected well.  My immediate thoughts were how nice the extra padding is.  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with the padding but it impressed me and has a nice finish to the book.  It adds a nice quality feel to it that sets it apart from a Blurb book.

As you open the book, the lay flat pages that come as standard are printed on a good quality paper that feels like thin card and doesn't bend easily, so it feels safe and easy to turn the pages.  

My photographs really work well on the paper and it felt nice to look through.  Overall, I'm impressed with the book.  

I'd definitely look at using All Digital for future books.

UBL 17 Fight Photographs from The Athena

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Welcome to the home of the boxing photographs from UBL 17 at The Athena in Leicester.

This page on my website has been specifically dedicated to the huge collection of photographs, from the unlicensed fighting that goes on between some of the hardest men in Britain.

To view the pictures, simply click on the photograph, then choose the fight collection that you wish to look through.  You will even have the option to buy and have a bespoke book designed for you as well prints and a dvd slideshow with music.  You can do this directly through my website.  Payments are secured and guaranteed through Stripe.

 

Professional Photographer Leicester, Leicestershire, Hinckley, Nuneaton, Coventry, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Midlands, England, UK, United Kingdom, Great Britain.

Commercial, Business, PR, Public Relations, Landscape, Street Photography and Documentary photographer available for commissions.