Just look at what you could have won.

So, the other week we were coming out of Sainsbury's (happens to be the closest supermarket) and were accosted by a sales rep from a photographic studio in Lancashire (who will remain nameless as I don't want to slag off another professional - well, not directly at least), and agreed to enter a prize draw to win a portrait shoot. "Why not?" we thought. It was booked and, yesterday morning, we went.

Now, I must admit, (rather ironically) that I wasn't particularly looking to going, as I envisioned something akin to jobsworths from a double-glazing company battering you down until you agree to buy something you don't want. Now, in reality, I really enjoyed it, though not as much as Eden, who absolutely loved it. He screamed with delight every time the studio lights fired (to the displeasure of my left ear). The photographer himself was a great guy, really chilled out and not at all pushy. In fact, he was just like I would like to be myself in that situation. So where's the problem?

The problem lies not in their images (which are great, if a little gimmicky/cliche'd for my tastes), but in their whole way of running their business. Though we weren't pressured at all, we were given a copy of the price list and given a time to come back to the studio to view the images. Great, hey? Unfortunately not, no.

What will sadly happen on the viewing night is akin to extreme emotional manipulation and a real sense of sadness that all of these wonderful images of my beloved family will have to be doomed to being deleted, because of the sheer scale of the prices involved. Every image we view will have to be answered with a 'yes', 'no', or 'maybe'. Eventually, even the 'maybe's' will have to become 'no's'. We will leave the studio with nothing more than one or two framed 7x5" prints, whilst we try to make mental photos of all the ones that got away. Images on DVD are available, but only at a cost of £553 for 10 (first viewing only), or £700 ish if bought after that.

The journey home was a sombre one, and made me even more determined not to make my clients feel how we were feeling right then. Where they pressure you into buying things you can't afford, I'll leave the door open for you to buy your photographs for up to five years, with no threat of losing valuable memories to my Mac's trash bin. My DVDs come as part of every package, and contain 15 of your favourite images (high resolution, of course). Extra images aren't cheap, but they are affordable, as opposed to crippling. While they offer a studio viewing, I currently offer a private online viewing gallery, away from the pressure of a sales-hungry photographer/wolf breathing down your neck.

Yes, it's going to be sad seeing all those images dying before their time, but it's made me more determined than ever not to do the same thing to my clients.

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Branching out

So, I've decided that I'd really like to add a new string to my bow, in the form of arty photos that anyone can buy from me for their walls (if you feel so inclined). This really will be a mixed bag of all kinds of things, like landscapes, urban photographs, abstracts, and who knows what. So, here's the first photo for you, along with the story behind it.

This all started due to sheer lack of sleep on the part of my wife. We managed to palm off our 2-year-old on his grandparents, but I said I'd take our youngest for a drive around. I took my camera gear just in case we happened upon anything worth getting out of the car for. It really was a bit of a mystery tour, and I didn't really know where we were to be honest. Anyway, past Longridge we turned down this long straight road, and I saw this really cool looking landscape of marsh and trees. Making sure Caleb was fine, I squeezed between the dry stone wall and barbed wire fence and started quickly trying to find a picture. My first attempts didn't really work out as, with forest in the background, there was no separation of subject and background. I span round a bit so that the background was mainly sky - this meant that the tree was no longer swallowed up by the forest. So really this was about seeing the wood, not the trees.

I really liked the angles of the two hillsides, the lean of the tree and the colour and texture of the marshy grass. I decided that, to make it all a bit more arty, I'd manually defocus the tree, leaving it a bit more abstract in the frame. At home, I tried to keep all the Lightroom and Photoshop work really subtle and to a minimum. I added a couple of light textures, played a bit with the colour, tweaked the contrast slightly, and, besides a slight vignette (darkening of the corners), that really was about it.

So there we go, hopefully it was worth getting wet socks for. I really appreciate any comments and feedback :)

Phil

The story behind the photo: Episode 1

Hopefully this will become a regular feature on my blog, where I can give you all a bit of the story about how the photograph came to be, as well as what I see in the image. OK, so the first picture I want to show you was taken at the wedding of Ben and Clare, on the 29th December 2010. 

It was one of those days when the sun really took its time getting over the horizon - a bit like me pressing the snooze button ten times before getting out of bed, but by the time we all arrived at Ashton Memorial in Lancaster for the ceremony, the sun had had its coffee and was ready to go. Now let me tell you that this venue was absolutely special in so many ways, not least in terms of the lighting and ambience inside the building. It is completely surrounded by windows, but no light comes from above (a photographer's dream really). As I probably mentioned in another blog post, this ceremony was really intimate, and whilst it was obviously a wedding, Ben and Clare had thought about every last detail of the day, to make it completely unique to them. Following the ceremony, I really wanted to just let Ben and Clare soak up the experience and enjoy themselves and their guests, without being instantly snatched away for a million group photos.

Anyway, eventually we decided to pop just outside the doorway for a few portraits of Ben and Clare together. This is where this photograph was taken. After taking a few head-shots, I looked down and instantly saw this image in my mind. 

So, what do I see in this image, besides the obvious answer of 'feet'?

Well, I'm looking at some pretty subtle things I guess but let me give you a few insights. 

1) The lighting - this was the whole reason for the shot, as I noticed how cool the light looked through Clare's dress. It kind of glows, doesn't it?

2) The lines - There are a few lines in this image that I think really help the composition. Notice how just by Clare's feet there is an angle in the gap between flagstones? Well, that line is mirrored just above by the way Clare's dress is falling. Her feet are also aligned with the direction of another gap, leading to the bottom middle edge of the frame. The angle created by Ben's feet runs perpendicular to this line, which for reasons unknown I like.

3) Dynamic range - There's a really big tonal range in this shot, right from the whitest part of the sunlit dress, to the blackest part of Ben's left shoe. I also happen to like the almost creaminess of the flagstone in the bottom left corner.

4) Simplicity - I'm in a bit of a purist phase right now, which means I really want to let the natural qualities of the image shine through, rather than processing the crap out of it in photoshop. 

Anyway, this is a bit of an insight into how I look at this photo. It would be great to hear some of your thoughts or observations, just make a comment below :-)

Phil