I was contacted in September about doing a surprise family photoshoot for a family that did not want to take place in a studio, which I prefer anyways so we decided upon Knighton Park in leicester which at this time of year is especially beautiful with the leaves changing colour!
The weather was set to be awful, but we persevered and it seemed to hold off for majority of the shoot! This was a plus as I had taken some of my studio lighting with me!
We did many variations of the family together and also single shots, which was lucky because after the shoot it turns out we had not got a specific shot of mum with her two boys! Luckily with doing the singles I was able to bring them together… a day later, it seems we had missed another variation, the actual shot the mum wanted which was Dad with all his children! Again, photoshop to the rescue! You can see the results below. The first image is the edited image from the two images following it as well as the mum & her two boys shot.
It was a great afternoon and I received a fantastic testimonial from them:
” My husband was turning 50 and I wanted to book something special that he would never forget, so i decided on a family photo shoot, but wanted it in a park. Tom was recommended to us by a friend.
Tom was very professional from start to finish and even though we was in a park Tom had all the lighting equipment to make our photos professional. We took lots of photos in lots of different variations and some natural ones just walking through the park.
My husband and children said it was an amazing day and we would definitely use Tom again in the future.”
- Gina Benford -
If you are looking for getting some family photos done, then get in touch and lets create some memories!
So, this is a little blog about my time with The Madness of King George company for the Nottingham Playhouse. A shoot that seems not so long ago but time does indeed fly!
My first introduction to the cast / lead was shooting the the poster for the play. I met Mark with Adam Penford and I can honestly say I was a bit starstruck as I have enjoyed Mark as an actor in some of my favourite TV shows as well as finding out he wrote many episodes of Sherlock which prior to the shoot I was binge watching and really enjoying!
Mark is an incredibly kind and funny man and at no point did we have to rush or stick to a plan. He was extremely accommodating and we were all happy with the images. The idea was to capture Mark / King George in a state of inner struggle to depict the madness going on within is mind. Mark got into character and the final few shots of him looking lost and despondent it all clicked. The emotion he created in those final few frames were fantastic and left me personally feeling what he was sharing was special.
Looking back there is a lot I would have liked to of done different but I luckily got the chance to not only shoot Mark again but also the rest of the cast portraits prior to the filming of the NTLive live streaming of the play.
The video below gives a taste of the shoot for the portraits - due to costume, lighting tests, TV interviews, I only had 15-20 mins to do the shoot of the whole cast! So, 19 shots to get in a short period of time of the cast being in character… no pressure then!
I used a simple light set up, and shooting on the actual set of the play was great, utilising a fake window as a starting point, I used my Siros Broncolor Octa as my main light source with a Broncolor softbox shooting through a scrim to give a very soft fill / highlight to the portraits. With shooting handheld I also used a silver reflector to add some highlight / catchlight on the actors. In post, all l did was soften contrast, add sharpening and saturation to a few colours and that was it, all done!
Alongside this shoot I was also commissioned to photograph behind the scenes of the cast and filming which was fantastic to get to capture moments of the actors getting ready prior to a performance. These alongside everything else I shot for the production was an amazing experience! Definitely a highlight of my career.
So, this has been a long time coming… not just a blog, but my new website.
Welcome, new and old followers, friends and future clients! There is a plethora of work on here covering pretty much every aspect of photography! If there is something you are looking for and there is not a stand out image that you are looking for then do not hesitate to reach out and ask me as if I have not got an example of what you want, I can emulate any style you are after.
I am looking forward to getting back to being creative and free after lockdown! I will be pursuing personal projects when it is lifted as well as looking to take on your briefs / portraits / weddings to get the latter of 2020 off to a flying start!
So, have a good look at my new and old work and lets talk about how I can be involved in your creative ideas for the future!
