Head and Shoulders Business Portraits for WCHG

I am currently undertaking a head and shoulders portraits commission for Parkway Green and Willow Park Housing Trusts prior to their new group structure.

The new group is called Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. I was commissioned to take staff head and shoulders portraits of every member of staff for their new website.

Here is a selection of ‘head and shoulders’ portraits. Not the most exciting photography but a lot of it !

This sort of photography looks easy but you need to light the background separately from the person being photographed to get a nice clean white background. A lot of people to photograph too. I had a queue of 25 people waiting outside my room to be photographed;felt a bit like the school nurse!

My portable portrait studio can be quickly set-up in your office. I can usually take 30-40 staff portraits in an hour.

Whether you require an individual portrait of your MD or ‘head shots’ of your entire workforce please don’t hesitate to contact me for a competitive quote.

Manchester Event Photography.

Event photography is something I’m frequently asked to do. This event was a particularly interesting conference with a great speaker; futurologist Magnus Lindqvist. I know I’m at these events to work, but it’s good to hear what others are up to in these tough times and to come away from an event like this with a bit of inspiration for 2013.

Here is a recent job for St Vincents Housing Association, photographing their 2012 staff conference at Media City, Salford Quays.

It’s the first time I’ve photographed a conference at Media City, and the lighting conditions made the photography really easy. A nice bright venue complete with a Tardis and Darlek !

When photographing a conference, or similar event, I always try to get a selection of formal and informal images. The obvious formal ones are things like the speakers (both head and shoulders and while at the lectern). But it’s also nice to try and show audience reaction, along with any of the interactive elements of the conference. I also like to try and capture any merchandise or branding that’s been created for the event.

Have a look at my other events images on my P.R. and Events Gallery here,or my Social Housing Gallery here.
[Read more…]

Care Home Photography

Over the last 6 months I have been undertaking a lot of Care Home photography as part of a large commission for Pozzoni LLP Architects based in Altrincham, Manchester.Taking photographs at various care home locations around the North West. These projects were to be added to their social housing projects page on their website.

The brief comprised of two elements; firstly to photograph the property and secondly show the service users within the properties.

The care home schemes featured here are Showell Court, Wolverhampton designed for the Accord Group. Second scheme was Beatrice House, Dukinfield, client New Charter, lastly Brookside, Ormskirk, client Your Housing / Harvest / Arena.

The commission was to photograph several newly designed extra care homes ,sheltered housing and residential retirement schemes in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and one in Wolverhampton. Some of the schemes were for residents with dementia and some for the vulnerable elderly. Quite a few of the schemes had quite a mixture of tenants.

The exterior architectural photography is pretty straight forward. I looked for good vantage points that show the structure of the building and the interconnectivity of the spaces, and where possible the service users. When photographing the building I’m always looking to include as much of the designed in features as possible.

Internally, Pozzoni’s were keen that I show how the care homes have been designed to make mobility around the housing schemes as easy as possible. Large doors allow easy access to wheelchair users. Scooter bays enable tenants to park their scooters outside their apartments, and there are paths and driveways throughout the gardens allowing easy access .

I’ve tried to show this in the photographs, emphasising how tenants apartments link through to a courtyard or that a balcony has views over to a communal seating area. It’s also important with this sort of photography to show as many of the tenants as possible within the context of the building.

There are more examples here – social housing photography or at the architectural photography galleries area of my site.

Industrial Photography

More industrial photography ! For a Manchester company called IST Power Transformers. They are based in Wythenshawe, Manchester and manufacture large industrial transformers.

IST Transformers have a new website and they wanted some industrial photography to populate the site. They had a limited budget and therefore limited time ( half a day ) to get all the photography done.We used large flash lighting packs on some of the shots, and available light on some of the large interior images to save time.

Industrial Photography

I have recently been undertaking some industrial photography for a Manchester company called Autometers. They make electrical meters and electronic monitoring equipment.

Professional photographers get asked to do all kinds of work but I haven’t actually done any studio photography for a while. It was interesting to get back into studio mode again ! My previous industrial photography work has been shooting on location, usually in factories and out on building sites.

PR Photographer, Manchester

Here is a round up of recent Manchester P.R. and event photography jobs. These photographs were taken for my Housing Association / Trusts clients.

I’ve worked as a Manchester photographer for over twenty years and in this time the requirements of Housing Association companies has changed greatly. When I first started out most of the photography was fairly unmanaged, I was usually commissioned to go out on to several housing estates and do pretty much as I pleased ! This tended to be a mixture of architectural photography and a reportage style, trying to capture both residents and their homes in one image.

The photography is much more managed now. Most of the photography is commissioned by P.R companies or in-house P.R. and marketing departments. There is a clearly set out brief, aims and requirements for the shoot.I don’t mind working this way and as a professional photographer you are commissioned to fulfil a brief, not to amuse yourself ! The clearer the brief the easier the job.

Manchester Architectural Photographer

Here is another job for Pozzoni LLP, based in Altrincham, Cheshire.
This was a quick job photographing a recently completed Travel Lodge in Manchester on Upper Brook Street . [Read more…]

Business Portraits

Here is a selection of ‘head and shoulders’ portraits, taken for Atkins at their Manchester and Cheshire offices. [Read more…]

Manchester Architectural Photography

Here is an other recent job for Pozzoni LLP, based in Altrincham, Cheshire.
[Read more…]

Social Housing Photography

Trafford Housing Trust commissioned some photography on their Manchester housing estates. To show the youth activities they support during the school holidays.

Manchester Architectural Photography

Salford and Manchester riots