My favourite Entertainment Company

Several times over the past year I have run into the same magician at different events. He is very friendly and very talented. He leaves everyone aghast with his mind boggling tricks. His name is Kevin and he runs his own entertainment company called Blank Canvas.

www.blankcanvasentertainment.co.uk

Kevin the Magician

Kevin leaves more people baffled and astounded

Confusion and amazement manifested in laughter

Blank Canvas are awesome. They have an amazing array of the finest entertainers in the UK, including magicians, dancer, musicians, circus skills, caricaturists, and many more. Chancers are if you've been to any events recently you've encountered someone on Blank Canvases books.

The mesmerising "Calvos"

Calvos

The hilarious "Singing Waiters"

Singing Waiters

Singing Waiters

Singing Waiters

So if you are looking for entertainment at your event check out Blank Canvas, they are awesome!

Click here to see more of my London Corporate Event Photography

Londons Best Conference Venues (Part 3)

13. The Royal College of Surgeons

Another iconic classical space with a great modern makeover.

14. The Royal Horseguards Hotel

Grand, charismatic hotel with beautiful meeting spaces.

15. Claridges

Another classic London hotel, perfect for sophisticated meetings.

16. Etc Venues St Pauls

Modern conference venue in the heart of The City. Great city views from the atrium.

17. The Churchill War Rooms

This is a bit of a quirky venue for a conference, but there aren’t many places as historically significant as Winston Churchills wartime bunker, where the fate of World War 2 was drawn up. A fascinating place.

Check out my gallery of conference photography

Londons Best Conference Venues (Part 2)

7. 30 Euston Square

Modern, clean and smart in a great location.

8. The QE2 Centre

A huge, purpose built centre in the heart of Westminster.

9. The Royal Society

A classical, historic venue upgraded nicely.

10. The Excel Centre

A huge exhibition and conference space, which stages some impressive shows.

11. The Royal Society of Medicine

A nice modern conference space with a bright glass ceiling atrium.

12. The Crystal

State of the art architecture make this a truly unique building.

Check out my gallery of conference photography

Londons Best Conference Venues (Part 1)

There is an amazing amount of top quality conference venues in London, offering a whole variety of styles and catering to a mixture of needs. From luxury classical hotels, to state of the art dedicated conference spaces, from corporate spaces to something quirky. Here is a break down (in no particular order) of my favourite spaces where I have shot conferences. There are so many in London I am going to post this in three parts.

1. The IET: The Institution of Engineering and Technology
A great venue on the Embankment. Beautifully merging the classical and modern. The roof terrace offers some of the best views in London.

2. Etc Venues County Hall
Inside the Iconic County Hall on the Southbank of the Thames. Plenty of space, nice modern facilities.

3. The Langham
Located on Regent Street, The Langham is classical, luxurious and stylish.

4. More London
Cutting edge architecture in a great location, offering amazing views of the City and Tower Bridge.

5. Etc Venues Bishopsgate
Beautiful lighting and clean crisp design in the middle of The City of London

6. The Landmark Hotel
Another classic hotel, this time in Marylebone. Extremely spacious, with a large glass roofed atrium.

Click here to see more of my conference photography

In the lab again...

I love science, so shooting in a lab is always a fascinating experience for me. It's never easy, as a photographer, with all that glass and chrome bouncing the light about and causing crazy reflections, but I always relish a challenge. My recent shoot at BPL labs was no exception, but we got some great shots!

Click here to see more of my science photography

Music Photography

I am an experienced music photographer and currently looking to work with musicians on album artwork. So if you make good music and you are after some bold creative imagery then please get in touch. I am particularly interested in conceptual and experimental projects.

Posing in the park

A great location shoot with Angela in St James Park. Just the right time of year and we were lucky wit the weather.

A birthday shoot

I was recently asked to shoot Yana's birthday party. We did a few shots outside with Yana and her friends and then into the restaurant. As you can see, it was a very stylish birthday!

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Spring into Lymington

I had a really great time shooting Lymington's Easter festival "Spring into Lymington", down in Hampshire on Sunday. It was a vintage affair with marquees on the green, egg and spoon race and lashings of ginger beer. It was a shame about the relentless rain, but a great time was still had by all.

