Every girls crazy for a sharp dressed man

I think this might be the second ZZ Top song title I've used in a blog post - must expand musical references.

Anyway at the start of 2011 I had the chance to shoot my first corporate images.  Meet Alistair, the Chief Executive of a charity organisation.

I didn't have the normal corporate experience and so I have been spoilt -  I had loads of time, I had a very willing and co-operative client and I had no daft deadlines to return the images by.

It's nice to see the world will work in your favour every now and then.

pete

Photographers are posers

Most photographers have very few pictures of themselves - they are the ones taking the pictures most of the time.

Early last year, as part of some great portrait photography training, I took this portrait of another photographer. 

He was really comfortable posing for the shot and it made me realise that, as a photographer, it really helps if you can pose for photographs too - especially when it comes to working with portrait or wedding customers who aren't.

So this year I am going to try and take more self portraits to put this theory to the test.

pete

Like a prayer

Another of my favourite shots from 2011 featuring the very talented male model Bertram.

Quite often people having their portrait taken find the posing part the hardest - asking someone to do something consciously that they only ever normally do subconsciously can be tough.

While working with Bertram I noticed he adopted a natural prayer pose (in between shots) and so it was simple for him to replicate this pose when asked - he was already very comfortable doing so.

A little prayer can help anyone it would seem.

pete

Laughter and joy

Of all the emotions we can express I feel laughter (or really happiness/joy) is the hardest to fake. When you capture genuine joy it is easy to spot and when we try to fake it the opposite is just as true.

With Rob & Jacqui it would be hard not to capture them laughing - it's what they do all the time but even they, I suspect, would struggle to create a genuine smile if it wasn't what they were truly feeling.

So as a photographer a major part of my role is to help people connect with their emotions because if they don't feel them then I cannot capture them.

It doesn't always take an expert to spot a fake.

pete

Bend it like Beckham

One of the 'rules' of portrait photography is that if something can bend then bend it.  The idea is that bending an arm of a leg can make all the difference between a portrait looking uncomfortable or lacking in energy and a more dynamic image.

For the portrait session with Rob & Jacqui the bending of arms served two purposes.  Firstly it created more interesting shapes with their arms slightly bent.  Secondly because their arms are bent you can see a gap between their bodies and their arms and this is a flattering look (otherwise arms/no gap adds width to the body).

It also shows Jacqui's hand coming round the back of Rob and adds a little intimacy to the scene.

While the above might feel like small details it is often the small details that make a big difference.

pete