Family Photography in the Park

portrait photographer london

kids_photographer_london-02

portrait photographer london

I don't actually have any shots of kids on this site (I guess I'm trying to keep it a bit grown up and serious), but I do love shooting children. I am a parent myself, to a 4 year old boy and he is very photographed. Shooting children is hard work, but loads of fun and delivers very rewarding shots that will be cherished for many years to come.

Romantic birthday couple shoot

I had the pleasure of photographing David and Meena in Regent's Park. The light was beautiful and the atmosphere of the park was a great backdrop for getting some nice shots of the couple. There were just so many places to shoot there.

Landscape Photography

Here are some recent shots from The New Forest and local beaches. It's really beautiful there!

Recent Business Portraits

I always enjoy shooting business people on location, whether it be in their office, outside around town, or in the clients home. I like the fact that, as a photographer, I have to be versatile and use the location to best effect. There are so many great places in London, we really are spoilt for choice. In my opinion, shooting on location produces more atmospheric imagery than in studio.

This photo made me feel very insignificant

This made me realise that planet Earth is pretty small

This blew my mind

This really messed with my head as a photographer

Big waves in Brighton

The end of yesterdays big storm, down at Brighton Marina.

Tips for Aspiring Photographers

How to become a photographer I get lots of emails from people who want to become my assistant or intern. So, here are some tips for getting started in photography:

1. The main thing you will need to do to become a photographer is to get a good portfolio together. You will need to work for free to begin with. Local magazines may take on budding photographers, and it can be a great experience as you will meet interesting people and photograph things that you would not have done otherwise. Events like festivals, concerts and street parades are also a good source of interesting photo opportunities. Another good way to build up your portfolio is to do test shoots. You can find models and stylist on www.modelmayhem,com who all want to build up there portfolios too and some will shoot in return for the images.
2. Try and be as creative and as unique as you can be. It will be this that will set you apart from the rest in a very competitive industry.
3. Keep yourself inspired. Bookmark your favourite photography websites, trawl through Flickr, buy some photography magazines. Have an inspiration wall, where you can put up work that inspires you.
4. Learn the technical stuff. Some of this can be done by reading through books, but most of it should be done by just playing around and trial and error. If possible do a short course. Your local studio, community centre or college may offer courses.
5. Get the right kit. If you want to be a Fine Art Photographer, maybe you should shoot film. If you want to shoot events you will need to be digital. If you want to do fashion, you will need some lights. Just start off with the right camera. Remember it’s not just about how many megapixels you get. Megapixels just dictate how big you can blow up an image. Better to get a camera with a good sensor, which can produce bright, sharp images with good colours. You can search Flickr by camera model to see the different kind of shots people get from their cameras. Also, check out reviews on sites like www.dpreview.com. I wouldn’t recommend buying a used digital camera body, although I have bought used lenses and they have been good and about a third cheaper than new. Having decent lenses is essential. A good lens to start with is something like 24-70mm, then when you can afford it, just build up your arsenal.
6. Assist other photographers. There’s no better way to learn about being a photographer than being on an actual professional shoot. Start off doing it for free. You will just be carrying, fetching, holding and making tea, but you can learn a lot and possibly lead to opportunities of work in the future.
7. Get your work out there. Upload your images to Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest, tag them and send the links out to people. Get a blog. Go on forums. Exhibit.
8. Get a good website and do some good, targeted SEO. It’s pretty easy to get a good website these days. You can build your own, using online software such as www.electrofolio.com . Try and get your website up the search engines by having a presence on social media sites such as facebook and twitter. You don’t need to pay an SEO company as you can do a lot of it yourself, you will just need to research it a little.
9. Network with as many other photographers as you can. We are always passing each other work and opportunities. Go to private views, local freelancers groups, or just email local photographers to say hi!
10. Try and specialise as much as you can. Architectural photography is very different to Sports Photography. You can’t be a master of all trades, so try and find your niche.
11. Shoot in manual mode at all times.
12. Shoot in RAW format. Your images won’t be compressed by the camera, like jpegs, so when it comes to editing you can get much better results.
13. Always backup your work regularly and in separate places, eg. On your computer and also on a removable hard drive. Imagine how you would feel losing your favourite shots forever!
14. Pick a good editing software. I use lightroom for RAW editing. It’s brilliant, I love it.

I hope these tips have been helpful, now go and have fun!